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Pontano, Shea-Kenney Storm Lake Placid
By Melaina Juntti

Andersson on the bike

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. More>