Appleton and Sodaro claim the top spot at Ironman 70.3 Santa Rosa
Canadian Paula Findlay and Jackson Laundry finish third and fourth
On July 27th, Sam Appleton and Chelsea Sodaro won close races at Ironman 70.3 Santa Rosa.
In the men’s race, a group of four – Eric Lagerstrom, Tim O’Donnell, Sam Appleton and Tim Reed – came out of the water together, 1:34 ahead of Canadian Jackson Laundry. On June 23rd, Laundry won Ironman 70.3 Mont-Tremblant.
On the bike, Appleton and O’Donnell came off the bike together with Reed and Lagerstrom trailing. Unfortunately, Laundry suffered a mechanical on the bike and headed out of T2 over 7 minutes behind the leaders. By the end of the race, Appleton was able to open a small advantage over O’Donnell (1:20) to take the win. O’Donnell finished 1:30 ahead of Reed in third. Laundry ran the fastest split of the day (1:10:46) to finish fourth, a minute and a half ahead of Lagerstrom.
In the women’s race, Jennifer Spieldenner came out of the water with a 45-second advantage on Canadian Paula Findlay, Meredith Kesseler, Chelsea Sodaro and Kinsey Laine. By the end of the 90K bike, Findlay had a 1:21 advantage over Sodaro and nearly four minutes on Australian Mirinda Carfrae.
On the run, both Sodaro and Carfrae made their move. By the 6K marker, Sodaro had taken control of the race over Findlay. And with less than 6K to go, Findlay held only a minute advantage over Carfrae. At the line, Carfrae crossed the line in second just 45-seconds ahead of Findlay.