Triathlon great Lionel Sanders is accustomed to facing major deficits after the swim, but this time at IRONMAN 70.3 Oceanside, it was different.
On Saturday in California the 37-year-old superstar rolled back the years with a quite sensational performance to claim his fourth victory at this famous race.
This one though was extra special for the man from Windsor, Ontario – it came against a stellar field which included among others the Norwegian greats Kristian Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden.
Sanders was 3:11 down as the field exited the water, and he still trailed the leaders by 2:47 after the bike leg. But there was no panic as he produced a superb closing half marathon to surge to a brilliant victory from Rudy Von Berg and Iden.
No water torture for Sanders
Afterwards Lionel revealed that the keys to this success were all in the mind, starting with how he dealt with his well-known weakest discipline.
He said: “I went back to old school, which was I don’t care what the swim deficit is. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not happy about it, I’m not content with that in any way, shape or form. But whatever, it’s just a number and it just means I’m gonna have to suffer more on the bike and run.
“The biggest thing that I’ve changed this season is that I prepared properly for that, so there was nothing that I hadn’t prepared for and so there was no fear. And I was able to race as hard as I possibly could and even when I got off the bike I was like I’m totally still in this game.”
Local knowledge key for Lionel
As a three-time former winner coming into this race, few know this iconic course better than Sanders. He revealed that he had used that knowledge to his advantage in the battle for the win against Von Berg, Iden and Seth Rider.
“Certainly when I started to get into the battle it factored in. When I ran up on the group with three guys, I was like you need to catch them so that they don’t get some more motivation if you’re maybe 200 metres behind into that corner at the far end of the course.
“So I made sure to catch them by that corner and then I knew that to the final corner with about 4k to go you need to basically take it out of their mind that they can catch you. So I pushed really hard to that corner and then I think I was then out of their mind that they were catching me.”
