British triathlon star India Lee claimed a brilliant victory at IRONMAN Les Sables d’Olonne-Vendee on Sunday.
Just over a week on from the absolute misery and frustration of being forced to miss T100 Vancouver with a cold, the 37-year-old ace made it two wins in France inside a month.
Back on June 1, India had topped the podium at IRONMAN 70.3 Tours Metropole – Loire Valley, and three weeks later she was imperious here as she scored in some style over the full distance.
Dominant victory for Lee
India was in control of the race throughout, and she was first out of the water in 54:08 – just a couple of seconds ahead of France’s Justine Guerard. Eventual second-place finisher Els Visser (NED) was more than four minutes back in fourth.
Lee wasted no time in dropping Guerard at the start of the bike leg and soon she was in a dominant position, gradually building what would soon be a winning lead. By halfway through the leg she was more than three minutes clear of fellow Brit Simone Mitchell with Dutch stars Visser and Diede Diederiks more than 11 minutes adrift in third and fourth.
By the time India reached T2 she had built an enormous advantage of more than 17 minutes over Visser thanks to a bike split timed at 4:23:23. Now only a spectacular blow-up on the run could deprive her of the stop step on the podium.
That was not going to happen though and Lee was a model of consistency on the marathon, pounding out a 3:00:35 split to take the tape a fraction under 20 minutes clear of Visser. Diederiks would complete the podium.
Results
Sunday June 22 – Pro Women
- 1. India Lee (GBR) – 8:24:37
- 2. Els Visser (NED) – 8:44:35
- 3. Diede Diederiks (NED) – 8:49:30
- 4. Lisa Gerss (GER) – 8:52:48
- 5. Gabriele Obmann (AUT) – 8:54:57
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