By Melaina Juntti
July 20, 2008 -- Despite torrential downpours and tough-as-nails pro fields, Spain's Francisco Pontano and up-and-coming American Caitlin Shea-Kenney won the 10th annual Ironman USA Lake Placid in upstate New York this morning.
As expected, Texan James Bonney led all men through most of the two-lap swim before Pontano passed the long-time Ironman on the second go-around to reach T1 with a few seconds' lead. Switzerland's Mathias Hecht and Swedish supercyclist Bjorn Andersson climbed ashore within the next 15 seconds, setting up a heated battle on the bike. Despite pouring rain, Pontano hung tough to his lead, keeping Andersson, who had overtaken Bonney for second, at bay. Then, at around the 30-mile mark, the Swede passed Pontano and never relinquished the lead, but the Spaniard never let Andersson out of his crosshairs, finishing the bike just two and half minutes off Anderson's 4:42:41 lead pace.
Onto the bike, Pontano slipped past Andersson before mile two and the two maintained a sizeable lead over third-place Hecht. But as Pontano, who sometimes struggles at the end of the marathon, stayed strong, Andersson began to fade, allowing Petr Vabrousek, who finished sixth at Ironman Switzerland one week prior, to surge into second around the 20-mile mark. Pontano maintained an impressive margin for the rest of the run to break the tape almost 12 minutes ahead of Vabrousek, in 8:43:32, while Hecht hung right in the Czech's shadows to finish just over a minute back in third place. Although he'd been on pace for one of his top Ironman finishes, Andersson slowed to a walk and ended up crossing the line in 19th place.
In the women's race, TeamTBB member Hillary Biscay led the women out of the swim in 51:02 with Aussie Ali Fitch just 90 seconds behind her. By Mile 22, Biscay had peeled away from Fitch and the pursuing Shea-Kenney, Desiree Ficker and Kim Loeffler. Just before the halfway mark, Fitch went down on her bike and had to withdraw from contention, and Loeffler powered up to the second position behind Biscay.
Biscay, who just set a PR at the Ironman European championship, hit the run with the lead, but Loeffler and Ficker, both exceptional runners, began whittling away at her advantage and Shea-Kenney was quickly moving into contention with her fastest-of-the-day run pace. At around 14 miles, Ficker, who'd encountered nutritional problems at Ironman Coeur d'Alene June 22, began looking troubled and slowed her pace dramatically. Soon thereafter, Loeffler and firebolt Shea-Kenney passed Biscay for the frontrunner's position. Loeffler may have thought outrunning Biscay would secure her the win, but the blazing Shea-Kenney had other plans, using a 2:59:55 marathon to sneak into the lead and take her first Ironman title in 9:51:00. Loeffler came in almost five minutes back for second place, while Biscay took third in 9:58:45.
Ford Ironman USA Lake Placid
Lake Placid, New York
July 20, 2008
2.4mi S/112mi B/26.2mi RMen1. Francisco Pontano (ESP) 8:43:32
2. Petr Vabrousek (CZE) 8:55:20
3. Mathias Hecht (SUI) 8:56:33
4. Christian Brader (GER) 8:58:10
5. Will Ronco (USA) 9:02:32
Women1. Caitlin Shea-Kenney (USA) 9:51:00
2. Kim Loeffler (USA) 9:54:55
3. Hillary Biscay (USA) 9:58:45
4. Danielle Sullivan (USA) 10:18:40
5. Jacqui Gordon (USA) 10:31:53