Originally published at: Pohle Goes Back to Back, Noodt Dominates at 70.3 Zell am See-Kaprun - Slowtwitch News
The last Pro Series race before the women’s and men’s IRONMAN World Championships took place this morning in Austria. Athletes got to sleep in a little, with an 11:00am local start time for 70.3 Zell am See-Kaprun. Conditions, however, were not favorable. Temperatures hovered in the mid-seventies Fahrenheit, with a fair amount of humidity. The two race winners put together master class performances. Caroline Pohle dominated a Pro Series races for the second straight weekend. After dismantling the field at the European Championships in Tallinn, Pohle lined up for a second consecutive weekend. She had company on the swim today but was able to build a cushion on the bike. Nobody would be able to catch her on the run. Pohle described her race, “I don’t know what happened today. I am super proud of myself because it was my first back to back racing so we have no experience about how my body reacted but I fared very, very, good today. Very strong, very confident about last week, and, yeah, I don’t know how it happened. My parents are here and they surprised me. I’m super happy.”
Germany’s Mika Noodt won the men’s race by more than four minutes. A large group came out of the water and got onto the bike together. Noodt used the first big climb on the bike to drop everyone except for Belgium’s Jelle Geens. Geens, however, could not stick with Noodt on the descent. Noodt built out an insurmountable lead from there that nobody could chip away at on the run. On his margin of victory, Noodt said, “I actually wasn’t thinking about it but yeah I just kept my own rhythm to the finish line and yeah that’s it super happy.” On his overall race, he adds, “Yeah the swim started okay-ish so I had a medium start but then we had a nice long way to the first buoy…out on the bike the first few k’s were a bit messy with all the guys…I relaxed for a bit and then I went towards the front and at the bottom of the climb I set my own rhythm…With 2ks to go (on the run) I was quite sure that I’m going to make it and could enjoy this finish line.” Noodt said that this might be the best bike course he has ever ridden. He has been training in the Alps, riding steep hills, and liked the rolling nature of the course. He is from Germany but said Austria feels like a second home. Noodt’s post-race interview was one of the better ones from this entire season. He gave thoughtful answers about his race performance and was very complimentary of all of the volunteers.
Men’s Race:
IRONMAN describes this swim course as “One of the most spectacular in all of European IRONMAN 70.3 racing. Swim to the backdrop of the glacier-covered Alps in a drinking water quality lake.” Austria’s Martin Demuth led out the swim in 24:07 on home soil. Demuth has made 117 short course starts (3 podiums) and is new to IRONMAN racing. He was followed closely by Magnus Manner, Jan Stratmann, and Florian Angert. Another 19 athletes swam between 24:40 and 24:59. That group included Jelle Geens, Mika Noodt, Nicolas Mann, Bradley Weiss, and Clement Mignon, among others. Arnaud Guilloux and Robert Kallin were a little further back. The long run into T1 allowed the group to come back together but put a lot of riders in close proximity to each other in the early stages on the bike on tight roads. This led to a few penalties being handed out. We have covered this issue at different times throughout the season. It is good to hand out the penalties but the reality is that more should have been handed out so a handful of athletes had their days ended, while others got off. I would still like to see more frequent penalties handed out with shorter durations. This race, however, was more fair within the current construct of the rules.
Fifteen men were within one minute of the lead at 15k. Eleven of those fifteen were German athletes! By the halfway point of the bike, Noodt had gapped everyone except for Geens. Nobody else could match his power on the climb. Noodt dropped Geens on the descent and used a 2:02:11 bike split to take a massive 4:45 lead into T2. In warm conditions, Noodt was able to maintain strong form on the run and coast to victory in 3:46:04. Geens held on for second. Gregor Payet finished 3rd, after starting the run in 9th.
TOTAL SWIM BIKE RUN
1 Noodt, Mike 3:46:04 24:43 2:02:11 1:14:09
2 Geens, Jelle 3:51:09 24:41 2:06:46 1:14:26
3 Payet, Gregor 3:51:59 24:57 2:08:48 1:13:12
4 Hug, Tom 3:52:18 25:25 2:09:28 1:12:07
5 Stratmann, Jan 3:53:34 24:21 2:08:12 1:15:42
Women’s Race:
Caroline Pohle had company on the swim today. Lauren Brandon, Lena Meibner, and Rebecca Clarke, pulled away with her from the main group. Ellie Salthouse swam in the chase pack a minute behind the leaders. Marjolaine Pierre, Grace Thek, Laura Madsen, Lisa Norden, and Els Visser, swam together more than 2 minutes back. Daniela Bleymehl was well back on the swim and later had to drop out due to cramping, hurting her Pro Series prospects. Pohle had company from Meibner early in the bike but that did not last long as she was soon dropped. Salthouse, Madsen, Thek, Visser, and Norden, all moved up in the race. By the halfway point, Pohle was in front by 2 minutes, and it would stay that way until the end of the bike. Pohle split 2:21:47 to lead by 1:54 over Madsen. Madsen pulled Visser and Meibner with her. Norden, Salthouse, Perterer, and Thek, grouped together 4 minutes behind Pohle.
Pohle, similar to last weekend, did what she needed to do on the run. She extended her gap over Madsen. It would be Thek, however, who would make a meaningful charge. Thek ran herself into 2nd place by the finish. She just ran out of room to catch Pohle who had done enough to win comfortably by 1:34. Madsen ran well to hold onto 3rd. Salthouse was 4th and Visser was 5th.
TOTAL SWIM BIKE RUN
1 Pohle, Caroline 4:17:24 25:23 2:21:47 1:24:45
2 Thek, Grace 4:18:58 27:39 2:23:27 1:21:43
3 Madsen, Laura 4:19:23 27:41 2:21:20 1:24:42
4 Salthouse, Ellie 4:20:57 26:17 2:24:51 1:23:53
5 Visser, Els 4:21:29 27:49 2:21:19 1:26:25
Quick Take #1: Pohle made winning two Pro Series races in back to back weekends look relatively easy. She took down strong fields, utilizing the same playbook. She swam at the front of both races and then built comfortable leads on the bike. With her improved running, she has not been caught in two consecutive races. Pohle is not giving the uber bikers a chance to get on her wheel. It will be interesting to see what races she lines up for in the back half of the season and if she can replicate these performances.
Quick Take #2: Mika Noodt is quietly putting together an excellent eason. Noodt finished 6th and 5th at T100 Singapore and T100 San Francisco, respectively. He did not get a wild card for T100 London and had not raced again until today. He has not been dealing with any injuries. He said he took a season break even though he felt like he was in great shape and that nothing was bothering him. Noodt is focused on the remaining T100 races and the 70.3 World Championships. He was very good today against a strong field. It will be interesting to see if his less aggressive racing strategy pays off as we get closer to championship season.
Quick Take #3: We have now completed 16 out of the 20 Pro Series races. We are down to the three championship races plus 70.3 Western Australia. The Nice World Championships are just three weeks away!
Photos: Getty Images for IRONMAN