Marten Van Riel opened the season with a record-setting performance
Marten Van Riel scored his first win of 2022 with three blistering splits at Ironman 70.3 Dubai. He won the event by 1:48 over Daniel Baekkegard, who was nearly head-to-head with Van Riel at the start of the run. Van Riel broke the tape at 3:26:06, just 45 seconds off the Ironman 70.3 record.
UPDATE: After this story was posted, Ironman reviewed the previous Ironman 70.3 record and determined that Van Riel surpassed it, making his time the new world’s best!
Early races are always nerve-wracking. Van Riel was doubly anxious because he had recently changed coaches over the offseason.
“I changed coaches a couple months ago, so I was a little bit nervous and looking for confirmation that we were working well,” Van Riel said after the race. “But on the other hand, I had the biggest and most consistent block of training I have ever done these past months. So that gave me confidence and I believed I could do something special on race day.”
Marten Van Riel posted the second fastest bike time of the race on his Speed Concept.
Van Riel led the field by one second after the swim, and he worked with Baekkegard on the bike to open a big gap on the competition — 5:55 over the third-place athlete on the course. Then he exploded on the run, steadily distancing Baekkegard, who had taken bronze at the Ironman 70.3 World Championship last September.
Van Riel typically races Olympic distances, which are considerably shorter than Ironman 70.3 events. He was particularly happy posting the second fastest time on the 56-mile bike.
“I don’t have a lot of experience over the half distance yet so I am still learning a lot, and I think I can still improve a bit on some different things like nutrition, pacing and my position on the bike,” Van Riel said. “This was another great experience and next race I can hopefully be even stronger.”
February wins taste delicious.
Van Riel closed 2021 with some impressive results, including second place finishes at the Edmonton Grand Final and Super League Malibu. But though those races may have foreshadowed big things for 2022, there’s no feeling like winning.
“I had some really big results that I am proud of last year, but breaking the tape is definitely a feeling that is on another level,” Van Riel said. “So doing that in my first race of the year with some strong competitors feels amazing.”
