Photo: IRONMAN
She’s done five IRONMAN races and won four of them. After setting a new “debut” record (8:12:28) with her third-place finish at IRONMAN Hamburg last year, Norway’s Solveig Løvseth continued her winning streak with another big win in Germany today.
The day began with Lotte Wilms (NED) leading the way out of the water with four others – Brits Holly Lawrence, Fenella Langridge and Kate Curran were all within six seconds of last year’s IRONMAN Western Australia champ as they started the long run to T1, while Aussie Charlotte McShane was another four-seconds down. France’s Marjolaine Pierré was next out, just over three minutes behind, while the two women everyone expected to duel for the win, Løvseth and Philipp, finished the swim just under 4:30 down.
Lawrence would drive the pace initially, but it was Pierré who was the big mover on the bike. By the 35 km check point she was already in front, with Wilms sitting at 37 seconds down and Løvseth and Philipp a shade over four minutes down in sixth and seventh. Pierré would continue to pound away at the front, eventually opening a gap of 3:40 on Wilms and 4:29 on Løvseth through 123 km as the Norwegian pulled clear of Philipp, who was a shade over eight minutes down at that point. Over the final 50 km of the ride Løvseth would drive towards the front of the race, passing Wilms and steadily closing the gap on Pierré and opening up more time on Philipp.
By the time they reached T2 the Frenchwoman’s lead was down to just 37 seconds over Løvesth, with Wilms at 2:41, Austria’s Lisa Perterer at 6:52, Katrine Græsbøll Christensen at 8:15, India Lee at 8:42 and Philipp at 8:54. Lawrence was next in, but she didn’t head out on the run.
It didn’t take Løvseth long to move to the front of the race, and by the end of the first of four laps of the run course she was 1:34 up on Pierré with Philipp in fourth, 7:03 down. Løvseth continued to run strongly up front and at the halfway point of the marathon Philipp had only gained back about 40 more seconds – she had moved to third place and was gaining rapidly on Pierré, who was 4:29 behind the lead, but wasn’t making the kind of inroads she’d need to pressure Løvseth for the win.
The Norwegian still seemed to have things well in hand through the end of the third loop – by that point Philipp had moved to second (4:47 behind the lead) ahead of Græsbøll Christensen (6:42 behind), with Pierré in fourth (7:42 back) and Perterer in fifth (10:43 behind). It was over the last seven km that Løvseth finally appeared to be showing the effects of her big Texas win in April. With 6 km to go the gap to Philipp was 3:51, and the gap was down to 2:13 with just over a mile of running left. In the end Løvseth would cross the line in 8:11:11, 1:18 up on Philipp. Græsbøll Christensen would round out the podium in 8:15:20, while Pierré would hang tough for fourth (8:18:01), with Perterer taking fifth in 8:22:31.
Photo: IRONMAN
| Pos | Athlete | Country | Overall | Swim | Bike | Run |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Solveig Løvseth | Norway | 8:11:11 | 54:57 | 4:20:06 | 2:49:21 |
| 2 | Laura Philipp | Germany | 8:12:29 | 54:53 | 4:28:21 | 2:42:16 |
| 3 | Kristin Græsbøll Christensen | Denmark | 8:15:20 | 1:00:51 | 4:21:47 | 2:45:45 |
| 4 | Marjolaine Pierré | France | 8:18:01 | 53:33 | 4:21:07 | 2:56:45 |
| 5 | Lisa Perterer | Austria | 8:22:31 | 54:51 | 4:25:58 | 2:53:49 |
| 6 | Lotte Wilms | Netherlands | 8:24:58 | 50:29 | 4:26:03 | 3:00:51 |
| 7 | India Lee | Great Britain | 8:25:32 | 54:59 | 4:27:34 | 2:54:47 |
| 8 | Marta Lagownik | Poland | 8:30:08 | 55:01 | 4:35:47 | 2:52:24 |
| 9 | Fenella Langridge | Great Britain | 8:31:54 | 50:34 | 4:37:57 | 2:56:11 |
| 10 | Kate Curran | Great Britain | 8:35:39 | 50:36 | 4:42:37 | 2:55:34 |
| 11 | Charlotte McShane | Australia | 8:42:12 | 50:39 | 4:43:58 | 2:58:08 |
| 12 | Kaidi Kivioja | Estonia | 8:44:44 | 1:00:03 | 4:30:16 | 3:07:01 |
Here are a few more takeaways from the day’s racing:
- According to a report by Tri-mag.de a number of age group competitors got flat tires thanks to pieces of metal that were thrown on the bike course. This didn’t affect the pro women, but reportedly affected more than 100 age group athletes. We’ve reached out to IRONMAN for more details.
- While we didn’t see a sub-8 hour women’s performance, Germany’s Martin Kodewitz won the men’s 35-39 age group in 7:59:55. His splits were 1:02:22/ 4:14:20/ 2:36:09.
- Løvseth’s 4:20:06 bike split broke the previous record held by Daniela Bleymehl (4:20:47)
- There are six Kona pro slots available at the race. Løvseth, Wilms, Græsbøll Christensen, Lagownik, Curran and McShane all have slots, so it would appear the slots will go to Philipp, Pierré, Perterer, Lee, Langridge and Kivioja.
- With 12,385 points (her wins in Texas and Hamburg along with a runner-up finish at 70.3 Oceanside), Løvseth leads the IRONMAN Pro Series ahead of Lotte Wilms (8,511 points) and Fenella Langridge (7,822 points).