Race Report: Bayliss And Cartmell Take Ironman 70.3 UK

Ironman UK 70.3, the toughest on the circuit, saw over 1,500 competitors take to the water at Wimbleball lake on June 20. The mass start provided and excellent spectacle for the huge crowds on the shores cheering on friends, family and loved ones.

In the men’s race with last year’s winner Phil Graves, 2007 and 2008 Wimbleball Champion Fraser Cartmell and former Ironman World Champion Faris Al Sultan among the pro start list it was always going to be a great battle. As expected Graves and Cartmell didn’t mess about in the swim and took it out hard. It was Graves who exited the water in front.

Out on the bike Graves put the hammer down and rode away from the competition in the early stages. After the race he said: “I like to put the power down going up the first hill away from the lake, and I never saw anybody after that.”

Graves hit T2 first and was out on the run course by the time the charge came. Cartmell, who has been on fire lately with his wins at Ironman 70.3 South Africa and the TriGrandPrix hit the course at warp speed letting the cheering crowd know this race wasn’t a done deal.

Cartmell caught Graves and never looked back as he ran himself to victory. Graves continued to run strong for second holding off a charge from Jonas Djurback had to settle for third. After a solid race Germany’s Al Sultan came home in fourth with Rich Allen showing he still has it in fifth. After the race Al Sultan said: “This is a tough course. If this was your first 70.3 all of the others are much easier.”

Following his victory Cartmell said: “I’m really pleased to win my third title here. I couldn’t catch Phil on the bike so had to run hard straight out of T2. I was surprised to catch Phil as soon as I did on the run because I didn’t realise I was going quite that quickly.”

In the women’s race it was super swimmer Lucie Zelenkova who exited the swim first as expect. Rookie pro Emma-Kate Lidbury was second and soon made a charge on Zelenkova catching her within the first couple of miles of the bike. Meanwhile behind there was another charge as Team TBB’s Bella Bayliss and rookie pro Tamsin Lewis passed team mate Zelenkova and caught Lidbury.

Lidbury, Bayliss and Lewis rode most of the first lap together before Lewis put in a spurt at the infamous Haddon Hill. On the second lap Lidbury managed to pull away from Bayliss just after the large descent about half round, and caught Lewis shortly after on the climb.

Lidbury entered T2 with a couple of minutes on Bayliss shortly followed by Lewis. On the first of three laps Lidbury held strong with super runner Bayliss not eating into the margin. On lap two Bayliss found her legs and started to shorten the deficit. It wasn’t until half way round the final lap that she managed to catch Lidbury to go into the lead. Bayliss held strong for her second win here at Wimbleball.

A fast chasing Lewis just managed to catch Lidbury in the final half-kilometre and put in a spurt up the final hill to cross the line second. Lidbury held strong for third and it was great effort that was so close to paying off.

Ironman 70.3 UK
Results

Top 5 Men:
1 Fraser Cartmell 4:17:03
2 Phil Graves 4:20:27
3 Jonas Djurback 4:24:32
4 Faris Al Sultan 4:26:23
5 Rich Allen 4:26:46

Top 5 Women
1 Bella Bayliss 4:53:52
2 Tamsin Lewis 4:55:42
3 Emma-Kate Lidbury 4:56:26
4 Yvette Grice 5:03:44
5 Jo Carritt 5:09:31

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