Rapp, Macel rule Canada
Jordan Rapp stormed to his first Ironman win with a dominating performance at the 2009 Subaru Ironman Canada. For women's winner Tereza Macel, Canada was her third Ironman title.
The men
Mark Van Akkeren led the men out of the water with an almost 2 minute lead over Andi Boecherer. A few seconds later, Luke Bell, Wolfgang Guembel, Brian Lavella and Mike Aigroz were also back on land.
Boecherer and Bell rode quite hard and caught and passed Van Akkeren about 30k into the bike. Behind them "Hell on Wheels" Thomas Hellriegel was moving up through the field and by the time the leaders hit the top of Richter Pass, Hellriegel was sitting in 3rd place, about 1:50 adrift. Jordan Rapp was another athlete looking fast and composed and he crossed Richter in 5th position about 2:30 behind Boecherer and Bell and about 25 seconds behind Aigroz who was sitting in fourth place at that time. Rapp steadily closed in on the leaders and had moved up to 3rd place by the 120k mark. During the last 60k Boecherer started to slip away from Bell and Hellriegel quickly lost a significant amount of time. Rapp then caught Bell and moved past Boecherer in the last few miles, and reached T2 with a 45 second lead on the German.
A smooth running Rapp soon increased his gap over Boecherer even more and had a 2:42 cushion about 5 miles into the marathon. Bell also had lost a few seconds to Rapp in the early stages of the run and was now 3:20 down on the sole leader. Bell soon caught and passed Boecherer for second place, but Rapp further and further increased his lead. At the 25k mark Rapp had a 7:03 lead and from there he ran uncontested to his first Ironman title with the fastest marathon run of the day. Mike Aigroz grabbed second place and Courtney Ogden earned third on this day. Luke Bell crossed the line in the 21st place with a 3:53:49 marathon.
"It seems fitting to win my first big race in Canada, since it was in Canada almost four years ago exactly that I showed up on a pool deck in Victoria, BC to do my first workout with guys who have set the standard for what it means to be a professional triathlete – Simon Whitfield, Hamish Carter, Peter Reid," said Rapp to slowtwitch. "Now, after doing my best to follow their lead on what it means to be committed to excellence in both training and racing, I feel extremely lucky and extremely thankful. I hope I can continue to strive to achieve what they all have."
The women
Tereza Macel had a picture perfect race today that started with a superb swim time of 51:11 and a 2 minute lead on Belinda Granger.
Unlike the early men's leader Van Akkeren, Macel pretty much had flown the coup and further and further distanced herself from her pursuers. Her 4:58:13 bike split got her back into T2 14 minutes up on Granger and 16 minutes up on Tara Norton. Everyone else was petty much in a different time zone and only a complete melt down by Macel could have prevented the inevitable.
Macel though ran a 3:17:52 marathon and that time was only beaten by Janelle Morrison's time of 3:17:49. Macel crossed the finish line in 9:11:20 for her third Ironman title and almost half an hour ahead of runner-up Granger. Morrison's run helped her to get the final podium spot.
Subaru Ironman Canada
Penticton, BC, Canada / August 30, 2009
Top 10 men
1. Jordan Rapp (USA) 8:25:13
2. Mike Aigroz (SWI) 8:40:17
3. Courtney Ogden (AUS) 8:44:37
4. Jasper Blake (CAN) 8:48:29
5. Wolfgang Guembel (CAN) 8:50:27
6. Andi Boecherer (GER) 8:53:37
7. Kyle Marcotte (CAN) 8:58:34
8. Brian Lavelle (USA) 8:59:34
9. Anthony Toth (USA) 9:02:45
10. Mark Van Akkeren (USA) 9:03:59
Top 10 women
1. Teresa Macel (CZE) 9:11:20
2. Belinda Granger (AUS) 9:40:46
3. Janelle Morrison (CAN) 9:48:54
4. Haley Cooper (USA) 9:53:35
5. Tara Norton (CAN) 9:59:42
6. Ann Banke (DEN) 10:01:54
7. Kat Baker (AUS) 10:05:19
8. Rosemarie Gerspacher (CAN) 10:10:41
9. Cheryl Murphy (CAN) 10:12:26
10. Katya Meyers (USA) 10:12:59
