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Macca Wins Ironman Germany and European Championships!
posted by id* at 09:52 PM on July 09, 2008
Macca wins Ironman Germany, European Championships and breaks 8 hour mark!
Ironman Germany ~ Frankfurt Germany
2.4 Mile Swim - 112 Mile Bike – 26.2 Mile Run
It's easy to anticipate an exciting day of racing, especially when essentially all of the world's best Ironman athletes are on hand, but today's Frankfurter Ironman European Championship exceeded even the highest expectations. Though a few people laughed when Chris McCormack said at Tuesday's press conference 'Why not go after a world's best time.' The word around Frankfurt during the days leading up to the race was that it would be almost impossible to go under eight hours on this tricky course.
In Germany the race was held live on television but here in Frankfurt the over 500,000 spectators were on hand to watch the incredible day of racing and got to witness a sub-eight hour race by McCormack. Who’s having the last laugh now, Macca is no-doubt thinking to himself after his impressive race.
McCormack proved that he isn’t just a front-runner after he found himself having to chase Eneko Llanos over the closing miles of the run after an earlier attempt to run away from the Spaniard “failed miserably.” It would have been ironic if McCormack hadn’t been able to catch Llanos before the end of the marathon as the Australian was particularly critical of Faris Al-Sultan’s attempt to ride away from the rest of the men in this strong field.
“It was a rookie mistake,” McCormack said after the race about Al-Sultan's attempt to ride away. “We were riding at 25 miles an hour. He tried it and just blew up!” After Al-Sultan’s failed attempt to break away from McCormack left him trailing by three minutes starting the marathon and he would eventually drop out of the race after falling more than six minutes back of McCormack.
After quickly pulling away from Bocherer, McCormack and Llanos ran stride for stride for much of the first half of the marathon. Despite his near-bonk after trying to surge through the third lap of the four-loop run course, in the end Macca had all the answers. He stayed close to Llanos during the last loop or the run, taking the lead with just 4.5 miles to go and never looking back. Macca, always the fan favorite, celebrated coming in high-fiving the fans but soon realized he needed to sprint to the line to go under eight hours. That however did not lessen his enthusiasm for a win he called 'even more satisfying than his win in Kona last October'.
“The people and the whole run course is just so packed,” he said. “It’s just amazing. It’s overwhelming. It’s a marquee event to put on your resume. I’m proud and privileged to have my name on the trophy.”
Llanos would finish just a shade over eight hours in second, while Timo Bracht put together the fastest marathon split of the day (2:42:32) to run his way to third. Cameron Brown went 8:08:29, ran a 2:46 marathon … which netted him fourth in this incredibly competitive race.
In a gracious interview to the live German television crew, McCormack said, 'Eneko and Timo made me do very special things out there to go sub-8 hours here today. My hat goes off to Kurt Denk for putting together such an amazing field. I think the entire run course is just amazing and this is the most spectacular finishing chute in the world. It was so emotional. Thank you for having me in your wonderful country.”
Ironman Germany
2.4 Mile Swim - 112 Mile Bike – 26.2 Mile Run
Top 10 Men:
1. Chris Mccormack 7:59:55
2. Eneko Llanos 8:00:49
3. Timo Bracht 8:04:16
4. Cameron Brown 8:08:29
5. Hektor Llanos 8:11:36
6. Jan Raphael 8:12:57
7. Andreas Böcherer 8:13:33
8. Markus Fachbach 8:19:29
9. Uwe Widmann 8:20:23
10. Michael Göhner 8:22:51
DNF: Faris Al-Sultan
DNS: Normann Stadler
categories: Photos , Pro Riders , Race Reports
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