While Youri Kjeulen has started 2024 in great style – with a T100 win in Singapore being the highlight – the Dutch best athlete appears to have lost some of his momentum at the moment. Three weeks ago, he had already finished the IRONMAN 70.3 in Mallorca, while now he has finished no further than 14th in the IRONMAN 70.3 in Switzerland. He was more than thirteen minutes behind the winner.
After the swim, Cologne was still in ninth place, just 37 seconds behind, so he was still in the mix. Soon the bike rode forward and a group of seven leaders emerged, including Cologne, Nick Emde, Magnus Maner, Sven Thalmann, Robin Zipontke, Leonard Arnold, and Arne Lees. Halfway through, Zepuntke, known for his very strong bike part, started to accelerate in earnest and left everyone, including Cologne, behind him.
During the second half of the cycling portion, the differences became very large and Zepuntke came back to T2 with a lead of almost two minutes over Arnold. Behind Arnold, Emde, Collen, Thalmann and Liss followed in third, fourth, fifth and sixth, but the gap between them had already widened to three minutes at that stage.
In the opening kilometers of the run, it looked like Cologne still had a claim to a potential title extension – he had previously won the Ironman 70.3 championship – when he saw his deficit shrink very quickly to less than two minutes. But after eight kilometers, it suddenly seemed that it was over for the Dutchman and his deficit suddenly increased by minutes. Cologne also constantly lost positions. His helplessness will continue to grow until the end.
The race was won by Arnold, who finished in 3:26:53. Zipontke came in second place with a time of 3:31:44, and Swiss Fabian Mussen, who moved well to the front, came in third place with a time of 3:32:08. Cologne finished 14th with a time of 3:40:05.
