Clayton Fettell wins Ironman 70.3 Port Macquarie

Clayton Fettell today delivered a dominant point to point victory to take out the 2012 70.3 Ironman Port Macquarie. The victory was particularly sweet for Fettell who had been frustrated the previous week on a course at Mandurah which favoured the runners and did not allow him to exploit his lethal swim / bike combo. “I copped a bit of flack last week after his post race comments so today was satisfying. I wasn’t angry with the boys but if I can’t win I want Timmy (Berkel) to win, I love seeing Timmy winning and to go 1-2 with Berks today couldn’t be better.”

Port was a different story, an honest swim course saw him establish a 1:30 lead onto the bike. Once on the bike he put the hammer down and by the first turnaround had increased his lead to 3 minutes over the chase group of Berkel, Griffin and Bowstead. His pace was relentless and as the breeze started to build on the course he was able to further extend it to 7:35. Clayton eats up these tough bike courses. “This course is brutal. I break the bike course up in to 4 sections. I ride the hills, 15-20mins, push through the wind then get some food in. I then ride the next section with a tale wind then go through it again.”

Fettell is if continually touted as a non runner, which he freely acknowledges, but says he would love one day to win the race on the run, today was about not losing it.   With renowned runners in Berkel and Griffin behind him the victory was not assured, but at the halfway point the chase group had only recovered about 90 seconds of the deficit. “I felt good when I got off the bike. I had a great lead so it was stress free running today. A lot of people say I can’t run but I didn’t get much time run in to me today. I know I can run. I do like to run off the bike with a lead and the wind in my sails.”

Berkel was able to break away from Griffin and Bowstead on the back half of the course, but made no serious inroads into Fettell’s lead.

At the finish an emotional Fettell acknowledged his friend Berkel and his coach Grant Giles of Team Aeromax (who also coaches Berkel) for picking him up physically and mentally after last weeks Mandurah race. “Without Gilesy I wouldn’t be here. It is more mental. Lots of coaches can get athletes fit but getting them mentally right is another story. To have a bad race and come back   is mentally quite hard. My confidence was dinged last week and I had to be professional and come back up. Full credit to Gilesy.”

Fettell is a notoriusly hard trainer so how does he back up and stay fresh. “I had a massage on Monday then recovered through to Tuesday. Wednesday I was back in to training and tapered on Friday and Saturday.”

Fettell is backing up again and will be racing Noosa next weekend. “I am going to Noosa next week to take on the world.”

Full results click here