NewsRecords fall in Nice
Kevin Mackinnon recaps an exciting day of racing at Ironman France
Published Sunday, June 28, 2009
Enjoying near perfect race conditions, Marcel Zamora Perez and Tine Deckers both set course records in winning Ironman France today. For Spaniard Zamora Perez it was his fourth straight win in Nice, while Deckers became the first Belgian woman to claim an Ironman title.
After coming out of the water in second, Marceau quickly put his stamp on the race with an impressive bike ride that saw him steadily pull away from the rest of the field. While the rest of the contenders interchanged positions through out the scenic, but challenging, bike course that makes this race so unique (how often do you get to race along the same roads that are home to the Tour de France?), Marceau both remained in front and continued to pull away.
Once out on the run course, though, Marceau couldn't hold off Zamora Perez – not that anyone else could, either. Once Zamora took the lead the rest of the men's field found themselves running for second. Marceau would struggle through the marathon, eventually finishing fifth, which was an improvement over his eighth place finish in South Africa earlier this year in his Ironman debut.
The first winner of Ironman France, once it moved to Nice, Herve Faure, finished second, followed by another French athlete, Simon Billeau. Swim leader Clemente Alonso-McKernan hung on for fourth after passing Marceau in the closing stages of the marathon.
Deckers also found herself chasing as she started the marathon. Ahead of the Belgian was local favorite Christal Robin, competing in her first Ironman race. The 22-year-old also happened to be the youngest woman in the race. Robin used her local knowledge of the bike course to great advantage, blasting away from all of the women except Deckers by the time she got back to T2. Deckers trailed by almost seven minutes as she came to the transition area – which was right in the mix compared to the 24-minute-plus deficit faced by last year's Italian winner, Martina Dogana, and previous French champion Alexandra Louison.
Robin appeared to be running fast enough to hold on to her lead, but once she started to lose time to Deckers, she lost it in a hurry. Deckers made up three minutes during the second run loop and had taken the lead by halfway through the third.
Dogana put together a 3:01 marathon split, but it wasn't enough to catch Robin, who held on for an impressive runner-up debut Ironman here in Nice. Dogana finished third, while Great Britain's Abigail Bayley managed to sneak past Louison for fourth.
It wasn't just the pros who enjoyed the near-perfect weather conditions at today's race. In just over 11 hours almost a quarter of the 2,500 competitors had finished, a sure sign of quality of the athletes competing here in Nice – one could hardly call the mountainous bike course “fast.”
For a complete recap of today's coverage, click on the text updates tab on the main page of Ironman.com, or on the coverage tab on the Ironman France page here on the site.
Top 10 men:
1 ZAMORA PEREZ Marcel 1 31 ESP FINISH 08:30:06
2 FAURE Hervé 2 33 FRA FINISH 08:40:55
3 BILLEAU Simon 8 27 FRA FINISH 08:46:30
4 ALONSO-MC KERNAN Clemente 24 31 ESP FINISH 08:48:59
5 MARCEAU Olivier 5 36 SUI FINISH 08:52:53
6 CLERBOUT Bruno 10 33 BEL FINISH 08:58:02
7 GALINDEZ Oscar 3 38 ARG FINISH 09:08:26
8 BANTI Hervé 14 32 MON FINISH 09:16:33
9 AUGUEUX Benoît 22 33 FRA FINISH 09:17:07
10 SILC France 422 27 SLO FINISH 09:17:39
Top 10 women:
1 DECKERS Tine 44 31 BEL FINISH 09:30:29
2 ROBIN Christel 49 22 FRA FINISH 09:34:19
3 DOGANA Martina 31 30 ITA FINISH 09:37:35
4 BAYLEY Abigail 26 32 GBR FINISH 09:47:22
5 LOUISON Alexandra 33 27 FRA FINISH 09:52:28
6 MEYERS Katya 35 29 USA FINISH 09:58:30
7 SCHUECKER Linda 41 27 GER FINISH 10:21:29
8 JOHNSTON Claudia 161 36 CAN FINISH 10:23:10
9 GRICE Yvette 48 29 GBR FINISH 10:24:06
10 SCHWALBE Ulrike 34 GER FINISH 10:28:57
You can reach Kevin Mackinnon at kevin@ironman.com
