T100 Ibiza: Marten Van Riel and Taylor Knibb win on the White Island 

Taylor Knibb and Marten Van Riel put disappointing performances in the Olympics Games individual races behind them to win the T100 Ibiza.

The fifth stop in the inaugural season of the Professional Triathletes Organisation’s series yielded the same winners as the third stop in San Francisco and gave both athletes two from two winning records in T100 action.

Once again Knibb destroyed the competition on the 80km bike leg, before Switzerland’s Julie Derron produced the fastest run split to finish second on debut, while Britain’s India Lee did her overall series chances no harm with a plucky third place following disappointment in Sunday’s Ironman World Championship.

In the men’s race, Van Riel continued to show that he is a force to be reckoned with on the non-drafting scene. The Belgian, who has remarkably never been beaten in six Ironman 70.3 or PTO 100km races, put 22nd place in Paris behind him and backed up his sprint finish victory in San Francisco with a more comfortable win on the White Island. 

France’s reigning Ironman world champion Sam Laidlow, winner of the previous T100 race in London, had matched Van Riel until the last 3km, but ultimately had to settle for second.

Great Britain’s Alistair Brownlee produced his strongest performance yet in T100 racing to finish fourth, sandwiched between the Germans of Mika Noodt  and Fred Funk.

T100: London: What happened in the men’s race?

The men were first underway at 7am with the top three in the series at the start of the day, Magnus Ditlev, Kyle Smith with a chest infection, and Sam Long, all absent, leaving wildcard Youri Keulen as the highest ranked athlete on show.

Despite the previous race in the T100 series in London being wetsuit legal, Laidlow had taken the unusual step of choosing not to wear neoprene and it ultimately paid dividends as he took victory.

There was no such decision to make in Ibiza as the warm waters of the Mediterranean meant the only assistance the 19 starters could get was by wearing the thinner layer of a swimskin.

While Laidlow was still in the mix throughout, it was Van Riel who led most of the 2km opening leg. Arriving in transition, there wasn’t a great deal of separation, but despite having taken a wrong turn at an early roundabout it was the Laidlow-Van Riel duo who predictably set the early pace on the bike too.

As the three-lap 80km course played out a front group of six consisting of Laidlow, Van Riel, Funk, Noodt, Ironman 70.3 world champion Rico Bogen and Brownlee developed a race-defining gap before Brownlee picked up a one-minute drafting penalty.

While the two-time Olympic champion might have been grateful the time served for a drafting offence had been reduced from 5min in the build-up to the race, it still meant he was having to chase back to the leaders driven by Funk and Laidlow who were reaching speeds of up to 80km/h on certain sections of the largely flat but exposed course.

Funk had the fastest bike split (1:47:24), but Bogen was first on to the seven-lap run course, where he was quickly reeled back in by Laidlow and Van Riel, with the winners of the previous two T100 races running shoulder-to-shoulder throughout the opening kilometres.

Navigating a twisting course around the port and Ibiza town with a sharp climb on each lap didn’t allow for much rhythm, but Laidlow kept pace until the Belgian made a move on a short descent with just over 3km to go.

It proved decisive as Laidlow had no response and Van Riel was treated to a sponge on the back as he lapped compatriot Peter Heemeryck before taking a left turn into the finish chute for a deserved victory.

Further down the field, Keulen, who had been a surprise winner in Singapore, shook off a disappointing bike leg to post the fastest run split (56:44) and come through for ninth place.

T100 London: What happened in the women’s race?

The challenges of competing at the height of the racing season were highlighted when just six days on from the women’s Ironman World Championship only Kat Matthews of the finishers in Nice made it to the start-line.

By halfway in the 2km swim, the gaps in the women’s race were much larger than in the men’s competition with Taylor Spivey, Lee and Flora Duffy leading the way.

The introduction of athletes such as Spivey, Duffy and Knibb post Olympics had clearly added some extra impetus to the first leg, and alongside the firepower of former Olympic swimmer Sara Perez Sala, the chasers were struggling to stay in touch.

Spivey was first out of the water, but the flat bike course played to the strengths of Knibb who wasted no time in seizing control. Her 80km bike split of 1:56:29 was the fastest of the day by 3 1/2min from Lee, who was the only other athlete to break 2hr in the saddle.

It meant that as was the case in both Singapore and Knibb’s previous 100km outing in Milwaukee last year, the American would start the 18km run with a generous buffer.

While series leader Ashleigh Gentle was in the race, for once it wasn’t the Australian hunting Knibb to the finish, but instead Derron. The Swiss, who like Brownlee in the men’s race had picked up a 60sec drafting penalty, delivered the fastest run split to close to 1:43 by the tape, but it never looked likely to earn the win.

Lee was well back in third place, but did enough to hold off Gentle with a result that lifted her to third in the standings. Lucy Byram was the next best of a strong British contingent in eighth, Emma Pallant-Browne finished 10th, Matthews 13th and wildcard Kate Curran placed 15th.

Knibb said:

“I wouldn’t say it was total control. You could tell from my swim start that it would be rough, but somehow I caught the lead group, don’t know how. On the bike my shoes were driving me nuts – need to work on that. The run… that was a lot of laps.”

Van Riel said:

“I think I put a little bit of pressure on the other people [in the swim]. The boys made me suffer on the bike. Pure watts matter and I’m more a watts per kilogram guy. Sam really made me work for it and it’s amazing to share a battle with a legend like Sam, one of the greats in our sport. To take it at the end makes me really happy.”

T100 Ibiza: Men’s final standings

1. Marten Van Riel 3:11:36
2. Sam Laidlow 3:12:02
3. Mika Noodt 3:13:30
4. Alistair Brownlee 3:14:15
5. Fred Funk 3:15:03
6. Antonio Benito Lopez 3:15: 58
7. Rico Bogen 3:16:50
8. Maximilian Sperl 13:17:58
9. Youri Keulen 3:17:59
10. Mathis Margirier 3:18:10

T100 Ibiza: Women’s final standings

1. Taylor Knibb 3:30:03
2. Julie Derron 3:31:46
3. India Lee 3:35:17
4. Ashleigh Gentle 1:01:39
5. Paula Findlay 1:05:53
6. Anne Haug 3:37:28
7. Imogen Simmonds 3:38:14
8. Lucy Byram 3:38:40
9. Flora Duffy 3:39:09
10. Emma Pallant-Browne 3:40:18

T100 men’s overall standings

1. Magnus Ditlev 79pts
2. Kyle Smith 76pts
3. Sam Laidlow 75pts
4. Marten Van Riel 70pts
5. Sam Long 70pts

T100 women’s overall standings

1. Ashleigh Gentle 92pts
2. India Lee 74pts
3. Taylor Knibb 70pts
4. Imogen Simmonds 66pts
5. Kat Matthews 61pts