Jelle Geens Runs His Way to 70.3 World Title

All Photos: Kevin Mackinnon / Slowtwitch

Jelle Geens passed long-time leader Hayden Wilde with three kilometers left to run to claim his first IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship. Geens made his move in the final quarter of the race, as he closed a 45 second deficit to Wilde in two kilometers, then making the decisive move in kilometer 18 of the run.

Geens was toward the front of the race from the gun, swimming with the likes of Wilde, Kyle Smith, and defending champion Rico Bogen. Those men formed the bulk of a lead eight man bike pack that traded blows throughout the bike portion. Wilde would attempt to rocket away during the run, building a nearly minute lead over Geens at one point, but would pay dearly for that effort during the second half of the run. Geens 1:07:34 half marathon was enough to propel him to victory.

Wilde took yet another silver medal on a world stage, this time on home soil. And, much like the Paris Olympic Games, Léo Bergère took bronze, unable to catch Wilde again.

Post-race, Geens was ecstatic. “It’ll take some time to realize. It’s something you only dream about. A crazy day. I’ve been in this sport for a long time, and I’ve been doing ITU for a long time. It’s had its ups and downs…and for my first time to come to this race and become world champion…unbelievable.”

Speaking on the dynamics of the race, he said, “I wanted to not tire my legs too much at the end of the bike, I’ve really struggled in the second part of the run. It was easy to try to run too fast, so after a couple K I said I had to settle, find my rhythm. I didn’t really believe it anymore, but I kept putting pressure.”

Wilde, on the race, said: “I put a big ambition out there, obviously I went out there a bit naive. I felt like I rode appropriately. I know these roads like the back of my hand. I got the gap and felt really confident. I think all the short course guys can say this too, but it’s really hard to slow yourself down in the first 10K. I was too excited.”

Bergère said, “The whole bike I found very hard, a really tough experience riding in the group like this. I was spending a lot of energy falling too far back. By the end of the bike everyone was going crazy again and I decided to save my legs for the run. I was expecting a good race, I was targeting the title, but Jelle was just so strong today; even on the bike he surprised me, and he deserved the win. A special mention to Hayden as well, he was attacking and kept the race exciting.”

In the Pro Series battle, Gregory Barnaby was able to claim the crown with his 9th place finish here. Matthew Marquardt suffered from cramps very early on in the race and finished outside the top 30.

As the Race Unfolded

Race day dawned with mild temperatures and light winds. Like the women’s race yesterday, the water did have some chop to it, which would negate some of the benefit that the wetsuit-legal temperatures would provide. Unfortunately, Casper Stornes was a race morning withdrawal, still recovering from a run-in with a vehicle earlier in the week while riding.

Almost all of the pre-race favorites lined up on the far left side of the beach, closest to the first turn buoy, with defending champion Rico Bogen lining up the furthest to the left. As the airhorn sounded and athletes dove into Lake Taupō, it looked like the athletes on the left were making ahead, with Marc Dubrick leading the pack. The frantic pace saw athletes starting to be dropped before that first turn buoy, just 300 meters into the swim.

Making their way into the sun, Dubrick led an attempted breakaway, with Léo Bergère, Greg Harper, and Josh Amberger alongside him. In the chase group of roughly 20 swimmers were athletes like Kyle Smith, Hayden Wilde, Gregory Barnaby, and Matthew Marquardt. But as other athletes in the lead group took their turn on the front, the chase group was able to re-attach itself around the 600 meter mark, giving a large single pack again.

The group started to stretch out again around the 1000 meter mark, with a single-file line of about 15 swimmers before getting back to a slightly larger pack. Harper had gone to the front, and his effort was so strong that he was beginning to drop the rest of the leaders. At the final turn buoy, he’d successfully broken away from the Bergère group.

