Von Berg Takes Thriller in Texas

Rudy Von Berg used a desperate final mile sprint to finally take the lead for good and claim victory at IRONMAN Texas.

Von Berg was near the front of the race all day, along with Robert Wilkowiecki and professional debutant Matthew Marquardt. Von Berg tried to put his stamp of authority on the race late during the bike and led onto the run. But he would trade the lead with Wilkowiecki throughout the run course. Wilkowiecki launched a last lap attack with just over five miles remaining and it appeared to be the decisive move, opening up a nearly 30 second gap. Yet Von Berg and Marquardt found themselves, entering the final mile, within fifteen seconds of the win.

Von Berg unleashed his sprint for the line shortly before the turns off the multi-loop run course to the finish line, which dropped Marquardt. Wilkowiecki attempted to respond but, cramping, was unable to match the move. Von Berg won in 7:44:51 and a 12 second margin of victory over Wilkowiecki and 21 seconds on Marquardt.

Von Berg recounted the difficulty of the day during his post-race interview. “It was from the start we (Wilkowiecki and Marquardt) were together — pretty much the whole race,” Von Berg said. “I had an issue starting the bike — I still had my swim skin on, so I had to take it off at an aid station. I felt quite good on the bike, the watts were there all day. I was surprised they were able to match me. I tried to get them to take pulls, but they wouldn’t and it was kind of frustrating. Off the bike I didn’t have much of a lead and I was surprised by that.”

And recalling the run, Von Berg said, “This is my best run to date. Honestly I thought I was going to be third with three to four miles to go. But my energy was pretty good, and I gave it everything I had. I don’t know how I was able to pull that out in the last two miles.”

Wilkowiecki was pleased with his effort: “It was a tough race. Actually, I was feeling bad on the bike — I missed too many bottles on the bike. Then I recovered and went back and forth with Rudy. I launched my attack during the last lap maybe 200 meters too early.”

Marquardt, the amateur overall champion in Kona, made sure not to have too many expectations of himself, and felt that was to his advantage: “It feels really good. I wanted to come into this race and not make too many stupid mistakes and not take it too seriously. I would have liked to have had a little more fun on the run course than I did, but that’s OK.” When asked about the IRONMAN World Championship slot, he responded: “Absolutely I’m going to Nice — that was my only goal for the day!”

With five professional slots for the IRONMAN World Championships on the line, the racing throughout the field was desperate trying to claim those final slots. Those went to Arnaud Guilloux in fourth and Cody Beals in fifth.

Pre-race favorites Matt Hanson and Joe Skipper both had bad days. Hanson was reported to have crashed on the bike course, while Skipper had navigational issues between miles 104 and 108, dropping a dozen minutes and eventually pulling out on lap one of the run.

Race Recap: As It Happened

The day dawned cooler with less humidity than normal for The Woodlands. With 72 degree water, it would be a swim-skin swim for the professional field.

With the traditional cannon start, the men became a sea of frantic arms, clawing for position. By the first sight buoy there’d been separation, with Matt Hanson and Joe Skipper part of the 15 or so men falling into the second group. Up front included expected names like Andrew-Horsfall Turner, Rudy Von Berg, and Robert Wilkowiecki.

After ten minutes, the lead men’s group began to fracture, with gaps opening up between many of the athletes. Wilkowiecki and Horsfall-Turner continued to set the pace, but Von Berg was starting to fall further off, as had Beals. But a minute or two later, Von Berg surged back up onto Wilkowiecki’s feet.

Through the opening mile, the lead group was four: Horsfall-Turner, Wilkowiecki, Von Berg, and Matthew Marquardt. The main chase pack was :50 behind, with names including Cody Beals, Arnaud Guilloux, and Balazs Csoke. Hanson and Skipper were another 20 seconds off the pace. Over 2:40 behind at this point were the trio of Michael Weiss, Trevor Foley, and Bart Aernouts.

The leading group of four stuck together through most of the narrow channel that makes up the back half of the swim course. Horsfall-Turner took the unofficial swim prime in 48:50, with Wilkowiecki, Von Berg, and Marquardt all within 10 seconds. Horsfall-Turner led the group out onto the road, with Von Berg having the slowest transition and dropping a little time. All four were out on the bike before the next male finished the swim — Simon Shi, 2:10 behind. Guilloux, Beals, Skipper, and Hanson were all together, approximately 3:30 off the pace. Names including Weiss, Foley, Aernouts, and Kennett Peterson were ranging between 10 and 12 minutes back.

Through the opening miles of the bike, Horsfall-Turner kept on the gas pedal, stretching his lead to 45 seconds over his fellow swim group. Guilloux had leap-frogged most of his chasers and sat solo in fifth as he looked to close up to the leading four riders. The main chase pack was led by Shi and included Hanson, Sven Wies, Ivan Tutukin, Beals, Elliot Bach, Thomas Davis, and Fraser Walsh, roughly four minutes off Horsfall-Turner. Skipper was yet another minute back, but was also by speed one of the fastest riders on the road.

Heading onto the Toll Road, Horsfall-Turner still led, but the chasing trio of Von Berg, Wilkowiecki, and Marquardt were beginning to close up, now within 35 seconds. Guilloux was still the next rider on the road, but Skipper had settled onto the bike and had now pedaled his way up to sixth. The next chase pack sat 4:40 down, with Plese, Hanson, Adam Feigh, Davis, Wies, Beals, Tutukin and more all together.

At a little over two hours on the clock, Horsfall-Turner surrendered the lead to Von Berg and Wilkowiecki. Skipper, meanwhile, was the fastest man on the road, having caught Guilloux and riding together just 2:35 back. Hanson had come to the front of the large group third on the road, but that group had lost time to the leaders — 4:50 down. The elastic in that group was starting to stretch, as the eight or so riders in it were now spread by roughly 30 seconds on the road.

