Antonio Benito Lopez has clinched 2nd place at the Ironman North American Championship in Texas after racing in front all day long. The BMC athlete crushed it on the bike with a sub-4-hour bike split, followed by a 2h41min marathon. Benito crossed the finish line in a phenomenal time of 7:32:23. With this performance, the Spaniard immediately secured his slot for the Ironman World Championship in Nice, later this year. Kristian Blummenfelt (NOR; 7:24:20) won the race, with Rudy Von Berg (USA; 7:33:26) rounding out the podium.
Incredible all-round performance
Coming off a strong 7th place in T100 Singapore, Antonio Benito Lopez toed the line in The Woodlands, Texas with confidence. Not much difference was made during the swim. A huge lead pack of 25 athletes came out of the water, with Antonio well inside the big group.
On the bike, that group was cut down to 15 athletes in the first 40k with Benito riding attentively in the front part of the bunch. On the flat and fast course, where average speed hovered around 45k/h, the gaps stayed small in the front pack of the race. It was until the 50k to go mark were things started to heat up. Once again, Antonio tagged along nicely to jump off his bike in 4th place, only 40 seconds back on the leading duo, posting a blistering a 3:57:20 bike split.
Those 40 seconds were made up really quick as Benito Lopez caught up with the leaders in the first 3k of the run already. Together with Blummenfelt, Antonio immediately opened up a gap. After 11k, the Spaniard had to settle for his own pace and took control of 2nd place. At that point, he had built up a gap of 45 seconds towards 3rd. With the heat creeping up, Benito’s advantage over Von Berg in 3rd position had increased to 3’30 at the halfway mark of the marathon. In the second part of the run, the BMC athlete had to dig deep. With the final of three laps to go, Antonio was able to hold Von Berg at a 2’30” distance, but that difference kept shrinking towards the end. Benito kept digging deep and produced a 2h41 marathon, to cross the finish line in an astonishing 7:32:23. His second place of the day, immediately ensures Antonio a qualification slot for the Ironman World Championship in Nice, later this year.
Best performance ever
In his post-race interview Antonio Benito Lopez shared his thoughts on his 2nd place finish: “It was a really tough day. I started the run, together with Kristian Blummenfelt and we started really fast. After 10k, I felt I might have started too fast. In the second part of the marathon, I started to cramp up, so I had to make some small stops at the feed zones to make sure I took enough fluids in to keep going. Overall, I am really happy, because I was able to pull off my best performance ever and take home 2nd place. My objective for the race today, was to qualify for Nice and I succeeded, so I am really pleased with how things turned out today.”
7TH PLACE FOR CLÉMENT MIGNON IN SEASON OPENER AT IM70.3 VALENCIA; THOR BENDIX CRASHES OUT WHILST IN THE LEAD
In his first race of the season Clément Mignon finished 7th at IM 70.3 Valencia. After exiting the water in the first chase pack, Clément pushed the pace on the bike. During the run, he came closer and closer towards the athletes in front of him. With a great run split (1:07:27, 3rd fastest of the day) and an ultimate surge towards the line, Clément made the pass to claim 7th place to cross the finish in a time of 3:38:09, just 15 seconds shy of top 5. A solid result to start the season and a performance to build upon in the lead up to Ironman Lanzarote in 3 weeks time. Thor Bendix Madsen started his season in Valencia as well. Thor was on fire on the bike and moved all the way to the front of the race when disaster struck 60k into the bike leg. Thor had just taken over the lead when all of a sudden he found himself on the deck. Luckily no lasting damage but a very unfortunate end to his day. Afterwards Thor indicated he was producing his best power ever until that point. With also Thor aiming for a top result at Ironman Lanzarote we are hoping for a very speedy recovery and to see him at the starting line in 3 weeks time.
