Taylor Knibb Three-Peats, Wins IM 70.3 Worlds

Originally published at: Taylor Knibb Three-Peats, Wins IM 70.3 Worlds - Slowtwitch News

Taylor Knibb successfully defended her IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship, using her bike prowess to build an insurmountable lead over the field. Knibb held nearly five minutes in hand coming off of the bike over Imogen Simmonds and Kat Matthews. Matthews tried desperately to claw her way back up to Knibb, running nearly a full four minutes faster than Knibb, but it was too little, too late.

For Matthews, though, second was a strong consolation, as it also consolidated her victory in the inaugural IRONMAN Pro Series.

Ashleigh Gentle took third with a well-balanced performance, riding in the primary chase pack and emerging from it to chase down Simmonds and Julie Derron.

Knibb, recounting her day, said, “Well, I think I dragged the whole women’s pack off the course during the swim. For the bike course you had no information, so I think I overrode a little bit. And then on the run course, there was everyone! This is an impressive community and I want to thank everyone.”

“I think it is really cool that for the 70.3 World Championships they have been very different courses and on different continents. It reminds me why I love IRONMAN races.”

For Matthews, she was happy with her second second place finish in world championship events this year. “I’m really proud. I can’t believe how well Taylor has done again. The whole women’s field really pulled it off. To come second in both, I’m over the moon.” Speaking on what it would take to win, she said “Cleary it is the bike that I need to commit to; I had a great time riding with Imogen Simmonds all day and we still lost time to Taylor.”

Gentle was reflective, saying “I guess I was a little bit down coming out of the water, and did the first part of the bike like it was the only part of the race and I soon had some regrets. I had to burn some matches. It was a really tough day out there but thankfully I found my rhythm on the run. For me, this race was five years in the making and it was really great.”

As the Race Unfolded

Race day in Taupō dawned with nearly perfect weather for a race: 66 degree water, and upper 50s air temperature. That made for a wetsuit legal swim, which was beneficial given that the water was slightly choppier than it has been all week. The race here is a beach start, which made for plenty of space. Lotte Wilms lined up apart from the rest of the pre-race favorites, versus Taylor Knibb right with all the other highlight swim caps on the inside line towards the first turn buoy, a 90 degree left hand turn.

A frantic initial swim with the wide beach start; three columns of women developed, with the athletes on the left-hand side gaining the lead, led by Taylor Knibb and Sara Perez Sala. On the right hand side, Imogen Simmonds and Julie Derron took out the pack hard. At the first turn buoy it all came back together, in a single pack, with all the pre-race favorites in that main group.

Knibb’s pace on the front was such that the elastic was starting to snap to athletes like Kat Matthews and Ashleigh Gentle. The current was quite strong, as the lead pack swam well inside the sight buoy line. At roughly 800 meters, the elastic snapped, with a 4 woman lead group breaking away. Wilms, Rebecca Clarke, Knibb, Perez Sala. The second pack consisted of roughly 15 women, which had Ashleigh Gentle, Kat Matthews, and Paula Findlay in it.

After another 600 meters, though, the groups came back together, led by a charge from Jodie Stimpson. As the race headed for shore, and into more current, the groups spread into long lines of single swimmers. Sara Perez Sala took swim honors in 24:20. Also there were Wilms, Clarke, Marta Sanchez, Knibb, Imogen Simmonds, Caroline Pohle, Julie Derron, Hanne De Vet, and Jodie Stimpson. All also within a minute of the lead were Hannah Berry, Kat Matthews, Ashleigh Gentle, and Paula Findlay. Further back were Ellie Salthouse (+1:26), Maja Stage Nielsen (+1:55), and IRONMAN Pro Series leader Jackie Hering (+2:07).

18 women started the bike within 1:02 of one another, led by Perez Sala. But within five minutes of the bike starting, Knibb accelerated her way past Perez Sala to take the lead. By 8 kilometers into the bike, Knibb had blitzed her way to a 42 second lead, with Simmonds closing up toward Perez Sala. Gentle led the primary chase group, just under a minute behind from Knibb, joined by Sanchez, Derron, Wilms, and Pohle. Another 10 seconds back were Matthews, Findlay, Clarke and Stimpson.

As the course started moving back uphill, Matthews began charging her way through the chase pack, passing by everyone to climb into second place. Findlay was also a strong mover on the climb, ripping past Sanchez and with the Perez Sala in her sights. The fireworks behind, though, had given Knibb the space to extend her lead to 1:25 over Simmonds, Matthews, and Findlay. That chase trio was starting to put space between them and Sanchez, Perez Sala, Derron, Gentle, and Poole. Wilms led the third chase group in 10th place, but now was more than two minutes behind.

