Craig Alexander wins Ironman 70.3 Geelong 2014 ahead of Tim Reed

The men’s race turned out to be a battle between three time IRONMAN World champion Craig Alexander and fellow Aussie pro Tim Reed.

“We had Commonwealth Games gold medalists, dual Olympians, world champions in that field and they all pushed me today. I love racing here in Geelong, the waterfront here is beautiful, and I’m really happy to notch up another win,“Alexander said.

“Those conditions out there today were brutal. I’ve never had a head wind that strong during a run, when we had it at our backs it felt like we were running 3 minutes per kilometere, but into it felt like we were running at 5 minutes per kilometer. Everyone out there today is earning their money.”

The men’s race played out as expected with Clayton Fettell leading out of the water with Courtney Atkinson and James Seear hot on his heels.

Young Tasmanian James Hodge took the lead early on the bike and held onto a slim advantage over Craig Alexander, Peter Robertson, Casey Munro and Tim Reed until the 60km mark.

It was at the 60km mark of the bike leg that Alexander and Reed took control of the race building a 1:25 buffer over Hodge with just under a minute back to Robertson.

Out onto the run Alexander showed his class dropping Reed on the second lap to take the title by just over three minutes.

Both Robertson and Hodge fell victim to the fast finishing Melbourne Commonwealth Games gold medallist Brad Kahlefeldt who recorded a blistering 1:18:29 run leg to fill out the podium.

Kahlefeldt’s run speed is a big weapon and guys like Crowie and Reed know that they need to put plenty of distance between themselves and Sticksy in the bike leg. The tough conditions played in to their hands at Geelong.

Robertson showed that his world champion form is slowly returning. The Lennox Heads training environment must be working well for him. We look forward to watching his progression this year.

Casey Munro raced well against some tough competition. He ran very well in tough conditions.

There were a number of DNFs due to the conditions with some of the guys wisely saving themselves for another day. Tim Berkel has Ironman New Zealand in just under three weeks and fresh from the his win in Melbourne last week he did not want to over cook himself.

Clayton Fettell is still on the comeback trail from recent eye surgery and a bit of time of training.

Following the elite men and women the age group competitors fought their own battles, in tough conditions, to reach the finish line in Geelong.

Television coverage:

A one hour special will air on 7Mate, Sunday, 23 February at 2.30pm.

Photo Credit: Delly Carr