2 December 2013 – Bruno Clerbout of the Uplace Pro Triathlon Team has finished 11th in yesterday’s Ironman Cozumel. With a final time of 8:40:58, Bruno was the fastest Belgian athlete. Teammate Tine Deckers was forced to retire from the race after starting the marathon in third position.
Michael Weiss (Austria; 7:55:23) won the race with a solid lead over Tyler Butterfield (Bermuda; 8:02:42) and Eneko Llanos (Spain; 8:05:21). Rachel Joyce (GB; 8:52:28 ) was the fastest woman. Jessie Donavan (U.S.; 9:01:12) and Amanda Stevens (U.S.; 9:06:40 ) took second and third place respectively.
Strong currents had forced race organizers to shorten the swim to 3.1 kilometers the day before the race. Bruno Clerbout didn’t mind. He came out of the water in 16th position with a time of 36:54, four minutes behind fastest swimmer Todd Skipworth. Unfortunately, he did miss the connection with a first group that included title favorites Eneko Llanos and Marino Vanhoenacker. While Weiss powered away from the rest of the field, Bruno worked the flat, windswept course in a second chase group. At the start of the marathon, he was in 15th position, albeit trailing by more than half an hour. After a difficult start because of cramps, Bruno ended up recording a solid run for an 11th place finish. It proved a liberating result for the original Uplace-athlete: “Four Ironman races in one year really is too much. I am completely spent, mentally and physically. But I did not want to end my year and my career as a Uplace-athlete with that DNF in Canada in August. I was dead-set on doing this race, even if it hurt badly. But to me, that kind of determination is Ironman too. I got the maximum out of this race. That is what I came here for.”
Tine Deckers’ first full Ironman after the birth of her son Finn in June ended up in disappointment. She woke up on race morning suffering from diarrhea. Against her better judgment, she still started the race. She came out of the water 9th and even worked her way up to 3rd place after a strong performance on the bike. But Tine felt sick all the time and could not keep her food down. That made the marathon a mission impossible, said her her coach Pieter Timmermans: “The diarrhea started this morning. It really doesn’t make sense to start an Ironman when your body has been weakened like that. But she wanted to do well here so badly. And she was in great shape, ready to go. You just don’t want to give up without trying. But Tine felt sick the entire race and at the end of the bike leg she felt the power draining from her legs. In the marathon, things went south in a hurry: dizziness, cramps and vomiting. After 14 kilometers, she ended her agony. This is a real disappointment. But the only thing Tine can do now is to get better. We will look at the schedule for 2014 later.”
Complete results
Re-live Bruno and Tine’s Ironman Cozumel
