The challenging bike course in Nice saw two early casualties at the women’s IRONMAN World Championship.

In stark contrast to its alternate home of Kona in Hawaii, the 180km bike section on the French Riviera features significant climbs to hillside villages and technical descents.

But the first exit came just 200 metres after T1 as German superstar Anne Haug, one of two former winners, was undone by a flat tyre – more details on that here.

Fast start

And there was also a desperately unlucky end to Rachel Zilinskas‘ race.

The American athlete was the winner of IRONMAN Mont Tremblant last year and fourth at IRONMAN Lake Placid in July.

And she had been in the lead group on the swim but her efforts to make sure she stuck with that front pack would end up costing her dear.

‘Broken collarbone, broken heart’

Writing on her Instagram page while the bike section was still in progress, she posted a picture of herself in an arm / shoulder support but with a thumbs up.

Explaining what had happened, she said: “Not the @ironmantri world championship update I wanted to share. Broken collarbone, broken heart 💔❤️‍🩹

“After a chaotic swim, I didn’t get the chance to fasten my shoes until after 10K into the bike.

“I bent down to secure the strap, hit a rock or a bump in the road that I didn’t see, and went down hard on my left side.

“I tried to keep going, but I could feel my clavicle moving around and the pain was immense. My first bike crash and my first DNF.”

Such a sad end to her IMWC bid and we wish her well with the recovery.