IRONMAN 70.3 Andorra 2022 results: Gentle and Viain prevail

Australia’s Ashleigh Gentle was the dominant winner of IRONMAN 70.3 Andorra while on the men’s side France’s Simon Viain came out on top after a much closer contest.

Pro Women – Gentle far too strong

Fresh from her second place behind Emma Pallant-Browne at IRONMAN 70.3 Elsinore last week, Gentle was again quickest in the swim on a unique course in Andorra.

The CLASH Miami winner earlier this season, Gentle held a 1:52 advantage when exiting Engolasters Lake, the highest lake in Europe to host an IRONMAN 70.3 race.

And that lead simply grew and grew on the hilly bike course, her time of 3:04:33 was enough to give her a cushion of more than 10 minutes over Jeanne Collonge (FRA).

Collonge would drop back on the run as Gentle was the only woman to go sub-1:20 as she clocked 4:53:42 for the testing course.

Amy Cymerman (USA) was second, 13:06 adrift, with Giorgia Priarone (ITA) over 20 minutes back in third.

Pro Men – Viain adds to French success

In the men’s race it was Gentle’s Aussie partner John Amberger who also led after the swim, exactly a minute ahead of eventual winner Viain.

Viain overhauled Amberger in the second half of the bike leg in the Pyrenees but by they time they reached T2 it was Jordi Montraveta Moya (ESP) who had grabbed the lead.

Viain had over a minute to make up at that point but he soon started to eat into the advantage and was back in control midway through, eventually stopping the clock in 4:24:19 to win by 1:44.

It was another success for a French WTCS athlete following Pierre Le Corre’s debut 70.3 win at IRONMAN 70.3 Les Sables d’Olonne the same day.