Lionel Sanders took an incredible victory at IRONMAN 70.3 Mont-Tremblant, as the Canadian took the tape in Quebec over the middle distance for the sixth time in his career.
After a brilliant win at IRONMAN 70.3 Oceanside back in April, Sanders suffered a stress fracture in his rib and was forced to take some time off, but showed no lingering signs of his injury in his first race back.
Powering home to take the tape in testing conditions, the two-time IRONMAN World Championship runner-up took his second IRONMAN Pro Series victory of the season ahead of Ben Kanute and Matthew Marquardt.
Swim – Pereira leads the way
In a shortened swim, which was reportedly only around 1200m, Portugal’s Joao Pereira navigated choppy conditions in Quebec to exit the water ahead of the field in 14:59.
On his feet were American duo Justin Riele and Kanute, with Frenchman Nathan Guerbeur and rising star Marquardt (USA) out next in fourth and fifth less than five seconds back.
Jackson Laundry, one of the pre-race favourites competing on home soil, was +0:42 off the front in transition, with his countryman Sanders another half a minute back at +1:11.
Bike – Sanders shows his speed
Out of the swim in 17th place, Sanders quickly started working himself up to the front of the race, with the Tuscon- based pro swiftly moving up into the Top 5 by the 33km mark as a leading trio of Kanute, Marquardt and Riele pushed the pace.
Bridging his way up, the 36-year-old had drawn level with the lead group just after the halfway point, and appeared content to work alongside Riele and Marquardt after they dropped Kanute with only a handful of kilometres to go.
Into T2, Marquardt and Riele led the way, with Sanders ten seconds behind after riding the quickest bike split of the day and Kanute +1:31 down in fourth. Back in fifth, Laundry was +4:32 in arrears after riding in no man’s land for most of the bike.
Run – ‘No Limits’ dominates
Just as he did in his first race of the season at IRONMAN 70.3 Oceanside, Sanders really put his stamp on the race over the half-marathon, as the Canadian broke away from the field early on.
Halfway through the run, Sanders had almost two minutes on second place Marquardt, with Riele going head-to-head with his fellow American and Kanute pushing hard to make his way back on to the podium in an exciting race for second and third.
As Sanders continued to pull away in the final kilometres, Marquardt started to struggle with cramps after putting 30 seconds into Riele between the 10km and 17km mark to set up a thrilling finish.
Taking the tape, Lionel Sanders remains undefeated in 2024 with a brilliant win, as behind Kanute came flying past Riele to draw level with Marquardt with less than a mile to the finish line.
In the end, 2016 Olympian Kanute just had enough through the twists and turns of the last kilometre to wrap up a second place finish, his first podium of 2024, with medical student Marquardt just seconds behind in third.
IRONMAN 70.3 Mont-Tremblant 2024 Results
Pro Men
Sunday June 23, 2024 – 1.9km / 90km / 21.1km
- 1. Lionel Sanders (CAN) – 3:35:11 [16:10/2:01:44/1:13:47]
- 2. Ben Kanute (USA) – 3:37:29 [15:01/2:04:25/1:15:00]
- 3. Matthew Marquardt (USA) – 3:37:32 [15:07/2:02:46/1:15:48]
- 4. Justin Riele (USA) – 3:38:32 [15:01/2:02:50/1:17:18]
- 5. Jackson Laundry (CAN) – 3:39:45 [15:42/2:06:43/1:14:18]
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