Raelert, Lidbury take Mallorca
Michael Raelert crushed the competition at the Thomas Cook Ironman 70.3 Mallorca in 3:57:08, and that now means that each race here has been won by someone named Raelert. Emma-Kate Lidbury successfully defended her title in the second edition of this event.
The men
Tom Vander Hoogerstraete and Ben Allen managed to get out of the water slightly ahead of Michael Raelert, but that was the last time the other two athletes or anyone else in the race would be close to him.
At the 20k mark of the bike segment the younger Raelert was already up 2:40, and from their the advantage kept growing and growing. Behind Raelert a group of 6 led by Johann Ackermann tried in vain to keep pace and must have gotten quite frustrated when they got race updates. Raelert's 2:13:26 race best bike split in fact allowed him to reach the bike-run transition almost 9 minutes up on the chasing bunch.
Raelert closed out his day with a 1:14:28 run and no one else came even close to that time. His finish time of 3:57:08 was over 13 minutes better than the time of runner-up Michael Goehner. Ben Allen who finished third was almost 16 minutes behind the 2-time 70.3 World Champion.
The women
Emma-Kate Lidbury was first out of the water but only by a second over German Pro Natascha Schmitt. These two had about a minute on Sofie Goos and after the Belgian the gaps were already quite large.
Early on during the bike Lidbury maintained the lead and it seemed that she could not get away from her pursuers. Goos in fact had actually closed in on the defending champion, but it appeared that Lidbury actually had a plan. Around the halfway point of the bike Lidbury started to pull away and by the time she got off the bike her advantage had grown to about 5 minutes.
Early in the run Tine Deckers managed to gain a bit of time, but Lidbury was not going to have any of that. Deckers actually got as close as 4 minutes and that was the end of it. Lidbury kept up the pace and crossed the line in first place at 4:08:37, 4:26 ahead of Deckers. Natascha Schmitt finished third and Decker's teammate Sofie Goos finished fourth.
Thomas Cook Ironman 70.3 Mallorca
Mallorca, Spain / May 12, 2012
Top men
1. Michael Raelert (GER) 3:57:08
2. Michael Goehner (GER) 4:10:11
3. Ben Allen (AUS) 4:12:51
4. Tom Vander Hoogerstraete (BEL) 4:13:25
5. Johannes Moldan (GER) 4:13:37
6. Stephan Vuckovic (GER) 4:14:27
7. Alejandro Santamaria (ESP) 4:14:41
8. Stefan Schmid (GER) 4:14:50
9. Cedric Lassonde (FRA) 4:16:18
10. Kamil Van Beijnum (NED) 4:16:42
Top women
1. Emma-Kate Lidbury (GBR) 4:39:05
2. Tine Deckers (BEL) 4:43:18
3. Natascha Schmitt (GER) 4:47:11
4. Sofie Goos (BEL) 4:49:43
5. Kristin Möller (GER) 4:50:04
6. Georgie Rutherford (GBR) 4:52:41
7. Meike Krebs (GER) 4:53:04
8. Kaisa Jacobsen (DEN) 4:56:51
9. Christine Liebendörfer (GER) 4:57:40
10. Mareen Hufe (GER) 4:57:58
