Antonio Benito Lopez and Kat Matthews were victorious at IRONMAN Vitoria-Gasteiz this weekend, as the pair bagged major IRONMAN Pro Series points in the Basque Country.
David McNamee and Cameron Wurf were second and third in the men’s race, with Els Visser, just one week after finishing third at Challenge Roth, finished second ahead of Ruth Astle in the women’s race.
The race was not without drama either, as reigning IRONMAN World Champion Sam Laidlow was disqualified after failing to stop and serve a penalty late on in the bike leg, though IRONMAN later confirmed he had done enough to validate his Kona spot.
Pro Men
At the front of the men’s race, Olympian Richard Varga was the first athlete out of the water just ahead of Laidlow, with a group of eleven athletes, including McNamee, Benito Lopez, Robert Kallin and Bradley Weiss around 70 seconds down on the pair coming into transition.
Wurf, leaving himself a lot of work to do on the bike and run, was +5:05 down on the front of the race out of the water, and the Australian was back in 22nd position coming through transition.
On to the bike, it was Kallin, along with world champion Laidlow, who quickly moved to the front of the race, with the pair also joined by German Ruben Zepuntke, the former pro cyclist who recently finished second at IRONMAN 70.3 Switzerland.
The trio had a gap of close to three and a half minutes over Team BMC athlete Kristian Hogenhaug by the halfway mark, with the rest of the field more than five minutes behind as the pace at the front continued to ramp up.
The small lead group continued to build on their lead in the closing stages, until disaster struck for Laidlow, and he was handed a drafting penalty by the race officials. After failing to serve it, the Frenchman was disqualified from the race.
Kallin, who set the fastest ever IRONMAN bike split of 3:54:33, had a +5:35 lead over Hogenhaug at the start of the run, with Mathias Petersen +12:05 down in third and Wurf, Weiss and Lopez around +13:00 back.
Over the first 10km, Kallin appeared to be doing a good job of holding firm, with his lead hovering right around five minutes. However, just 5km later, the Swede started to seriously struggle, with Hogenhaug taking four minutes out of the long time leader and finally making the pass at the 25km mark.
Benito Lopez and McNamee then moved up into second and third, with Benito Lopez taking the lead at the 29km mark, as Hogenhaug started to run into problems and couldn’t follow in the footsteps of the fast moving Spaniard, with McNamee moving past him soon after.
Getting stronger and stronger with every passing kilometre, Benito Lopez gapped McNamee and co in the final ten kilometres to claim his first full distance win, taking the tape in an emotional finish to also secure his place at a first IRONMAN World Championship in Kona this October.
In second, McNamee marked his first full distance race since IRONMAN Italy in 2023 with a podium, whilst in third, Wurf put together a brilliant run to hold off Weiss in the closing kilometres and finish on his third podium of the season so far.
Pro Women
Great Britain’s Stephanie Clutterbuck was the first athlete out of the water in the women’s race, +4:27 ahead of second place Matthews, who led a group of seven, including Visser, Astle and former Challenge Roth winner Daniela Bleymehl into T1.
Over the opening stages of the bike, the quartet of Matthews, Astle, Visser and Bleymehl were able to break away from the rest of the chasers and started to chip away at Clutterbuck’s lead, with the gap down to less than two minutes by 90km.
Bridging the gap just before 125km, the front group of (now) five athletes had 10 minutes over Elisabetta Curridori in sixth, and over the final third of the bike dropped Clutterbuck to leave just four within a minute of each other into T2.
Matthews and Astle, who started the run with around a minute over Visser and Bleymehl, separated early on, with IRONMAN Texas winner Matthews starting to edge away from her compatriot from the first kilometre.
By the halfway mark, Matthews had a gap of +2:43 back to Visser, who had reeled in Astle and moved into second place. Astle, a further 90 seconds behind the Dutch pro, had six minutes over fourth placed Bleymehl with 21km to go.
Consolidating her victory over the latter stages of the run, Matthews ran 2:54:40 for the win, taking her second full distance win of the season in Vitoria-Gasteiz and cementing her status as a favourite for the IRONMAN World Championship in Nice.
In second, Visser capped off incredible back-to-back weekends, with Astle clinching third place, a spot at the IRONMAN World Championship and a first podium in almost 18 months after recently battling with several injury setbacks.
IRONMAN Vitoria-Gasteiz 2024 Results
Sunday July 14, 2024 – 3.8km / 180km / 42.2km
PRO Men
- 1. Antonio Benito Lopez (ESP) – 7:36:38 [46:30/4:07:53/2:37:57]
- 2. David McNamee (GBR) – 7:41:20 [46:29/4:08:40/2:42:03]
- 3. Cameron Wurf (AUS) – 7:43:16 [50:29/4:03:15/2:44:41]
- 4. Bradley Weiss (RSA) – 7:43:51 [46:37/4:07:55/2:45:11]
- 5. Kristian Hogenhaug (DEN) – 7:44:36 [47:36/3:59:49/2:53:23]
PRO Women
- 1. Kat Matthews (GBR) – 8:24:23 [55:07/4:30:07/2:54:40]
- 2. Els Visser (NED) – 8:32:29 [55:08/4:31:04/3:01:41]
- 3. Ruth Astle (GBR) – 8:38:07 [55:11/4:29:54/3:08:24]
- 4. Daniela Bleymehl (GER) – 8:41:12 [55:13/4:30:41/3:10:30]
- 5. Simone Mitchell (GBR) – 8:41:39 [55:09/4:44:21/2:56:35]