Harper earned swim prime honors in 21:48, with a 12 second margin over Amberger, Bergère, and Dubrick. The main chase came another 15 seconds later, with Bogen, Henri Schoeman, Hayden Wilde, Kyle Smith, Jelle Geens, and Kacper Stepniak there. Gregory Barnaby led the second chase group another 30 seconds down, with Braden Currie, Matthew Marquardt, and Jason West also in the mix.

Bergère used his World Triathlon Championship Series experience to blitz through transition and lead everyone out onto the bike. Wilde and Geens also jumped through the field via fast transitions. Bogen, Amberger, Smith, and Stepniak all were right up front starting the bike segment, as a pack of 9 men formed. Crucially for the Pro Series standings, Marquardt was well off the pace and suffering from cramps.

The leading 9 men – Bergère, Wilde, Geens, Bogen, Dubrick, Schoeman, Amberger, Justus Nieschlag, and Smith – had opened up a roughly 30 second lead over Mathis Margirier. A bit further down came Barnaby, who was riding with Stepniak. They were 10 seconds in front of a sizable pack, led by Ben Hamilton and including names like Harper, Mike Phillips, Currie, and West. Looking to chase onto that group was Høgenhaug.

Rolling through the hills towards the 20 kilometer mark and the leading pack got shaken up, as Dubrick (who dropped a chain) and Amberger slid back to Kurt McDonald and Wilhelm Hirsch. Margirier, meanwhile, rode his way up into the front pack to make it an 8 man deep lead group. Those 8 men kept their 20 second gap to Dubrick’s group. Next on the road was Høgenhaug’s group, 1:19 down from the lead, and that group had Barnaby, Stepniak, and Ben Hamilton in it.

During the next 10 kilometers, there was a lot of shuffling around in the front pack; first Margirier leapfrogged to the front, then followed by Bergère coming to the front. The hard pace saw the 8 leading men become 7, as Nieschlag started to drop backwards. But the hard pace had opened the lead up to 1:13 over Dubrick’s group. They were about to be swallowed from behind, as Ruben Zepuntke and Høgenhaug brought their group to within 10 seconds of the Dubrick chase. Further back, Currie was in danger of losing the back of the group at 2 minutes from the lead. And West was riding solo, almost 2:50 behind.

Approaching the halfway mark of the bike and the lead group started to see some relentless attacks against one another. The attacks had let Nieschlag back onto the group. Bogen was the athlete most in danger of being dropped now. Those attacks, though, had kept Høgenhaug’s group from making inroads, leaving them hovering around 90 seconds behind. Høgenhaug had 8 fellow riders with him: Zepuntke, McDonald, Dubrick, Hirsch, Barnaby, Stepniak, Thomas Bishop, Harry Palmer, and Amberger.

As the race started to turn back towards Taupō, the lead pack of 8 remained. The elastic at times appeared to be in danger of stretching or snapping for Smith, Schoeman, or Bogen, but each time they managed to claw their way back on. Høgenhaug’s group remained 1:27 down, but their hot pace had spit Amberger out the back. Amberger was 20 seconds ahead of Phillips and Hamilton.

With a third of the ride left, Bogen came to the front of the leading group, sharing the workload with Wilde, Margirier, and Bergère. The front group was just starting to pull away from Høgenhaug, extending their lead out to over 90 seconds for the first time. That second group was also seeing some elasticity in it, as Stepniak and McDonald were running the risk of being dropped from that chase. Amberger had indeed dropped to the Phillips group, which also had Currie in it.

On the approach to Heartbreak Hill, the front pack dynamics appeared to be taking a toll on Schoeman and Nieschlag, as they were seeing gaps open that would need to be closed with sizable efforts. The effort list had seen the gap grow to the chase pack, led by Høgenhaug, now standing at 2:04. That second pack still held the likes of Dubrick, Barnaby, Zepuntke, and Palmer.

Going over the top of Heartbreak Hill and there were multiple attacks amongst the front group, but none of them quite stuck. Bogen also received a talking to by an official; no card was shown on screen, but it appeared to be a warning of some type. That ongoing effort was paying dividends on the chasers, though; Høgenhaug and his group was now over 2.5 minutes back. It looked like the podium would emerge from the front pack, and Barnaby would seal his victory in the IM Pro Series.

