Major Injury for Richard at Lanzarote Ironman After a Great Start

Wednesday, 24th May 2006

Lanzarote Ironman was Richard's first race of the year and a tough one with hills, heat and wind. It was one of the toughest Ironman fields ever assembled and would be a real test for Richard in his second Ironman event.
 
The race started very well with Richard exiting the 2.4 mile swim 1st and continuing to lead for the first part of the bike.

This was great for exposure, but the plan was not to push the bike too hard as it was under such tough conditions on the day. The field included the strongest bikers in the sport and Richard was soon realed in by them in the strong winds. Richard spent most of the bike ride in 5th-7th place and came off the bike in 8th.

The strongest part of Richard's race was yet to come and he set off on the run determined to catch the bike leaders. Although Richard was a massive 26 minutes behind Anderson, the bike leader, at the start of the run, he had pulled back 12 minutes only one third of the way through the 26 miles.

Running in 5th place whilst crossing a pavement, Richard slipped and fell, twisting his ankle and knee. At first there was no problem, but after a few miles the leg started to swell and the knee was in bad shape. At mile 15 Richard had to withdraw. You will of course be updated shortly with the condition of the knee, but it is pretty bad at this stage.