Britain’s Paul Amey and Leanda Cave took home titles at the fifth annual Ironman Florida 70.3, held on and around the grounds of the Disney World theme park. Amey, a two-time ITU world champ used a blistering bike leg to pull away from Brazil’s Santiago Ascenco, while Cave (also a two-time ITU champ) took care of Germany’s Nina Craft on the run.

To no one’s surprise, Kiwi supe-swimmer Bryan Rhodes was the first to finish the 1.2-mile swim, followed closely by a group containing Aussie Craig Alexander and American T.J. Tollakson. Amey managed to make it out of the swim in the third group, less than 20 seconds behind the leaders.

The British short-course star had no problems moving through the faster swimmers on the early stages of the ride, taking the lead early and never letting it go. After only 2:07:11 on the bike, Amey was back in transition and had opened up a two-minute lead on Ascenco and three minutes on the rest of the field. Pre-race favorites Alexander and Tollakson struggled on the bike and both dropped out of the race during the run.

With one of the sport’s best runners out of the race (Alexander), Amey cruised through the half-marathon, putting another two minutes into Ascenco and crossing the line in 3:52:51. The Brazilian finished four minutes back and behind Ascenco, Britain’s Spencer Smith proved he’s not done racing yet, as the tri-veteran finished third.

In the women’s race, American Dede Griesbauer stormed through the swim in 25:55, finishing less than 50 meters behind the top men. A sub-26-minute swim would have given the American a huge lead at most 70.3 events, but Griesbauer didn’t have that luxury today, as Cave lurked only one second behind. Kraft was also in the mix, finishing another handful of seconds behind Cave.

The trio of lead women stayed in close contact on the bike, with Griesbauer able to gain a slight advantage and she entered T2 with a 30-second gap on Cave and 49 seconds on Kraft.

Once the top ladies made it onto the run course, Cave and Kraft decided that Griesbauer had led long enough, and the pair of super-runners easily blew past the American. It turned into a two-woman race and Cave clearly had the better legs today, finishing in 4:22:52, 83 seconds up on Kraft. Griesbauer held off a surging Lisa Bentley for third.


Men
1. Paul Amey (GBR) 3:52:51
2. Santiago Ascenco (BRA) 3:56:33
3. Spencer Smith (GBR) 3:59:34
4. Courtney Ogden (AUS) 3:59:42
5. Kevin Lisska (USA) 3:59:56
6. Bryan Rhodes (NZL) 4:03:10
7. Brent Poulsen (CAN) 4:05:18
8. Andrew Hodges (USA) 4:11:56
9. Brad Seng (USA) 4:17:30
10. Marcus Ornellas (BRA) 4:18:45


Women
1. Leanda Cave (GBR) 4:22:52
2. Nina Kraft (GER) 4:24:15
3. Dede Griesbauer (USA) 4:30:38
4. Lisa Bentley (CAN) 4:31:47
5. Katja Schumacher (GER) 4:34:45
6. Kim Loeffler (USA) 4:34:52
7. Heather Gollnick (USA) 4:36:05
8. Sione Jongstra (NED) 4:43:53
9. Michelle Leblanc (USA) 4:48:00
10. Teri Albertazzi (USA) 4:49:02

Source: http://www.xtri.com/features_display...&CAT=3&xref=xx