Sam Osborne of New Zealand and home star Ellie Salthouse took the wins at IRONMAN 70.3 Geelong this weekend, as both came out on top ahead of strong fields in Victoria.
In the guys’s race, Osborne simply handled to hold off Britain’s Tom Bishop, who protected his slot at the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in his veryfirst race of the season.
In a fight inbetween 2 leading Aussie pros, Salthouse simply beat compatriot Grace Thek, with the set pulling clear of the rest of the field in a close fight on the run.
Osborne clinches veryfirst middle range win
An off-road professionalathlete by trade, Osborne was at the front of the race throughout in Geelong, with the Kiwi leading out of the water simply ahead of Bishop, home favourite Steve McKenna and Finn Henrik Goesch in a front group of 7.
Out on to the bike, McKenna and Bishop traded the lead over the early phases, with safeguarding champ Mike Phillips making his method back up to the front pack by the 27km mark.
Remarkably, regardlessof the firepower of Bishop and Phillips, who are infamously strong riders, the front pack of 8 stayed undamaged into T2, with the race coming down to a run fight for the win.
First out of the gates was McKenna, before Bishop made his relocation that was just matched by Osborne and the set pulled clear at the 7km mark.
As the space to the rest of the field continued to grow, Bishop and Osborne were locked side-by-side, and it wasn’t upuntil the last 5km that the Kiwi handled to open up a slim lead.
Winning by simply over 10 seconds in the end, Osborne took the tape, with Bishop protecting a slot to the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Taupo togetherwith him in 2nd and Goesch coming home in 3rd.
Salthouse powers to success on the run
Exiting the water with more than a minute deficit, Thek and Salthouse were left playing catchup in the ladies’s race all day, as Dutch professional Lotte Wilms gotin T1 with a healthy space out of the swim.
On to the bike, Wilms settled into a quick early speed however was captured by H