Belgium’s Marten Van Riel has won every long-distance race he’s ever raced, and the 2024 Olympian continued that streak today with a hard-fought win over reigning Ironman world champion Sam Laidlow (FRA) today at T100 Ibiza. Possibly the biggest news of the day, though, was the first ever drafting penalty handed out to two-time Olympic gold medalist Alistair Brownlee (GBR).
The sprint goes to the Paris-bound Olympian in photo finish at T100 San Francisco
Van Riel leads the swim
The day started out with a competitive swim that saw Van Riel lead a group of 12 out of the water that included reigning 70.3 world champion Rico Bogen (GER), Josh Amberger (AUS), Aaron Royle (AUS), Laidlow, Brownlee, Max Neumann (AUS), Frederik Funk (GER), Mika Noodt (GER), Maximillian Sperl (GER), Kasper Stepniak (POL), Daniel Baekkegard (DEN) and Antonio Benito Lopez (ESP).
Once on the bike things started to thin out at the front as Van Riel and Laidlow pushed the pace, although the pair had a bit of a miscue, following a motorcycle off course around a roundabout, which put them at the back of the pack forced to work their way back to the front.
Brownlee penalty
Earlier this week the PTO announced a change to its drafting penalties, implementing a one minute penalty. The move was no-doubt put in place in hopes officials would be more likely to make a drafting call if the penalty was less onerous – a four minute call would certainly put an athlete out of contention. Prior to today’s race, there had never been a drafting penalty made at a T100 race.
Brownlee, who can’t seem to buy a break this year with injury issues and a flat tire at T100 London, would receive the penalty somewhere around the 50 km mark of the bike course and have to serve it at 60 km. That meant the lead group was whittled down to five as Bogen led the men into T2 with Laidlow, Funk, Node and Van Riel close behind and Brownlee 1:12 back.
Laidlow and Van Riel duel on the run
By the end of the first of seven laps of the 18 km run course Laidlow and Van Riel had moved clear, with Bogen and Noodt almost 20 seconds down. The pair would continue to pull clear, with the gap up to a minute over Noodt at the halfway point of the run. It wasn’t until the 15 km split that Van Riel was able to open up a bit of space on the reigning Ironman world champ, and over the next three km he would pad the lead to 25 seconds, avoiding a sprint to the line like he needed at T100 San Francisco earlier this year to win in 3:11:36.
Laidlow would add a runner-up finish (3:12:02) to his win at T100 London, showing impressive form as he gears up for an Ironman title defence in Kona next month. Noodt (3:13:3) hung on for third, with Brownlee taking fourth in 3:14:15 – no-doubt disappointed, but clearly showing that he’s returning to form. Funk (3:15:03) rounded out the top five.
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