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Sanders second at Ironman 70.3 European Championships

August 14, 2016
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Lionel Sanders took on a stacked field of talented European pros and one of the circuit’s most challenging bike courses to place second at this morning’s Ironman 70.3 European Championships in Wiesbaden, Germany.

Sanders narrowly missed out on first place to Germany’s own Andreas Dreitz, who he’s faced off against several times this season in half distance races in North America. Dreitz took the win in 3:59:05, clocking the fastest bike split of the day — 2:16:18 for the 90-km course that gains 1,500 m of elevation — with Sanders coming in around a minute later at 4:00:23. Sanders shared his full splits for the race publicly on TrainingPeaks over his Facebook page.

“The bike course definitely lived up to the hype,” Sanders said after the race over social media. “I was in fear for my life on several occasions, on several of the descents, and I can’t count how many times I said in my head ‘this is insane!’ I gave it everything I had on the day and I came up a bit short. Hugely impressed with Andi Drietz’s performance.”

Sanders may have not earned the win as he had hoped, but his remarkable 1:09:20 split for the half-marathon wowed spectators and proves he’s in top form heading into Ironman 70.3 World Championships in a few weeks.

Sanders was the sole Canadian pro racing in Wiesbaden.

Full results here.