In a thrilling competition, Marten Van Riel won the Ibiza T100. He prevailed in the running duel against Sam Laidlow. The German starters also presented themselves incredibly well.
The men’s race was won by Marten Van Riel (BEL) in 3:11:36 hours. (archive image)
Marten Van Riel has done it again. After his victory in San Francisco, the Belgian has now also won the Ibiza T100. He secured first place again with a strong running performance and in a thrilling duel with Sam Laidlow. The Frenchman ended up taking second place, Mika Noodt finished third with a strong performance and confirmed his good form. With Frederic Funk in fifth place, Rico Bogen in seventh place and Maximilian Sperl in eighth place, four Germans made it into the top ten.
Fast swimming, large group
Immediately after the start, Rico Bogen set the pace for the first few meters of the swim and was then replaced as pacesetter by Marten Van Riel. Nevertheless, the field initially remained close together. A small group still lost touch on the first of the two swimming laps. Small surprise: Youri Keulen (Netherlands) and Mathis Margirier (France) were also among those who fell behind. At the Australian Exit they were ten seconds behind.
On the second lap this gap grew. After 24:46, Marten Van Riel was the first to leave the Mediterranean, followed by Rico Bogen and Josh Amberger (Australia). The top group also included Sam Laidlow, Mika Noodt, Frederic Funk and Daniel Baekkegard (Denmark). Keulen, Margirier and Co. were one minute behind the leaders after the two kilometers.
Taken a wrong turn
Then a shock at the start of the cycling: instead of turning, Van Riel and Laidlow went straight on at a roundabout. They didn’t waste too much time on their opponents. Just a few minutes later they caught up with the group, Laidlow immediately took the lead again and set the pace from then on. Afterwards, after the top six (Laidlow, Van Riel, Funk, Bogen, Brownlee, Noodt) a gap formed between Max Neumann (Australia) and the other pursuers.
The leaders continued to expand their lead. After 60 kilometers, the lead over Neumann was two minutes, the group behind the Australian was around three minutes behind at this point. Then a sensation followed – because the first drafting penalty in the history of the T100 tour was pronounced. She hit Briton Alistair Brownlee, who had to go to the penalty tent around 16 kilometers before the end of the second discipline to take the one-minute penalty. The Briton therefore lost touch with the top group, which only consisted of five athletes. The quintet reached the transition zone with a cycling time of 1:47:25 hours. Brownlee followed 1:12 minutes later, the group around Neumann, Maximilian Sperl and Antonio Benito Lopez from Spain reached the transition zone three minutes after the lead.
Thrilling duel
Bogen was the first to set off on the run and quickly had a lead of around ten seconds over his pursuers, but was quickly caught and stopped by Van Riel and Laidlow. The two ran faster than everyone else and separated themselves from the rest of the field. Meanwhile, Mika Noodt moved up to third place. After twelve kilometers he was about a minute behind the leading duo. At this point, Frederic Funk was another minute behind Noodt in fourth place.
Three kilometers from the finish the time had come: Marten Van Riel attacked and pulled away from Sam Laidlow. The Frenchman had no chance of following him. Meanwhile, Brownlee pushed past Bogen and Funk and also made up time on Noodt.
After 3:11:36 hours, Marten Van Riel secured his second T100 victory and remains unbeaten in the middle distance. Sam Laidlow crossed the finish line 25 seconds after him, Mika Noodt secured a strong third place (3:13:30 hours). Alistair Brownlee was fourth (3:14:15 hours), Frederic Funk fifth (3:15:03 hours). Antonio Benito Lopez secured sixth place (3:15:58) on his T100 debut. He was followed by Rico Bogen (3:16:50 hours) and Maximilian Sperl (3:17:58 hours), who was also taking part in a T100 race for the first time.
