Big Easy winds blows Piampiano and Starykowicz into top spots in Ironman 70.3 New Orleans
Only the toughest athletes would finish on top after gutting it out through a choppy swim, windy bike, and a tough run.
Piampiano leads a strong defense
Sarah Piampiano is a familiar face at the podium in New Orleans and she served the crowd again despite a harrowing day.
Out of the swim, Piampiano was losing 7.5 minutes to Laura Bennett. However, she seemed more into her element with strong headwings blowing through the bike ride and was motivated to defend her title.
Within the run course, Piampiano had already pulled back those 7.5 minutes on Bennett and continued to push herself, netting the second-fastest run of the day and her third NOLA victory. Cameto had a very consistent race to finish second, and Bennett rounded out the podium in third.
Starykowicz stood his ground till the end for a win
Andrew Starykowicz might have been robbed of a win at IRONMAN 70.3 Texaslast week but bear no doubt this time. Racing IRONMAN 70.3 events a week apart is a surmountable task, you can count on Starky to be as strong as the fierce blowing winds to secure victory at New Orleans.
Starykowicz came out of the water 30 seconds behind last year’s runner-up Matt Chrabot, but quickly into the bike ride he rode to the front and never looked back. With the strong headwind, Starky used his bike as his weapon, to make the victory his. Some fast riding had him running out of transition with eight minutes on Matt Chrabot and 9:45 on hard-charging Taylor Reid.
Starky was not going to be robbed this time, and he cruised across the finish line with over five minutes still in the bag with Taylor bridging up to Chrabot to round out the podium.
Top 5 Pro Men
| 1 | Starykowicz, Andrew | USA | 0:25:03 | 1:57:55 | 1:20:39 | 3:46:52 |
| 2 | Reid, Taylor | CAN | 0:27:21 | 2:05:31 | 1:16:27 | 3:52:19 |
| 3 | Chrabot, Matt | USA | 0:24:34 | 2:06:34 | 1:18:47 | 3:53:07 |
| 4 | Tutukin, Ivan | RUS | 0:25:10 | 2:12:41 | 1:15:06 | 3:56:05 |
| 5 | Tejada, Raul | GT | 0:27:46 | 2:07:40 | 1:18:17 | 3:56:55 |
Top 5 Pro Women
| 1 | Piampiano, Sarah | USA | 0:33:24 | 2:17:04 | 1:25:51 | 4:19:57 |
| 2 | Cameto, Sarah | USA | 0:28:45 | 2:22:14 | 1:31:49 | 4:26:48 |
| 3 | Bennett, Laura | USA | 0:25:49 | 2:29:19 | 1:31:12 | 4:29:51 |
| 4 | Snow, Caitlin | USA | 0:30:22 | 2:32:16 | 1:24:02 | 4:30:21 |
| 5 | Stevens, Amanda | USA | 0:27:06 | 2:29:42 | 1:32:53 | 4:33:23 |
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