Over the next 10 kilometers and Knibb continued to ride away from everyone, extending her lead out to a full 90 seconds over Simmonds and Matthews, who had left Findlay behind. Findlay was 30 seconds from Simmonds and Matthews, and riding with Sanchez and Perez Sala. Derron led the next group on the road, 2:28 down from Knibb, and that had Pohle, Gentle, and Hanne De Vet in it. Wilms was barely hanging onto the back of De Vet, with Hannah Berry and Clarke the next women on the road but over 1:20 from Wilms.

Approaching the halfway mark of the bike and Knibb added another 10 seconds to her lead on Simmons and Matthews. The Findlay group had ceded even more time, now over 1:10 behind Simmonds and Matthews and 2:53 from Knibb; shortly after the time split, Derron pulled her group up into the chase. So now all together were Findlay, Derron, Sanchez, Perez Sala, Pohle, Gentle, Wilms, and De Vet. 

As the return leg of the bike course began, Knibb brought her lead out to over two minutes on Simmonds and Matthews. Derron and Wilms took control of the chase pack, 3:38 from Knibb. Missing from the group was Perez Sala, who received a blue card for a position foul and served it. Also receiving a penalty was Sanchez. The rest of the names all remained the same, and they were the last riders on the road within four minutes of Knibb. Further back, Laura Madsen led a five woman group that included Berry, Salthouse, Lisa Becharas, and Grace Thek.

With 30 kilometers left to ride, Knibb padded her lead to 2:25. Simmonds and Matthews continued to legally work together, keeping the chase group well away. In fact, they themselves now had a 2:30 lead on the chase, led by Derron. Sanchez had yet to serve her position foul penalty and sat fifth on the road. That chase group had even ceded time to Madsen’s group, which was just a minute from the back of the pack. Perez Sala, who had served her penalty, had fallen all the way to 26th place, in between Tamara Jewett and Jackie Hering, 10 minutes behind Knibb.

Cresting the top of Heartbreak Hill and with just under 10 kilometers left to ride, Knibb extended her lead out to almost 4.5 minutes. Matthews and Simmonds had 3:10 in hand on the now 10 woman chase group, led by Findlay and containing Madsen, Derron, Gentle, Wilms, Pohle, Becharas, De Vet, Sanchez, and Berry. Salthouse came next on the road, another 50 seconds back and the last woman within 10 minutes of Knibb. Nikki Bartlett held 15th, riding solo in front of Grace Thek.

Knibb flew into transition after a 2:10:09 bike, 4:39 in front of Simmonds. Matthews came next, another 13 seconds back. Derron came in 4th, 8:06 down, leading the group of Pohle, De Vet, Findlay, Gentle, Madsen, Becharas, Wilms, and Berry. Ellie Salthouse had moved into 13th, 10:01 down. Bartlett and Thek rounded out the top 15.

In the opening kilometers and Matthews went on a charge, quickly dropping Simmonds and running 10 seconds per kilometer faster than the leader, Knibb. Simmonds was now a full five minutes behind. Derron held fourth and was matching the pace of Knibb, but that was good enough to pull away from Gentle and Findlay. De Vet, Pohle, Madsen, and Berry came next, with healthy gaps to Becharas and Wilms.

A quarter of the run done and Knibb’s lead had been trimmed to 4:24 over Matthews; still, a comfortable margin if their run paces held. Simmonds was losing time, 1:25 behind Matthews and just two minutes ahead of Derron. Gentle had found her running legs and sat 5th, 23 seconds from Derron and matching the pace in front. Findlay had also opened up a small gap in fifth; she was a minute behind Gentle, but 25 seconds in front of Pohle, the last woman within 10 minutes of the front of the race. Madsen, Berry, and De Vet closed out the top 10 runners at this stage of the race.

Over the next few kilometers and Knibb continued to cede time to Matthews. As they came into town, Matthews chewed a full minute out of Knibb’s lead, now just 3:17 at the halfway mark. Projecting that pace out through the finish, Knibb would hold onto the win by just over a minute. Simmonds continued to hold onto third, roughly 3 minutes behind Matthews. But Derron was coming, now trailing Simmonds by 46 seconds. Gentle held fifth, 7:19 from the lead. Findlay was holding onto sixth, 2:07 from Gentle. Findlay had a 28 second gap over 7th placed Pohle. Salthouse had put in a healthy move, moving all the way up to 8th. Madsen had 9th, and Berry 10th. 

