On the men’s side, Frodeno wasted little time before making it clear that he would be the athlete to beat. During the 2.6-mile swim, he circled the turn in just 23 minutes and finished in near 48 minutes flat.
Frodeno, despite commanding the water, was joined by the UK’s Harry Wiltshire, Australia’s Paul Matthews, Estonia’s Marko Albert, and American Andy Potts onto shore—the group anchoring a dozen-or-so competitors. Wiltshire originally led into the transition, but Frodeno shot into the front as they took to the bikes.
2014 IRONMAN World Champion, German Sebastian Kienle, emerged from the water after a 52:27 swim, trailing the leaders by nearly four-and-a-half minutes.
After Frodeno’s lead was challenged by Canadian Brent McMahon, he fell back—never more than six places from the front—allowing the others to beat up on one another and, more importantly, leaving his competitors susceptible to drafting penalties.
The strategy paid off when McMahon, Andreas Raelert, and two others were forced to spend five minutes in the penalty tent.
Frodeno forced Kienle to expend maximum effort in rallying from his deficit out of the water, as well, which would pay dividends as the duo left the bikes in first and second, with Andi Boecherer trailing by 10 seconds into T2.
Kienle was able to stick with Frodeno out of the changing-tent and into the marathon leg, even exchanging friendly banter through the first 10 miles, as the pair were clocked at a 5:56 mile pace. Eventually, however, the energy required from Kienle to play catch-up out of the water would become a factor.
As Frodeno reached the Queen K, Kienle was showing obvious signs of fatigue, allowing his countryman to take firm command of the competition. At 7:56, Patrick Lange joined Kienle, and the trio maintained placement from that point forward—ending in a German podium sweep.
Frodeno finished in 8:06:30, followed by Kienle at 8:10:02 and Lange at 8:11:14.
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