The New Wave Hits Ironman Hawaii 2006-2008

Timothy Carlson’s pictures chronicle the clash of generations in part 3 of Ironman Hawaii Photo Galleries of the winners, movers and shakers 2006-2008.
An Old School revolutionary prevailed among the women in 2006 as Michellie Jones, the 1992-1993 ITU short course world champ, upended Natascha Badmann’s reign. Jones topped Badmann 54 to 1:06 on the swim, gave back 7 minutes on the bike, then found her 3:13 marathon good enough to top gastrointestinally challenged Badmann’s 3:27:54 run. That same year, Normann Stadler made sure nobody thought his 2004 It’s-About-the-Bike 2004 win was a flash in the pan. Stadler’s record-smashing 4:18:23 bike gave the Normannator 10 minutes on rival Macca, just enough to hold on for a 71-second margin of victory. But 2007 was quite another story. Michellie Jones dropped out when a pre-race ear infection made it impossible to continue and a very fit, 40-plus Natascha Badmann was denied a chance to defend against an onslaught from the new guard due to a bad crash on the bike. That left Kona 2007 to a duel between well-known rookie Sam McGlone and unknown dark horse Chrissie Wellington, who had been a pro for all of eight months. Wellington won, the most shocking rookie debut since Luc Van Lierde. Mirroring the dropout rate of best women, 2005 men’s champ Faris Al-Sultan, 2004 and 2006 champ Normann Stadler and many other Germans were felled by gastro woes. When the dust had cleared, McCormack fulfilled a career-long dream to take the win by 3:30 over Kona rookie, consummate professional, Craig Alexander. In 2008, overdog Chrissie W backed up her Kona debut with a repeat, while Macca dropped out with cable troubles and Crowie well and truly earned the crown he inherited with a great 2:45 run.

The Normannator smashed the Kona bike record with a 4:18:23 clocking which provided him with a much-needed 10-minute T2 advantage over challenger Chris McCormack.

Macca cools off during his red-hot 2:46:02 run which came within 71 seconds of overtaking Stadler.

In 2006, Michellie Jones joined old rival Karen Smyers as the only as the only women to win two ITU Olympic distance World titles and Ironman Hawaii. Erin Baker won one ITU crown (1989) two Ironman titles (1987-1990).

Desiree Ficker was overjoyed at her longshot runner-up finish in 2006.

After fending off his rival’s marathon charge by 71 seconds, Stadler offers McCormack a magnanimous but cool hug. The next night, after smack talk erupted on the web, the rivals had a heated exchange at the Triathlete party.

Chris McCormack sensed Stadler would not be the unstoppable force on the bike in 2007 when he passed the Teutonic uberbiker at Mile 35.

Defending champion Normann Stadler was one of four or five German stars (Stadler, Al-Sultan, Hellriegel, Jan Raphael) who were felled in 2007 by gastrointestinal woes.

Sam McGlone, the standing Ironman 70.3 World Champion, executed a perfect Kona debut capped by a swift 3:00:52 marathon. Trouble was, a stealth rookie did it better.

Who’s that girl? Coach Brett Sutton called Chrissie Wellington “the smoky (Aussie talk for longshot) of all time” for her shocking Kona debut win. Wellington sealed it with a seemingly effortless 2:59:58 run.

Chrissie Wellington shocked herself with her winning Kona performance. Not as shocked as the rest of the triathlon world.

After an early Grip-style five years of failure and frustration at Kona, Chris McCormack satisfied his dream and joined Mark Allen as the only men to win ITU Worlds and Ironman Hawaii.

Defending champion Chris McCormack signals something wrong with his bike on the climb to Hawi. A few miles later, he dropped out.

After a 6th place finish in 2006, Rebekah Keat fell to 18th. But in many eyes, her Good Samaritan loan of her CO2 canisters to Chrissie Wellington marked her as a winner.

Torbjorn Sindballe, revved up after his breakthrough 3rd place finish a year earlier, won the battle of the bikes, but lost the war as he ran out of steam on the run.

After a Mediocre for the Uberbiker ride, Normann Stadler blazed out front on the run to Mile 12, then faded to a 12th place finish. Stadler suspects sub-par bike fit on a new bike.

Eneko Llanos, who pushed Chris McCormack to the brink at Wildflower and Frankfurt, took over after Stadler faded on the run – until Craig Alexander took ultimate control at the Energy Lab.

The leader board at Mile 6 looked very different an hour later. At Mile 20, Stadler, Lieto, Sindballe and Al-Sultan were all gone.

Yvonne van Vlerken, the Little Dutch Girl who broke Paula Newby-Fraser’s 14-year-old Ironman distance world best in July at Roth, placed at the top of the merely human category behind Wellington’s dominating performance.

Craig Alexander finished 3 minutes 30 seconds behind McCormack in his Kona debut in 2007. This time around, Macca DNF’d and Crowie outdueled Eneko Llanos for the win.

Wellington went from the biggest longshot winner in Kona history to someone so prohibitively favored that she would have been the biggest upset loser. Despite the bungled CO2 cartridges, not a chance. Nor could a drenching rainstorm at the awards ceremony erase that smile.