Simon Vlain of France and Ashleigh Gentle of Australia win Andorra 70.3
Ashleigh Gentle combined a women’s best swim, bike and run splits on the rugged hills of the Pyrenees to win wire-to-wire in 4:53:42 with a 13:06 margin over Amy Cymerman of the U.S. and 22:25 over third-place finisher Giorgia Priarone of Italy.
In the wildly different, much closer men’s contest, Simon Vlain of France gave up 1 minute with a second-best swim, surrendered 1:05 with a second-fastest bike split, and siphoned off more time with 4th-best half marathon. But once the top splits from five rivals were combined, Vlain finished in 4:24:19 with a 1:44 margin over Jordi Montraveta Moya of Spain and 2:06 over Gregory Barnaby of Italy.
Pro Women
Gentle began her rout of the competition with a 26:03 swim in Engolaster Lake that gave her a 1:52 lead on Amy Cymerman of the U.S., 1:54 on Laura Gomez of Spain, and 3:00 on Jeanne Collonge of France. Then Gentle played rough with the field with a by-far best 3:04:33 bike split that was 6:48 better than the next-best effort by Jeanne Collonge – and raised her overall lead to 10:22. Gentle then closed the door with another women’s-best split – a 1:18:31 half marathon – that brought her to the finish in 4:53:42 with 13:06 margin on Cymerman and 22:25 on 3rd-place finisher Giorgia Priarone of Italy.
Pro Men
Gentle’s Aussie partner Josh Amberger led the swim with a 23:29 split that was 1:01 ahead of Vlain. Vlain then passed Amberger on the second half of the hilly course that featured several 1,000 foot climbs. But while that chase was going on, Jordi Montreveta Moya of Spain unleashed a race-best 2:38:11 bike split that leapfrogged Amberger and Vlain and presented the Spaniard with a 1:05 lead over Vlain starting the run.
Vlain made up his 1:05 deficit halfway through the run and finished in 4:24:19 to win by 1:44 over Moya and 2:06 over Gregory Barnaby.
Ironman 70.3 Andorra
Andorra la Vella, Principality of Andorra
July 3, 2022
S 1.2 mi. / B 56 mi. / R 13.1 mi.
Pro Men
1. Simon Vlain (FRA) S 24:30 T1 3:09 B 2:41:25 T2 1:19 R 1:13:58 TOT 4:24:19
2. Jordi Montraveta Moya (ESP) S 26:39 T1 3:08 B 2:38:11 T2 1:08 R 1:16:59 TOT 4:26:03
3. Gregory Barnaby (ITA) S 24:32 T1 3:05 B 2:42:50 T2 1:03 R 1:14:58 TOT 4:26:25
4. Erik Merino (ESP) S 28:07 T1 3:08 B 2:43:07 T2 1:07 R 1:11:04 TOT 4:26:29
5. Albert Moreno Morins (ESP) S 26:39 T1 3:17 B 2:43:37 T2 1:11 R 1:13:02 TOT 4:27:44
6. Josh Amberger (AUS) S 23:29 T1 3:49 B 2:43:08 T2 00:57 R 1:17:55 TOT 4:29:16
7. Jon Breivold (NOR) S 28:12 T1 3:L34 B 2:39:42 T2 1:31 R 1:18:23 TOT 4:31:20
8. Robbie Deckard (USA) S 26:36 T1 3:12 B 2:48:14 T2 1:01 R 1:14:32 TOT 4:33:33
9. Mitchell Kibby (AUS) S 26:26 T1 3:33 B 2:53:40 T2 1:22 R 1:13:26 TOT 4:38:25
10. Ryan Christian (AUS) S 26:37 T1 3:30 B 2:47:59 T2 1:02 R 1:24:08 TOT 4:43:14
Pro Women
1. Ashleigh Gentle (AUS) S 26:03 T1 3:39 B 3:L04:33 T2 00:59 R 1:18:31 TOT 4:53:42
2. Amy Cymerman (USA) S 27:56 T1 3:39 B 3:14:08 T2 1:07 R 1:20:01 TOT 5:06:49
3. Georgia Priarone (ITA) S 29:04 T1 3:36 B 3:13:49 T2 00:58 R 1:28:43 TOT 5:16:08
4. Laura Gómez Ramon (ESP) S 27:57 T1 3:58 B 3:14:36 T2 1:39 R 1:30:07 TOT 5:18:15
5. Jeanne Collonge (FRA) S 29:03 T1 4:14 B 3:11:21 T2 1:23 R 1:33:45 TOT 5:19:43
6. Penny Slater (AUS) S 30:00 T1 4:03 B 3:22:01 T2 1:13 R 1:38:49 TOT 5:36:04
7. Laura Matthews (USA) S 30:27 T1 5:39 B 3:47:10 T2 1:40 R 1:48:38 TOT 6:13:33