On the descent into town and Margirier managed to slip away from the rest of the lead pack, but it was all to try to build a gap as he had to serve a penalty. Wilde wound up the first into T2 after a 1:58:51 bike split as he gapped out the field in the descent, followed by Bogen, Geens, Bergère, and Smith. Next came Nieschlag, the last athlete within 28 seconds. Schoeman was next, 1:19 down. Zepuntke led the chase at 3:38, followed by Palmer, Barnaby, Stepniak, Hirsch, Bishop, Dubrick, McDonald, and Høgenhaug.

Wilde blasted out of transition, opening a 100 yard gap in his early strides. Geens had moved up to second place, 21 seconds off the pace. Smith was another 8 seconds back in third, followed by Bergère in fourth, 45 seconds from Wilde. Nieschlag held fifth, and Bogen was going the wrong way, the slowest of the lead pack riders, in sixth and losing time to the chasing Schoeman. At the quarter way mark and Bergère made his move past Smith for third on the road; the top four men were just 90 seconds apart from one another. Bogen had also managed to catch Nieschlag and pass him for fifth, and maintaining a minute gap to Schoeman.

At 8 kilometers it looked like this would be a two horse race for the win: Wilde held a steady 45 second lead on Geens, and they were matching pace with one another. Bergère was third, just under a minute behind Geens, but not matching the leading pair on pace. Smith was tightening his grasp on fourth; though Bergère had dropped him, he was also keeping the likes of Bogen, Nieschlag, and Schoeman at bay. Dubrick, Barnaby, and Palmer closed out the top 10, and nobody behind appeared to be closing up.

Halfway through the run and Wilde had split 34:31; it wasn’t quite the 1:05 half marathon pace he was seeking but it was indeed faster than anyone else on the road. Geens was 55 seconds behind, followed by Bergère at 2:11 down. Smith sat in fourth, 3:24 from Wilde, and with a 25 second gap to fifth placed Bogen. Nieschlag kept firm grasp on sixth and ready to pounce if either Smith or Bogen faltered. Schoeman was 7th, 4:52 from the lead, 42 seconds behind sixth. He had a healthy 1:20 gap over 8th placed Dubrick, with Palmer and Barnaby in 9th and 10th. Those two had a little to worry about, as within a minute of them was Bishop, Hirsch, and Stepniak.

With 5 kilometers left to run, Wilde’s lead had been cut to 45 seconds. Assuming that paces held, Geens would have Wilde in sight for a sprint finish. But Wilde faltered in the 16th kilometer, with the lead cut down to just 25 seconds. With the 17th kilometer, Geens closed further. And in kilometer 18 the pass was made. Wilde, with a grimace on his face, could do nothing as Geens blasted past him. Further back, Bogen continued to slide backwards, passed now by Schoeman for sixth.

Geens closed out the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships, running 1:07:34 to victory. Wilde, fading hard during the second half of the run, still held onto second. Bergère came third, earning another bronze medal this year. Hometown hero Smith held onto fourth, edging Nieschlag for it. Barnaby finished down in 9th, but claimed the IRONMAN Pro Series title in the process.

Top 15 Results

1. Jelle Geens 3:32:09
2. Hayden Wilde 3:33:22
3. Léo Bergère 3:35:08
4. Kyle Smith 3:37:51
5. Justus Nieschlag 3:38:06
6. Henri Schoeman 3:39:20
7. Rico Bogen 3:39:36
8. Harry Palmer 3:39:42
9. Gregory Barnaby 3:40:14
10. Marc Dubrick 3:40:27
11. Wilhelm Hirsch 3:41:27
12. Thomas Bishop 3:42:01
13. Kacper Stepaniak 3:42:26
14. Braden Currie 3:44:28
15. Matt Hanson 3:44:47

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