A delightful cat-and-mouse game between Michele Bortolamedi (ITA) and Rico Bogen (GER) – and with it a thrilling finale to Ironman 70.3 Aix-en-Provence – has just led to an impressive victory for the Italian athlete. After Bortolamedi already finished second at Challenge Gran Canaria last month, today he was allowed to step onto the highest step of the podium at the highly competitive race in France.

Immediately after the swim, it became clear just how wide and deep the professional field was today; no fewer than twenty men exited the water within a minute of each other, led by South Africa’s Jamie Riddle (21:48) and with big names like Sven Thalmann, Justus Nieschlag, Pierre Dupuy, Rico Bogen, Michele Bortolamedi, Antonio Benito Lopez, Rudy von Berg, Nathan Guerbeur, and Lasse Priester nearby. On the bike, however, several men quickly turned on the engine, which resulted in a thinning lead group of ultimately just four men.

That leading group, consisting of Bogen, Guerbeur, Bortolamedi, and Maximillian Sperl, subsequently worked well together under the French sun, and that resulted in a lead that would grow to several minutes over the first chasers. Yet even the four leaders did not stay together until T2, because particularly in the final kilometers of the bike leg, Bortolamedi began to accelerate significantly, which started to cause pain especially for Guerbeur, who eventually returned to T2 39 seconds behind. Bogen and Sperl stayed slightly closer to Bortolamedi and started the half marathon with a deficit of thirteen and four seconds, respectively.

As strongly as Bortolamedi ended the bike leg, he began the half marathon just as powerfully. In the first eight kilometers, he pulled away from Bogen by about half a minute, while Sperl gave up more than a minute and Guerbeur even dropped back to nearly a two-minute deficit. Yet another turning point followed, as Bogen seemed to have saved some energy and suddenly started making up time in the subsequent kilometers. The German ticked off kilometer after kilometer and pulled alongside Bortolamedi after thirteen kilometers, thereby taking over the lead in the race.

In turn, Bortolamedi only watched for a few seconds before matching Bogen’s acceleration and actually reclaiming the lead right away. In the minutes that followed, a delightful cat-and-mouse game ensued between the two, as they continuously ran side-by-side or right on each other’s heels, unwilling to give each other an inch. If one accelerated, the other launched a sprint, and vice versa, leading to a wonderful race dynamic.

After 17 kilometers, the decisive move was finally made, though it was not immediately obvious at the time. Bortolamedi began to pull away from Bogen meter by meter, and the German was no longer able to turn the race back in his favor. While Bortolamedi managed to gain an extra second at a time, he did not look back, running at high speed to the finish line where he ultimately won the race in a time of 3:38:54. Bogen finished second in 3:39:26, and Germany’s Lasse Priester came very close in the final stages to finish third in 3:39:35.