Press release: Uplace-BMC Pro Triathlon team: Ironman 70.3 Lanzarote
Saturday 20th of September 2014
Will Clarke & Helle Frederiksen win Ironman 70.3 Lanzarote
Romain Guillaume 3rd, Axel Zeebroek 9th
The red squad of the Uplace-BMC Pro Triathlon Team was well represented in Lanzarote with 4 athletes at the start line: Helle Frederiksen, Will Clarke, Romain Guillaume and Axel Zeebroek.
In the men’s race, Will Clarke (GBR: 04:04:16) took the win in a close battle with Victor Del Corral (ESP: 04:04:22) and his team mate Romain Guillaume coming in third (FRA: 04:06:53).
In the women’s race, our Hy-vee US Champion, Helle Frederiksen (DEN: 04:29:58) dominated from start to finish smashing the course record by 10 minutes. Lucy Gossage (GBR: 04:50:04) came second more than 20 minutes behind Frederiksen, while Nicole Woysch (GER: 05:03:28) came third with a gap of 33 minutes on our winner.
Helle Frederiksen wins Ironman 70.3 Lanzarote
Helle Frederiksen demonstrated her excellent shape from start to finish. She came out of the water just 45″ behind the leading men, with a lead of almost 4′ on Lucy Gossage. On the bike she gave it all on her ‘beastie’ and looked strong throughout. Her lead grew up to a very comfortable 15′ going into T2. As a real champion, she didn’t want to ease off despite the comfortable lead. She won the race in 4:29:58 shaving 10 minutes off the previous course record.
The result of hard work
After the disappointment of Mont Tremblant, Helle Frederiksen was happy to answer with an incredible victory: “In Mont Tremblant, my aim was to become World Champion. I wanted to show myself and the world how dedicated I work to become the best.
Today, I feel really good after such a hard race. I am very pleased that I was able to demonstrate my current race level. The swim was pretty good, I came out of the water just behind the leading men. Riding alone was tough. After 60K on the bike, I started to get tired. But on the run, I felt strong again, only until the last 3K, but I fought until the end. I am happy that I train for a reason and that my hard work pays off. I showed that today: I will always race hard, that is my way of racing.”
Will Clarke wins Ironman 70.3 Lanzarote, Romain Guillaume 3rd & Axel Zeebroek 9th
In the men’s race, the Uplace-BMC team mates started off strong. Axel Zeebroek came first out of the water together with Marko Albert, with Will Clarke following just behind. Romain Guillaume followed 30″ further back. It was Romain Guillaume, winner of IM Lanzarote earlier this season, who took the lead 10K into the bike and pulled away from the rest of the field. Axel Zeebroek and Will Clarke were part of the chasing group. They were working hard to keep Victor Del Corral behind. Del Corral, last year’s winner and a strong runner, was fighting back on the bike managing to reduce his gap of almost 4′ at T1 to 1′ on the chase group going into T2. At the start of the run, Will Clarke started to close the gap on Romain Guillaume to eventually take the lead around the halfway point. From than on, he fought an exciting battle with Victor Del Corral who came closer and closer. In an extreme fight for the win, Will had eventually 6 seconds left to take the win. Romain Guillaume took a very solid third place after leading most of the race. Axel Zeebroek, who started the run in second position, felt his old foot injury coming back and didn’t want to take any further risks for his participation in Kona.
