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Liz Blatchford wins Ironman Cairns; Romain Guillaume 3rd & Will Clarke 4th in Ironman 70.3 Staffordshire

Yesterday, Dirk Bockel (LUX) of the Uplace-BMC Pro Triathlon Team made his comeback in style after a long recovery period from a hip injury by winning Challenge Denmark (half distance). His teammate, Liz Blatchford followed that example and realized a threepeat at Ironman Cairns. The 3 times consecutive winner in Cairns led from start to finish and finished in a time of 9:11:49, followed by Gina Crawford (AUS: 9:20:56), while Michelle Bremer (GER: 9:35:32) finished third.

A few hours later, her teammates Romain Guillaume and Will Clarke started off at the first edition of the Ironman 70.3 Staffordshire. This inaugural edition was won by Javier Gomez (ESP: 04:02:13), followed by Thomschke Markus, who had the fastest bike leg, while Romain Guillaume (FRA: 04:09:07) and Will Clarke (GBR: 04:11:10) came respectively third and forth

It ended up being another successful weekend for the Uplace-BMC Pro Triathlon Team with 2 titles, a 3rd place and a strong top 5 finish. This brings our 2015 total already to 9 wins and 19 podium finishes for the Uplace-BMC Pro Triathlon Team.

Liz Blatchford realizes threepeat in Ironman Cairns

Leading from start to finish

Liz Blatchford started off with an impressive swim (3,8km: 49:54). Gina Crawford already followed on 3:43 leaving the water. Actually, Liz had such a strong swim that she beat 3 of the pro men out of the swim. Liz performed well on the bike (180km: 5:07:37). Although, she had to cope with a 4-minute penalty, she managed to enter T2 with a 6:41 lead on Gina Crawford and 11:44 on Michelle Bremer. On the run, Liz extended her lead with a decent run (42,2km: 3:10:30) to 9:06 on Gina Crawford and Michelle Bremer on 23:42. A well deserved win for the Liz Blatchford.

Wonderful to realize a threepeat

Liz Blatchford realized a 3rd consecutive win at Ironman Cairns, obviously she is super happy: “This feels amazing. When I arrived here on Wednesday, a lot of positive emotions were coming back; it felt like my home race. The swim was a little bit windy, the sea was a bit choppy, but I like it. Apparently, I took a marker buoy on the wrong side, so I had to take a 4’ penalty during the bike leg. After taking the penalty, I was still in the lead and I managed to increase my lead up to 6 minutes on Gina Crawford by T2. On the run, there were a lot of turning points, so it was easy to check whether Gina was getting closer or not. It was not the most comfortable run. It really did hurt. But I am very excited to win here for the 3rd time. Now, I take a week of holidays and in 10 days I move to Boulder for the summer to train with my coach Mat Steinmetz. My next race will be Ironman Mont Tremblant in August. ”

Romain Guillaume finishes 3rd & Will Clarke 4th at Ironman 70.3 Staffordshire

Solid team performance

Will Clarke, who finished his first full Ironman only 3 weeks ago, looked forward racing on home soil together with his teammate Romain Guillaume. To take the win, they had to beat the World Champion Javier Gomez. Will (1,9km swim: 24:12) and Romain (1,9km swim: 24:19) started off both with a solid swim, leaving the water with respectively 39” & 46” from the leader Javier Gomez. Markus Thomschke was outstanding on the bike. He entered T2 with a lead of 2:44 on Javier Gomez & Romain Guillaume (90km: 2:19:57), while Will Clarke (90km: 2:26:37) could hang on in the 4th position. During the run, Markus Thomschke couldn’t hold his first position. Javier Gomez took the win with the fastest run of the day. Romain Guillaume could keep his 3rd place with a decent run (21,1km: 1:20:04), while the fast run of Will Clarke (21,1km: 1:15:43) was not enough to get him a stage on the podium. A solid team performance.

Ready for Nice

Romain Guillaume, who will be racing Ironman France in 3 weeks, was clearly satisfied with his podium: “I am pretty happy with this result. Before coming here, I was hoping for a good race, this was my last big intensive training before Ironman Nice (France) in 2 weeks. The swim was good, I was 35” behind Javier Gomez, that’s my level. On the bike, the first part was tough and hilly and the last part was flat, which is not so good for me. So, I came off the bike in second position together with Javier Gomez, three minutes behind Markus Thomschke, who had a very good bike leg. On the run, I was able to run fast for the first time this year. I am very happy about that. I worked a lot to improve my run this year. This gives me some confidence for Nice. It was also a good performance for Will only 3 weeks after Ironman Lanzarote. Now it’s time to taper for Nice. We’ll see, I guess I am ready and hope to have a good race in 2 weeks.”

The best I had today

Will Clarke just missed the podium and was not 100% satisfied with his result: “Unfortunately, I didn’t feel good at all today, especially on the bike. It is a really rough course. It wasn’t really good for me. I came 4th in the end. The guys in front of me are really world-class athletes. That was the best I had today only 3 weeks after Ironman Lanzarote. So far, this was - funny enough - also the best race of the season. So, I look forward to go home and recover. I will build on that to be good in the next months.”

Race results:

Ironman Cairns:

http://eu.ironman.com/triathlon/coverage/athlete-tracker.aspx?race=cairns&y=2015#axzz3d0aNVNpt

Ironman 70.3 Staffordshire:

http://eu.ironman.com/triathlon/coverage/athlete-tracker.aspx?race=staffordshire70.3&y=2015#axzz3d0aNVNpt

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