Cave earns Ironman win the hard way in Arizona

TEMPE, AZ - At the Ford Ironman Arizona, Great Britain's Leanda Cave had to overcome a number of obstacles before her superb performance ended with her first Ironman title.

Not surprising, the women's race had American Amanda Stevens lead the women out of the water. USA's Kelly Williamson and Meredith Kessler spotted the leader 3:00 as they headed to their bikes.

Meanwhile, Great Britain's Leanda Cave exited the water in fourth, 20 seconds back of Williamson and Kessler, and, if she thought the cramps she was experiencing were the end of her problems for the day, she was terribly mistaken. Cave slipped and struck the ground hard when getting out of the water. Then, when she reached her bike, she found a flat tire. If that wasn't enough, she started to have shifting issues once on the bike, which cumulatively put her down 8:10 to the leader just 10 miles into the ride.

Stevens forged on during the bike and would never relinquish the lead for the entire 112-miles. Cave recovered from her bad luck and worked her way towards the front, but could never get any closer than 1:30 of Stevens.

Once the women's race hit the marathon Cave, along with Denmark's Michelle Vesterby, were 4:04 behind Stevens as they hit the pavement, with Kessler following closely behind.

It was evident early that Stevens was no match for the charge being made from a number of women behind her. By five miles, Stevens' lead had shrunk just to 2:00, with Kessler, Cave, Vesterby and USA's Linsey Corbin finally making her presence known to the front-runners as she ran herself into fifth.

Kessler passed Stevens for the lead in the opening miles of the first lap, and then it was Cave who found her groove as she ran herself into the lead, passing Kessler at eight miles. Kessler made Cave work for her lead for two miles, but then slowed, hoping to recover and fight later on in the race.

Cave proceeded to pull away from Kessler, who now had to deal with Corbin. Kessler could not match Corbin's speed and, at mile 13, succumbed to Corbin's run pressure and found herself in third.

Cave closed out an incredible six weeks of racing with an 8:49:00 finish time for the first Ironman win of her career.

Corbin recorded an exceptional time of 8:54:33 for second, with Kessler rounding out the podium in a finish time of 9:00:14.

Originally from: http://ironman.com/events/ironman/arizona/shawn-skene-recaps-one-of-the-most-exciting-ironman-races-of-the-year#ixzz1eMCjWGAA