IRONMAN World Champion Chelsea Sodaro looked set for a podium performance in Challenge Roth after a strong swim and bike put her in contention, before things went South on the run.
Eventually withdrawing from the race, Sodaro has now not finished an event since her second place at IRONMAN 70.3 Oceanside, after also pulling out of the PTO Tour European Open. Explaining what happened on Instagram, Sodaro revealed that a fuelling mishap was the reason she didn’t finish in Bavaria.
“I got something very, very wrong with my fuelling”
Having spent time at altitude in St Moritz leading into the race, all signs indicated that Sodaro was in great shape and ready to produce something similar to her Kona performance from last October. Underlining this point, Sodaro herself said that the day was going great, until all of a sudden things fell apart.
“A solid day until it wasn’t. They say that nutrition is the fourth discipline and I got something very, very wrong with my fuelling and stomach yesterday. No excuses. I prepared well and went for a performance that I thought I was capable of producing.
“Thanks to my amazing team for lifting me up in the good and the tough moments. We all put our hearts on the line when chasing big breakthroughs. I like to think that the hard days make the victories that much sweeter. At least that’s what I’m telling myself right now.”
“There’s a lot more left in this season”
Despite the obvious disappointment that comes with a poor performance, the reigning world champion was able to take away a lot of positives from her experience in Germany, namely the atmosphere on course and the performances of the rest of the field.
“Huge congratulations to the amazing pro women and all of the athletes out there. That was a next level triathlon party! Big thank you to the whole Challenge Roth team for having me and my family this week. We felt a lot of love on and off the race course and can’t wait to come back and give it another crack one day.”
Looking ahead to the rest of the year, Sodaro shared that she would take some time to rest and recover, before getting into training and preparing for the rest of the season, which includes a title defence in Kona.
“Now it’s time to go home, regroup, be a stay at home mom for at least a week, and then get back to work. There is a lot more left in this season.”
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