Australasian Double on Ironmans Longest Day!

Wednesday, 24th August 2005

It was another successful day for Oceania athletes at the inaugural 2005 Ironman UK Triathlon as two time Ironman winner, New Zealand's Bryan Rhodes pulled out another victory, while Australian first-timer Rebecca Preston managed a win in her Ironman debut.

 For Rhodes it was a stunning race, reminiscent of his first two wins where he swam almost out of sight (45:31), solidified his lead on the bike (4:59:17 the only sub-five-hour time on the day) and then cruised home in the run (2:53:55) for a final time of 8:42:14, the only time under nine hours on this tough day.

Originally Stephen Sheldrake from New Zealand joined Rhodes out front. The two were joined by the UK's Stephen Bayliss and that's the way it stayed until the 'uber' bikers arrived in the form of Francois Chabaud, Olaf Sabatschus and Nick Marland.

As the bike miles unwound over undulating hills and dales, though, Rhodes just kept cementing his lead until he eventually arrived back at T2 after completing the unique, challenging double loop bike course some 16 minutes ahead of relentless pursuer Chabaud.

In fact Rhodes was caught 'speeding' by the local constabulary, running the 50mph zone at 55, and they later set him up, coming to the finish line to 'charge' him! (Great stuff you don't catch Rhodesy out too often!)

Behind Chabaud the field included Olaf Sabatschus, Gerrit De Pauw; Julian Jenkinson and then Stephen Bayliss, who found the pace on the bike electric.

Chabaud set off with a vengeance on the run, but couldn't catch the Kiwi, who pulled away for a sizeable win.

It was 25 long minutes before Chabaud would reach the line in second, while the gallant German, Olaf Sabatschus, was less than three minutes further back followed by Belgium's Gerrit de Pauw and then first Englishman, Stephen Bayliss.

Just behind the top five was Australia's Chip Van Halen Slater, running home just ahead of the first age grouper, Germany's Max Longree.

In the women's race Katja Schumacher led the swim and charged off on the bike only to find an unknown (to her) Australian named Rebecca Preston zooming past at the 40-mile mark.

 "I didn't know who she was," said Schumacher. "I thought she might be an age grouper trying to be famous and she would blow up. She didn't!"

Once past her only opposition, Preston, a former Short Course World 20-24 Age-Group champ (1993), dug deep and kept pedalling to a 7:45 lead over Schumacher into T2. Bella Comerford was third into T2, down 19:45 on the lead, with German elite Silke Hinrichs another four minutes back. Aussie age grouper, Natalie Wood rolled into T2 in fifth.

Preston "put the hammer down," as did her countrywoman, Natalie Wood, who moved past Hinrichs.

Preston arrived at the finish line in 9:37:57, after a 53:52 swim, leaving her fourth at that point, a bike time of 5:37:38, the fastest in the field, and then a smoking marathon time of 3:02:32, the fastest women's time of the day and the seventh fastest run split overall!

And all this in her very first Ironman race!

Following 28-minutes behind was Katja Schumacher. After another 16 minutes had elapsed Scotland's Bella Comerford crossed the line. The top-five rounded out with Australia's Natalie Wood the first age-grouper finishing fourth overall and Silke Hinrichs fifth.

Preston's demolition of the field has shown that there is another new talent from 'down-under.' It was an amazing day for the Aussies considering Teresa Rider won the F45-49 age group in finishing sixth overall at 11:06:02.

Article Source: By Nick Munting for Ironmanlive.com on Sunday, 21 August 2005