Rach McBride wins Ironman 70.3 Los Cabos
Jackson Laundry takes fourth at Mexican event
Photo by:
Kevin Mackinnon
Canada’s Rach McBride took their second 70.3 title of 2022 with a wire-to-wire win at Ironman 70.3 Los Cabos yesterday, while another Canadian, Jackson Laundry, fresh off a top-10 finish at the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in St. George, took fourth in the men’s race.
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McBride leads from the gun
McBride, who, at 44, is having a stellar season, was first out of the water in 28:08, with American Mollie Hebda just behind and a gap of almost three minutes to the next pro out of the water, American Alycia Hill. New Zealand’s Kylie Simpson was the last pro out of the water, over 10-minutes behind the leader. (Bear with us – we’ll explain why that’s important momentarily!)
McBride continued to dominate out on the bike, riding a 2:24:20 split, the fastest pro women’s split of the day, and leading Hebda into T2 by almost seven minutes. Simpson rode the day’s second-fastest bike split (2:24:26) to move into third as she hit T2.
McBride was never remotely challenged through the rest of the run, using a 1:26:25 run split to get across the line in 4:22:36. Simpson used the day’s fastest run split, 1:21:25, to run their way into second (4:28:07) with Hebda hanging on for third (4:31:55).
Engelhardt takes the men’s race
Laundry was 1:20 behind the leader, Mexico’s Joaquin Pereda, out of the water, but quickly moved to the front of the race before being passed by eventual winner, Switzerland’s Adriano Engelhardt, with 10 km to go. A flat tire in the latter stages of the ride also cost the Canadian some time as he hit T2 in second, 1:04 behind the Swiss leader.
Out on the run Engelhardt followed up the day’s fastest bike split (2:06:18) with the second-fastest run split (1:10:58) to cruise to the win in 3:46:34, his first half-distance win. (Prior to his big day in Los Cabos his best finishes had been fifth-place efforts at Ironman 70.3 Jesolo and Switzerland, along with another fifth at Rev 3 Williamsburg last year. American Trevor Foley would run his way to second (3:48:52) thanks to a 1:09:49 split, while Mexico’s Tomas Andres Rodriguez Hernandez would round out the podium (3:50:58). Laundry would finish one spot off the podium in 3:54:23.
Other Canadians in the field included Loren Nelson, 16th, 4:20:48 and Garrick Loewen, 18th, 4:23:55.
You can find results from this weekend’s race here.
