St George round up
The Ironman World Championships in St George, Utah turned out to be quite a race! After going two years and seven months without one due to the covid-19 pandemic, the event delivered much excitement. Keep reading below for the complete Parcours lowdown…
In all, there were more than 3,000 registered athletes taking part in what was a very scenic but brutally challenging course, with highlights such as Snow Canyon. The race marked the first time ever that IRONMAN's largest world championship race was held away from Kona, Hawaii with the race technically the championship competition for 2021 and the 2022 championship held back in Kona later this year.
Parcours had three professional athletes and many age-groupers competing. In the women’s race there were strong rides from both Fenella Langridge and Laura Siddall but it was Daniela Ryf took over early in the bike course and then dominated the rest of the way Saturday. She went on to win her 5th IRONMAN World Championship beating the heat, the hilly course and the competition! Parcours athletes Laura Siddall and Fenella Langridge also tackled the conditions with top form, finishing in the top 10 in 7th and 8th place respectively.
Fenella said of the experience, “The race was pretty epic. Lots of pinch me moments but I also made quite a few mistakes that cost me vital time and consistently places. However that being said I left happy and hungry for more, I have so much respect for all my competitors. I love racing the best athletes in the world and I can’t wait to do it again in KONA!”
Sid also spoke to Parcours about her race, “to be honest I'm pretty happy overall. Yes definitely things I can still improve on which is also exciting still. My swim is a work in progress, but actually was pretty solid. I had a pretty disastrous T1 and couldn't get my wetsuit off, nor my race suit on, so I lost a lot of time but it allowed me to settle into my own race on the bike, and found I caught back up with the women I'd swam with. We had a plan and had broken the race down into segments and I was pretty much spot on to within 5/10sec and 1-2W for each segment. I loved the bike. It never got boring and I was actually surprised at how quickly the bike went, and how soon I realised I was at T2.
My run is where I'm most disappointed, as wasn't where training has been and nor where riding a conservative bike should have left me. Fenella caught and passed me about 32-33km mark. But I started to feel stronger again and overtook her with about 7-8km to go. I managed to put a bit of distance between us to make it to the finish in 7th.”
In the men’s race Kristian Blummenfelt powered his way past the competition and claimed the IRONMAN World Championship, making up ground on the run course and winning the first world title held in Utah with a time of 7:49:18. However, he wasn’t in the first group of finishers at the end of the bike course which was dominated by Parcours athlete Kyle Smith who led the way for the 180km ride. Following the bike, Blummenfelt quickly made his way toward the front, passing everyone in front and moving into first place about two-thirds of the way through the 26.2-mile run.
Kyle Smith said of the race, “it was an amazing experience. The training had gone super well and I was feeling really confident to go for it on race day. I didn't feel great during race week and came down with something that seemed to have been making the rounds. I felt okay once the gun went off but definitely didn’t have super legs. I swam strong and felt good enough to push the pace on the bike. The brutal course and the conditions took their toll half way through the run and I nursed my body home for 11th place. After the race I was dissatisfied with the result but upon reflection I am super happy and proud of how I raced. I did my best to take it to the competition and to lead the world champs for more than half the day was an amazing experience. I’m super hungry for that feeling again, just need to add 30 more kilometres of leading onto that for next time”.
As you may have spotted from the pre-race tech coverage, all our Parcours pro athletes have been racing on some new and exciting wheels. We have been working in partnership with athletes to develop the outright fastest wheels...stay tuned for more on this!