So far, Ali Brownlee’s day has been an incredible one as champion wins Ironman 70.3 race with a six-minute advantage over his nearest competitor.
Great Britain’s man is now back feeling better than ever before and leaving his health issues behind in the past. Now, new season means new opportunities and it seems he could not do any better than this by winning a Dubai’s masterclass Ironman 70.3 event earlier today.
Leading men are out of the water – @AliBrownleetri leads the race #IM703Dubai pic.twitter.com/cGg3fDUjtF
— IronmanLIVE.com (@IRONMANLive) February 2, 2018
Even though Brownlee was able to finish the first leg of the day, the swim in the Arabian Gulf, at almost the same time as one of his closest rivals Johann Ackermann, Brownlee gave his best by setting out on the 90km bike leg dominating since the beginning of it, creating a six-minute gap between him and second place-winner Sven Riederer.
“It did go over smoothly,” Brownlee said. “Didn’t feel great on the swim, had a couple of bad patches on the bike but on the run I just felt great, I was in control and I actually really enjoyed the last 10-18K. I was just kind of soaking it in, enjoying the cheers. Obviously it’s so fantastic to be back after too much time spent at the gym the past six months.”
The Ironman 70.3 Dubai is the first event of the Nasser Bin Hamad Triple Crown series. The following ones are Ironman 70.3 Middle East Championship Bahrain and also the Ironman 70.3 World Championships. The trophy winner of all of these three events will get back home with a $1,000,000 in prize money, and Alistair seems to have his eyes on the big prize…
Dynamic, strong – and pulling away from the rest: @AliBrownleetri has a lead of almost 3 minutes at km 45 – thx for the clip @TalbotCox Talbot Cox #IM703Dubai pic.twitter.com/AKNasH3tiK
— IronmanLIVE.com (@IRONMANLive) February 2, 2018
Top-10 of today’s race in Dubai
3:35:30 Alistair Brownlee
3:42:05 Sven Riederer
3:42:42 Ruedi Wild
3:43:38 Maurice Clavel
3:44:19 Nicholas Kastelein
3:45:35 Ilia Prasolov
3:45:41 Jesper Svensson
3:47:08 Ronnie Schildknecht
3:47:10 Bertrand Billard
3:47:53 Kevin Maurel