Lots of movement over the next few kilometers: namely, Gentle blasted past both Simmonds and Derron to move her way onto the podium. At the front of the race, Matthews had gained another 40 seconds, pulling the lead down to 2:35 with 6K left to run. Looking further back, and one to watch was Thek: she was outrunning the likes of Madsen and Berry in front of her, with the potential to move into the top 10 by the end.

Matthews continued her relentless charge towards the front. With 3.5 kilometers left, Knibb’s lead was cut to 2:19, and with just under 2 kilometers left, it was under 2 minutes. But it looked like Matthews would run out of real estate. Gentle had opened up a 45 second gap in third over Simmonds. Simmonds, to her credit, had dropped Derron. Findlay appeared to have a comfortable grasp on sixth. Pohle and Salthouse were about to be in a battle for 7th place. Thek had moved into 9th, while Tamara Jewett had moved herself up into 10th, now the fastest runner on the road. 

Taylor Knibb crossed the finish line in 3:57:34 to defend her IRONMAN 70.3 title. Matthews took second and the IRONMAN Pro Series title, just 1:15 behind after a 1:15:34 half marathon. Ashleigh Gentle took third place.

Top 15 Results

  1. Taylor Knibb 3:57:34
  2. Kat Matthews 3:58:49
  3. Ashleigh Gentle 4:03:01
  4. Imogen Simmonds 4:05:12
  5. Julie Derron 4:06:02
  6. Paula Findlay 4:07:12
  7. Ellie Salthouse 4:07:48
  8. Caroline Pohle 4:08:06
  9. Tamara Jewett 4:08:47
  10. Grace Thek 4:09:08
  11. Nikki Bartlett 4:09:53
  12. Laura Madsen 4:10:01
  13. Solveig Løvseth 4:10:40
  14. Hannah Berry 4:10:52
  15. Hanne De Vet 4:12:53

All Photos: Kevin Mackinnon / Slowtwitch

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Very nice recounting of the race, thanks!!!

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I know a Stange question but how much time did Knibb lose during her potty stop?

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Based on splits, between slowing down, stopping, getting going again, she lost about 40 seconds to Matthews in that 0.8 kilometer split.

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Thank you.

Thanks for putting a spoiler in the title.

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From Knibb’s comments at the press conference it sounded like that aberration was her being unable to sight as that leg was almost exactly into the low sun (as shared 18 days ago):

Sorry for lowering the chat below bodily function levels.

So the inability to sight well was due to this enormous beacon placed right where they wanted to go?

Looks like 2025 might be the year for Knibb to dominate Kona as well!

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I hope with the help of her nutritionist that Taylor can get rid of what seem to be consistent GI track issues under control. That would be a really high priority on my “to do list” over the coming months.

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Spoilers are sort of my pet peeve but these won’t go away and let’s just accept the fact that you can’t visit the forum until you’ve watched the race. ST won’t make article titles “cryptic”, or stop autoposting them to the forum (which I understand as this is the only sensible comment system). It’s a fight you can’t win. You can unsubscribe from the email newsletter (which I did) and take a break from the forum and that’s it.

No, as said, it was due to the low sun: listen to her at 25:10

If you review the race footage (@33:50), Knibb led them a merry dance way closer to the shore and then turned about 30 degrees to get back to the third? buoy (drone footage revealing).
She also implicitly blamed the ‘lead kayak’ who, am guessing, was executing their safety role and staying to the side (whereas Knibb is used to a WTCS kayak heading to the next mark).

It’s a bit baffling that she hasn’t figured it out yet. She’s done how many 70.3’s and continues to have issues. At some point, she won’t have the large gap and the luxury to stop and still win with a decent margin. And it doesn’t really bode well for winning Kona. Those GI issues only get amplified in an IM and in the heat.

Hope she figures it out or someone steps in and gives her strict direction for fueling workouts pre, during, and post.

This has already happened and was very well publicised :wink:

I think the beacon part went over your head mate - as in, the low sun was the beacon, and if she simply swam to the sun, it would have sufficed as a means of sighting.

I guess when you’re starting in a later wave, the sun is less of an issue and thus you have less experience of this. But if you’re likely a lead swimmer then this sort of prep is a professional approach: Knibb said it was a ‘lesson identified’ for her and the men should take note (for 2 hours time).
And I’ve checked the angles: Knibb did swim directly into the sun, but that was about 12 degrees inshore of the marker buoy line (at 0704).

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That’s analysis!

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Are you referring to Paris? Cause my comment was geared towards long course where nutrition plays a larger role.

It was the most talked about event after the T100 race recently, hard to miss really.

Ahh ok. Makes more sense. Not sure why I didn’t think of that. For some reason, I thought she had stopped in the porta potty in Dubai.

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