Swiss claim Ironman Switzerland
Ronnie Schildknecht had a dominating performance at the 2010 Ironman Switzerland and has now won this event for the fourth time. Karin Thürig took the women's title in a time of 9:00:04.
The men
Nine men left the water within 17 second of each other, with Mathias Hecht at the front end of that bunch and defending champion Ronnie Schildknecht at the other end.
Schildknecht soon charged into the lead though with Mikel Elguezabal, Mike Aigroz, Swen Sundberg and Romain Guillaume not far behind. Swim leader Hecht was struggling and slowly started to fade out of the picture. Torsten Abel also wasn't having the day he had expected and called it a day during the bike segment. Sundberg and Guillame eventually fell off the pace too and it was Schildknecht, Aigroz and Elguezabal who reached T2 together.
Aigroz and Schildknecht soon ran side-by-side until 13k into the run and that is when Aigroz no longer was able to hold the pace of the defending champion. Hecht meanwhile ran a couple of miles before withdrawing from the event. Schildknecht's lead grew steadily and in the end he crossed the line in first place with a very comfortable margin and his 4th Ironman Switzerland title. Sundberg crossed the line in second place and Aigroz rounded out the podium.
"This 4th title is my most important and emotional one. I struggled a bit with muscle problems prior the race and was really nervous," said Schildknecht to slowtwitch. "The run started very fast with Mike Aigroz. He really put the hammer down running 3:40 km/minute pace the first 5km."
The women
Swiss Pro Sabine Benz had no other female Pro in her rear view mirror as she exited the water with a comfortable lead.
As Benz rolled out on her bike she was about 4.5 minutes up on Heidi Jesberger and Sarah Schütz, with Monika Lehmann another minute back, but after that the gaps were 10 minutes and more. Age grouper Regula Rohrbach had a very solid swim too and flew on the bike and before too long she was leading the race overall. Her 4:59:33 bike split was actually second best among the women and only Karin Thürig went faster. After her not unexpected slow swim time of 1:08:29, Thürig rode a fantastic 4:43:53 bike split that brought her back to T2 in first place. Rohrbach came next into transition but was just about 7 minutes down, the next Pro to reach T2 was swim leader Benz who started her run almost 13 minutes behind Thürig.
Thürig though steadily increased her lead over the pursuers and in the end narrowly missed going under 9 hours. The lanky Swiss closed out her day with a 3:04:24 marathon and a total time of 9:00:04 to win the 2010 Ironman Switzerland. Thürig, the Olympic bronze TT medalist, broke
her own Ironman Switzerland race record of 9:10:54 which she set in 2005. Dutch Pro Heleen Bij De Vaate was solid on the bike and the run and prevented a Swiss podium sweep with her second place. Lehmann held on to third and after leading the race fairly long into the bike segment, age grouper Rohrbach finished 5th overall.
Ironman Switzerland
Zürich, Switzerland / July 25, 2010
3.8k swim / 180k bike / 42.2k run
Top 10 men
1. Ronnie Schildknecht (SWI) 8:12:40
2. Swen Sundberg (GER) 8:29:18
3. Mike Aigroz (SWI) 8:34:24
4. Stefan Riesen (SWI) 8:37:10
5. Gerrit Schellens (BEL) 8:38:26
6. Stefan Schmid (GER) 8:38:59 * AG M18-24
7. Mikel Elguezabal (ESP) 8:42:04
8. Mike Schifferle (SWI) 8:43:51
9. Pieter Helin (BEL) 8:47:16
10. Rafael Wyss (SWI) 8:47:16
Top 10 women
1. Karin Thürig (SWI) 9:00:45
2. Heleen Bij De Vaate (NED) 9:23:50
3. Monika Lehmann (SWI) 9:28:25
4. Simone Benz (SWI) 9:29:44
5. Regula Rohrbach (SWI) 9:36:25 * AG W35-39
6. Sarah Schütz (SWI) 9:36:45
7. Sandra Tschumi (SWI) 9:48:33 * AG W30-34
8. Ana Casares Polo (ESP) 10:05:16
9. Susanne Gries (SWI) 10:06:03 * AG W30-34
10. Michaela Giger (SWI) 10:07:07