Shortly before halfway on the bike and the leading four riders had managed to stem the tide of Skipper and Guilloux, holding them at 2:50 behind. Von Berg was on the front, but started to get animated asking for his fellow leaders to take some of the pace-setting duties. The big chase pack behind was still losing time to the very front of the race — 5:40 from the front — but they were riding faster than Skipper and Guilloux.

On the second loop of the Toll Road, Von Berg made a determined push and broke apart the lead group, now each riding by themselves. Horsfall-Turner and Marquardt were the biggest casualties of that move. Von Berg’s push also further distances Skipper and Guilloux, putting them more than four minutes down with less than forty miles left to ride. Elliot Bach was slightly off the front of the main chase group, which had been further whittled to just eight riders. Notably missing was Matt Hanson, who had crashed on course; according to reports, an age group athlete had crashed in front of him at an aid station and he was left with nowhere to go.

With 20 miles left to ride, Von Berg continued to stomp away on the front. The only rider matching his pace was also up the road — Wilkowiecki, who sat 28 seconds behind Von Berg but more than 90 seconds up on Marquardt. Everyone was losing time — Guilloux and Skipper 5:45 back, and the Beals group now ten minutes off the pace. Much further back, Trevor Foley led the next group of three on the road, six minutes away from the Beals group, joined by Weiss and Fernando Toldi.

Wilkowiecki attempted to close up to Von Berg during the closing miles of the bike, having stretched their collective gap to 2.5 minutes on Marquardt and more than four minutes on Horsfall-Turner. Guilloux was nearly seven minutes from the front.

After a 4:05:27 ride, Von Berg hit transition with a five second lead on Wilkowiecki and 2:31 on Marquardt. Early leader Horsfall-Turner was fourth, 4:47 back. Guilloux was fifth, 7:02 behind. Another six or so minutes back were the remaining top 10 contenders: Danielsson, Beals, Feigh, Tutukin, and Plese. Missing from the picture? Skipper, who had completely fallen off around mile 104 and was now more than 18 minutes from the front in 17th place.

Through the first few miles of the run, Wilkowiecki had managed to close back up onto Von Berg and passed him for the lead roughly four miles into the run. Von Berg latched onto Wilkowiecki through the winding paths of the three loop run course. Marquardt, meanwhile, held steady in third, matching the pace of the leaders. The pace behind, though, was frantic — Guilloux, Feigh, and Beals were running 30 to 35 seconds per mile faster than the leaders. That group of runners had clawed 90 seconds back from the leaders.

In mile 6, Von Berg took the lead back and tried to distance himself from Wilkowiecki. Further back, Guilloux had passed Horsfall-Turner for fourth. Beals was running with Feigh, with 90 seconds left to close before they too would bypass Horsfall-Turner.

Through the first loop of the run, Von Berg continued to try to break Wilkowiecki. Marquardt held steady in third, 3:15 from the front. Guilloux was fourth, 2.5 minutes further behind Marquardt but running 25 seconds a mile faster than the third place man. Beals had run up into the coveted fifth slot with Feigh in tow. Horsfall-Turner sat 7th but was the slowest runner in the top 10. Tutukin, Foley, and Plese closed out the top 10 positions, all within 10 minutes of Marquardt.

At halfway, Von Berg had opened up his gap over Wilkowiecki to almost 20 seconds. Marquardt continued to impress in third, keeping the gap below 3:30 to the front. Guilloux in fourth was close enough that there were projections he might be able to close all the way to Von Berg before the end. Beals, meanwhile, had solidified his fifth place positioning by gapping Feigh by nearly 90 seconds.

Onto the third and final run loop, Von Berg, paired up with an age group athlete matching him stride for stride, held just an eighteen second lead on Wilkowiecki. Marquardt, meanwhile, was moving fast — now just two minutes behind Wilkowiecki and running faster than he and Von Berg in front. Guilloux’s progress toward the front had slowed but was somewhat comfortable in fourth. Beals in fifth had roughly a four minute gap to any chasers, led by Tutukin.

At mile 20, Wilkowiecki desperately clawed his way back up to Von Berg. Von Berg seemingly refused to let Wilkowiecki pass him. Coming through the next aid station, Wilkowiecki bumped into an age grouper at an aid station, yet accelerated through it to drop Von Berg. Marquardt, meanwhile, was now less than 1:50 from the lead and was on pace to take the lead in the final mile. With five miles to go, Wilkowiecki had a 15 second gap to Von Berg but Marquardt had cut the deficit to just 1:22. And with just under three miles to run, all three men were within a minute of one another — with the fastest of them Marquardt.

Into the final mile and it was a downright sprint: Wilkowiecki’s lead was just eight seconds on Von Berg and Marquardt another five seconds back.Entering the final turns and Von Berg put a massive charge in, with Wilkowiecki cramping and fading. Von Berg’s dig wound up being the decisive move, leading to a 12 second margin of victory on Wilkowiecki and a 21 second margin on Marquardt.

1. Rudy Von Berg 7:44:51
2. Robert Wilkowiecki 7:45:04
3. Matthew Marquardt 7:45:12
4. Arnaud Guilloux 7:54:21
5. Cody Beals 7:57:18
6. Ivan Tutukin 8:01:40
7. David Plese 8:03:58
8. Thomas Davis 8:05:33
9. Adam Feigh 8:06:04
10. Michael Weiss 8:06:12

Photo: Kyle Rivas / Getty Images for IRONMAN