Brits at Challenge Roth 2019: Pro and Age-Group excellence

How the top Brits performed at Challenge Roth 2019

Pro and Age-Group overall wins for Team GB in Bavaria

(Header image photo credit: James Mitchell)

With IRONMAN Frankfurt and Challenge Roth on back-to-back weekends, the two giants of European long-distance racing have now been run for 2019.

Unlike the Frankfurt weekend, I didn’t actually get to see or track a single second of Roth this year, the race clashing with the Outlaw Half Holkham, where I was working on Saturday and Sunday. Holkham is a stunning venue for a triathlon, but even a bit of basic internet connectivity to a Twitter feed for a few updates has seemingly not reached North Norfolk yet!

And thus, later than I would have liked had I been around, here’s a bit more info on the ‘Brits at Challenge Roth 2019‘, beyond the headline race news posted previously.

PRO WOMEN

Top headlines of course go to the Women’s Pro winner, Lucy Charles-Barclay. Her victory adds to a perfect year so far which has included wins at IRONMAN South Africa, The Championship and IRONMAN 70.3 Staffordshire. More than that, it also puts to rest the pain of losing the race last year by just nine seconds.

The non-wetsuit swim (for the Pro athletes – Age-Groupers did get the benefit of neoprene), her usual fast start (from a women’s only wave too), saw her 49:01 clocking for the 3.8km beaten only by Jesper Svensson (SWE). Add to that the second quickest bike split and the fastest run (another Sub-3, 2:59:42), and you have a highly impressive all-round performance. The 8:31:09 finish time was also her quickest yet and more than 12 minutes ahead of her performance 12 months ago. It meant a lot to her:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bzn6ESGl4tV/

Charles-Barclay is getting better every year, combining her talent with an incredible consistency of performance too. The gap to Daniela Ryf is closing, and the Angry Bird will be aware that she can’t afford to race Lucy on 90%. Kona – and perhaps Nice – will be well worth watching again this year.

In her first Pro race, Tara Grosvenor was more than happy with tenth place after what had been less than perfect preparation. “So if this is me not at my best…. bring on the next one.” We are hoping to get the inside track on Tara’s race in more detail coming very soon to the site.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BzqGLcchJNy/

A multiple Age-Group champion in IRONMAN 70.3 races, Roth was the first long distance Pro start for Gemma Frost and a 9:44 finish is a solid start from her.

PRO MEN

Two British Pro men started, and two (perhaps under-the-radar) superb performances from both, for different reasons.

Third at Kona for the past two years, fifth place for David McNamee is not unexpected. An 8:05:50 finish is fast (race winner Andreas Dreitz clocked 7:59:02), but when you then consider he also had a puncture – which the results tracking suggests cost him around four minutes I’m estimating – and he finished with the quickest marathon on the day (2:41:01), then he looks well on track for another strong performance in Hawaii in October. Fifth on paper, but that performance is better than the results sheets suggest.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bzr0hcLhX-u/

A little further down in 13th position, Pete Dyson finished with a very swift 8:26:26, a fantastic result for an athlete racing in the Pro ranks while training alongside a full-time career.

Can you enjoy an Ironman? Seems like yesterday I did. Challenge Roth in 8hrs26mins, 13th in the Mens Pro race. Big effort from a full time (job) triathlete. Thanks @ChallengeRoth1 and east London spirit… @gllsf @RedTopSwim @EastLondonVelo @vphthac pic.twitter.com/EG9uUKkvxT

— Pete Dyson (@pete_dyson) July 8, 2019

British Pro Women Results

1st – Lucy Charles-Barclay (GBR) – 8:31:09
10th – Tara Grosvenor (GBR) – 9:29:01
13th – Gemma Frost (GBR) – 9:44:04

British Pro Men Results

5th – David Mcnamee (GBR) – 8:05:50
13th – Pete Dyson (GBR) – 8:26:26

AGE GROUP REVIEW

How would you celebrate your 30th birthday? If you are Ruth Purbrook, then you smash your best iron-distance time and win the overall Age-Group race in the process. Already an iRONMAN Age-Group World Champion, that result comes off of restricted run training so far this year. Watch out Kona, Ruth wants to be the fastest amateur athlete across all divisions this time around – and she now has the help of the Specialized Zwift Academy Triathlon Team to support her. And she does all of this around a very high pressure city job too. Once again, very impressive from the Will Clarke coached athlete.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BzpH6nVB6Hx/

The fastest British male Age-Group athlete was Nathan Ford. “What a magical race. Struggling to walk this morning, but damn it was worth it.” was his post-race comment on Monday. I suspect he wasn’t the only one with similar thoughts! 8:43 and an Age-Group podium was the return for his efforts.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bzp-jyqheWF/

FASTEST GB & IRL AGE-GROUP ATHLETES

Women

1st – Ruth Purbrook (30-34) – 9:12:15
2nd – Katherine Renouf (25-29) – 9:44:04
3rd – Nicola Beck (45-49) – 10:11:18
4th – Nicola Hickey Crowe (35-39) – 10:11:25
5th – Joanne Clark (25-29) – 10:12:30

Men

1st – Nathan Ford (35-39) – 8:43:12
2nd – David Atkinson (30-34) – 8:49:41
3rd – Declan Doyle (IRL – 45-49) – 8:53:36
4th – James Elgar (30-34) – 8:56:48
5th – Benjamin Hall (30-34) – 8:58:18

GB & IRL AGE-GROUP PODIUMS

MEN

Nathan Ford (35-39) – 8:43:12 – 3rd
Declan Doyle (IRL – 45-49) – 8:53:36 – 2nd
Paul Kay (65-69) – 11:26:20 – 2nd

8hrs, 53mins, insignificantly significant numbers.
15 years in the making.
1 stubborn head
1 thread of belief
12 kms of pain that I can’t accurately define
2 looking down from above
2 looking from the sidelines
8hrs, 53mins, insignificantly significant numbers.

— Declan Doyle (@moreteafather) July 9, 2019