PTO World #1 Ashleigh Gentle secured her second consecutive IRONMAN 70.3 Andorra title to extend her podium streak to ten races, stretching back to IRONMAN 70.3 Elsinore in June 2022.
The Australian, who has suffered defeats at the hands of Anne Haug at the PTO Tour European Open and Daniela Ryf at IRONMAN 70.3 Switzerland, looked strong in Andorra but was almost six minutes slower than last year.
With just over a month until the PTO Tour US Open in Milwaukee, Gentle has the time to get back to the form that saw her win the PTO US Open and PTO Canadian Open in 2022, but it remains to be seen if she will be the favourite in Wisconsin.
Gentle goes gun to tape
In a small field of professional women, it looked set to come down to a battle between Gentle and Britain’s Emma Pallant-Browne for the win, as the pair immediately got ahead of the field in the water, with Gentle leading into T1.
With a +0:36 gap back to Pallant-Browne out of the water, Gentle looked good early on, as the Britain came into transition with a further minute back to third place Laura Gomez Ramon of Spain, with everyone else in the field over two minutes behind Gentle in transition.
Out on the bike, Gentle was incredibly impressive, as she won the race with a 3:03:49 split, which was over 40 seconds quicker than her time last year and close to seven minutes quicker than her nearest competitor, Pallant-Browne.
Pallant-Browne, who still managed to open up a gap of more than ten minutes back to the rest of the field on the bike, just didn’t have the firepower to come close to Gentle and left herself running for second the whole way.
On the run, both Gentle and Pallant-Browne ran almost identical splits, with the Australian clocking 1:24:21 and Pallant-Browne just two seconds slower with a 1:24:23, as Gentle won her first race away from home this season, and German Daniela Kleiser rounded out the podium behind Pallant-Browne.
IRONMAN 70.3 Andorra Women’s Results – Sunday July 2 2023
- Ashleigh Gentle (AUS) – 4:59:32
- Emma Pallant-Browne (GBR) – 5:06:06
- Daniela Kleiser (GER) – 5:15:20
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