The Frankfurt Files

You could be forgiven for forgetting that this weekend featured the IRONMAN women's European Championship in Frankfurt. Coming at the tail end of three major races in Germany within the span of a month, and with a start time overnight for North America, it was an easy one to miss on the race calendar.

You missed out on a spectacular race.

Sarah True triumphed over Skye Moench and Agnieszka Jerzyk, waiting until the final loop of the run to reel in the long-leading Moench. It was something of a personal triumph for True, who had a catastrophic meltdown nearing the finish on a blistering day here in 2019. True balanced her performance well — swimming in the lead pack that had over a six minute gap over the chasers, True allowed fellow lead swimmers Lauren Brandon and Rebecca Clarke to head up the road, instead deciding to bide her time. In doing so, it allowed a large group of women to come together, with a front pack forming by the 100 kilometer mark that included the aforementioned four women and joined by the likes of Maja Stage Nielsen, Sara Svensk, and Carolin Lehreider. Attacks came in flurries, with Lehreider, Svensk, and Moench breaking away, with True and Jerzyk following into transition three minutes down.

On the run, the first to fall back was Lehrieder, pulling off course before the halfway mark, with Moench taking the lead, Svensk in second, and True solidly in third. Moench and True were matching pace with one another through the half marathon mark, with Svensk slowly fading backwards, being caught early in the third loop of the run. But on that third loop, True took more than two minutes out of Moench, with a pass appearing inevitable as they started their final 10 kilometers.

Top 10 Results

1. Sarah True 8:54:52
2. Skye Moench 8:57:29
3. Agnieszka Jerzyk 9:02:52
4. Laura Jansen 9:08:10
5. Maja Stage Nielsen 9:11:26
6. Sara Svensk 9:12:32
7. Leonie Konczalla 9:16:16
8. Rebecca Clarke 9:20:41
9. Marlene De Boer 9:23:50
10. Katharina Grohmann 9:24:08

Notes From the Race

The Swim Actually Mattered!: This was a really strange development. Clarke, True, and Brandon broke out quite early on the swim. And then they were just gone from everyone else. It looked like on the broadcast that there was a lot of tactical confusion within the main chase pack, which led to one of the largest swim gaps we've seen in a while. And it was because of that large gap that True was able to ride well within herself and be positioned for a by far race-best marathon time.

Speaking of Tactics…: It quite often feels like the women's race is more cerebral, with fewer attacks and spectacular blow-ups. Well, if you're a fan of seeing people attempt some flyers that may or may not stick, today was your day. Clarke and Brandon tried to swim and bike their way away from everyone and paid for it, with Brandon DNFing and Clarke fading to 8th place. Lehrieder jumped to the front to come into T2 with True and Svensk, but soon fell off on the run. Stage Nielsen was also an instigator on the bike, but was able to make it work for fifth. And Moench valiantly tried to run a marathon PR in her effort for victory, and was on pace to do so for much of the run.

This was a really fun, old school, head-to-head style of race.

IRONMAN Coverage Changes in Frankfurt: This was the first IM event held in Germany following the media moto crash in Hamburg. You could see some of those very distinct changes that IRONMAN had talked about following that incident — media motos on the bike were most often behind the pros, not alongside them. There was an increased use of aerial footage (although that was helped by the multi loop nature of the run course here). Access appeared more tightly controlled; again, nature of putting a multiple loop course in a major city. And the broadcast was still quite solid.

Rules Explanations in Real Time: Kudos to Matt Lieto and Dede Greisbauer, who provided an explanation of athlete conduct in real-time. Skye Moench was leading the race at the time, and handed her hat to the media person on board a motorcycle that was alongside her. Then, at a later point, she asked for that hat back. Matt and Dede explained how this was not outside assistance, what the letter of the rule was, and did it quickly. This is the exact kind of thing that helps when there are questions of penalties, or athlete conduct being witnessed. Well done.

IM Coverage Grade: A-: Can we please get a new ROKA ad? Barring that, I wished for maybe one more camera during the run course, just to be able to have seen some of the action a little further down the field. Otherwise, it was spot on. And I vastly prefer the YouTube powered version of the broadcast — simply so that as a media member, I can quickly rewatch something to refresh my memory before jumping back to the live coverage.

Was Anybody Watching?: And this is the dilemma IRONMAN faces when looking at these events. Based on YouTube's counter, during the window I watched the race live (from about halfway through the bike through the marathon), the live counter of people watching never ticked over 2,500 people.

Now, there are some reasonable explanations for this — as mentioned, it was the third major race in Germany in five weeks. It is Fourth of July weekend here in the U.S., and many people are traveling. The race started at midnight Eastern, so the U.S. market was nearly entirely missed, unless you remembered to throw it on. There were multiple IM races taking place globally that depresses your built in audience for this thing. There was also a very well attended Formula1 race in Austria this weekend.

Still, that being said — if we want good coverage, when it's offered to us, we need to show up and watch.

Photo Credit: Getty Images for IRONMAN

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