So much of the talk around the women’s race at the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship has been about the big four – Solveig Løvseth, Kat Matthews, Taylor Knibb and Lucy Charles-Barclay.
Løvseth and Matthews were 1-2 at the IRONMAN World Champs in Kona, but only after Knibb and Charles-Barclay blew up when well ahead on the run.
Knibb and LCB have won the last four editions of the 70.3 Worlds while Matthews has been second in each of the last two years and Løvseth is the new star on the scene.
But given the close proximity to Kona, which took place just under four weeks ago, is this actually the perfect stage for someone else to make their mark?
All about the bike
Brisbane’s Ellie Salthouse is the top-seeded Australian woman and heads into the race off the back of a win at September’s IRONMAN 70.3 Sunshine Coast, and a seventh place finish at last year’s IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in New Zealand.
“I’m feeling ready to go for the weekend, this course really suits me and I feel very confident going in given my recent performances,” she said. “We have been training on the course for the last two weeks so I feel like the extra time here will fare well for me on Saturday.
“There’s no denying that the bike course is extremely hilly, but I think it is a course worthy of a World Championship. This course is definitely going to favour the strong cyclists and, in my opinion, the race will be decided on the bike.
“The run course is stunning and features some of Marbella’s best sights. I’m most looking forward to the one mile stretch of hard-packed sand early on in each run loop.”
Watch out for the dark horses
But while Salthouse is looking forward to lining up against the world’s best, she does feel an upset could be on the cards.
She added: “I’m expecting some dark horses to shine on this course, as this isn’t a conventional IRONMAN 70.3 course.
“I think we will see some new faces up the pointy end, I’m expecting the bike course to be where the race breaks apart and is ultimately won.
“I don’t think we will see too many packs, rather the field will be quite broken up with maybe a few groups of two to three athletes, I’m also expecting quite a fast run on that course.”
