Joe Gambles and Liz Blatchford win Ironman 70.3 Boulder – Results

Joe Gambles has retained his Boulder 70.3 title after he led from the front early on in the bike and was never headed as he took out his second 70.3 title for the year. Gambles was dominant in the swim and bike and whilst he didn’t post the fastest run it was fast enough to keep him over 3mins ahead of second placed Jordan Jones. Jones ran an impressive 1:15:02 to run himself in to second ahead of Ben Hoffman who swam a similar time to Jones but put well over two minutes in to him on the bike.

Gambles ran a 1:11:27 at Vineman a few weeks ago and is looking good just 6 weeks out from his goal race for the year, the 70.3 world champs. The differing training stages can cause a variation in race performances and with Las Vegas around the corner Gambles will be putting the finishing touches on his run.

Leon Griffin had a solid race   for 6th overall. Griffin was in the race until the run where he posted a 1:22 to be slightly off the pace. He said after that it was a ‘tough day at the office but there were some encouraging signs’. Griffin had an old war wound flare up after IM Cairns and missed a few weeks of riding recently. Whilst he has been running well in training the lack of bike hours had an impact on the run. Speaking with Griffin this morning he said there were some positives “I pushed hard on the bike today knowing I was underdone and it would negatively impact my run. I feel good though and today should put my in good stead for Timberman 70.3 in a couple of weeks. It was just great to be back racing.”

Josh Rix was 9th overall. Rix was with Griffin until the run where a 1:25 meant that he lost touch with the field. Rix is now focusing on the 70.3 world champs in Las Vegas following by the Ironman world champs in Kona. He raced well at IM Melbourne this year posting an 8:22 for 11th overall in one of the biggest fields outside of Kona.

In the women’s race Melissa Hauschildt had a 3:32 deficit on the swim to eventual race winner Liz Blatchford. Melissa rode almost 2mins quicker than Blatchford but she met her match on the run and they both posted 1:24 run splits. Blatchford has had a great ITU season but was controversially overlooked for the Great Britain Olympic triathlon team for an athlete ranked about 100 places below her.

Hauschildt has missed a lot of running this year due to a foot injury. She has six weeks to get things back to speed before she defends her 70.3 crown.

Hauschildt did break Angela Naeth’s bike course record in the race today. We asked Hauschildt about her run progress after the race. “My leg is 100% and I have managed to get in a two longish runs since Vineman and a couple faster sessions. It will take a two or so weeks to absorb and show”. Kona is definitely our of the plans for 2012 now as Hauschildt works towards getting her run speed right for Vegas.

Victoria’s Madeliene Oldfield placed 8th overall in the women’s race. Oldfield has been racing the Rev3 series this season in the US. Before leaving for the US this year Oldfield placed second behind Mel Hauschildt at the Falls Creek Australian Long Course Champs and won the Victorian Gatorade series.

After the race Blatchford commented on twitter that she had some ‘mental fuel for that one’. No doubt referring to her omission from the GB team.

New Zealand’s Bryan Rhodes finished 11th overall

Michael Fox finally had no mechanical issues and ran in for 13th overall. Fox is always one of the stronger swimmers and with a bike that keeps getting stronger there is no doubt that if he persists with the full time training it will eventually pay off.