Going into the 2010 Ironman World Championship in Kailua-Kona Hawaii, the favorites for the men and women’s races were Craig Alexander and Chrissie Wellington. The challenge for the other professional triathletes was finding the chink in the armor of the multi-time winners.
Craig Alexander placed second to fellow Australian Chris McCormack in 2007. He returned and won back-to-back races in 2008 and 2009 by staying close on the swim and bike and then chasing down everyone else on the run.
British sensation Chrissie Wellington was a three-time champion in 2007, 2008, and 2009. She literally came from nowhere in 2007 to blow past the other women on the bike before crushing them on the run. In 2008 and 2009, Wellington dominated the other women to the point where the only question was who was going to get second, not who could hang with her.
2010 dawned with the news that Wellington would not be starting to defend her title. Word came from her camp that the champ was withdrawing due to flu-like symptoms. Suddenly, an already interesting women’s race became wide open.
The men’s race promised fireworks as well. Several racers looked to open a big lead on the bike, hopefully big enough to hold off the inevitable charge from Alexander.
American Andy Potts took off at the cannon, getting through the 2.4-mile swim in 48 minutes, well over two-and-a-half minutes over the pursuing pack. Potts was able to hold onto his lead until almost 20 miles into the bike race when the pack finally caught and dropped him.
Over on the women’s side, Brit Rachel Joyce led the pack with a swim of 52 minutes. The other women were right on her trail, as the top 10 women were all out on their bikes within 10 minutes of each other.
New favorite Julie Dibens, another Brit, flew by Joyce at the 12-mile mark. Dibens put the hammer down and buried the rest of the ladies, building a lead of over three-and-a-half minutes at the turnaround point on the second place rider, Australian Caroline Steffen. By the time Dibens got back to Kona to start the run, her lead had stretched to a few seconds under six minutes over Steffen.
The men battled on the bike contest before American Chris Lieto finally was able to drop his pursuers and enter the run with a three-minute lead over the second place rider, German Maik Twelsiek. Ominously, Craig Alexander finished the bike race 15 minutes back. In 2009, Alexander was 12 minutes back and was able to run down Lieto by mile 22. If he was going to repeat history, he was going to need to run even faster.
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