Skye Moench flies to huge win at Ironman Florida

There was no stopping American Skye Moench in Panama City Beach today as she set a new bike course record before running away from Great Britain’s India Lee for a convincing win.

American Lauren Brandon led the women out of the water, with Lee and American Rachel Zilinskas just over two minutes back. Moench was five minutes back in 10th, but would use a dominating bike performance to steadily work her way towards the front of the race. Just over halfway through the ride she was up in the front of the race, riding with Lee and fellow American Jocelyn McCauley.

Moench would lead into T2, with Lee and McCauley just a few seconds behind, while Brandon would start the run just over two minutes behind. Lee charged out of T2 in front and would open up some time on the American, but the gap never got much above 30 seconds. Through the halfway point of the marathon Moench was just eight seconds back, and by the next timing point  at 24 km the American was in front by almost a minute.

Moench would continue to cruise through the marathon and wrap the day up with a 2:54:44 split and an 8:22:29 finish, well ahead of Lee (8:31:01) and McCauley (8:33:56), who rounded out the podium. Canadian Erin Snelgrove ran her way to fourth thanks to a 2:58:08 marathon split.

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