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After his victory in Monaco, Rutger has increased his expectations for Hawaii a little bit: In the past weeks he was saying that participating in Hawaii was just going to be a pleasure (after his 10 month fight against doping accusations). Now he aims for a top-10 finish again!. The 3 weeks of preparation in Kona went by without any problem, but of course he does not know too much about his current form level.

At 6.45 am the pro's start swimming and about 50 minutes later Simon Lessing is the first well-known pro to come out of the water, immediately followed by Faris Al Sultan. Two minutes later a group with Reid, Brown, DeBoom, Widoff, Lieto, LeFloch, Reboul, Chabaud, Vucovic, Sindballe, Luc Van Lierde and Bert Jammaer comes into T1.  Chris McCormack , normally one of the better swimmers, looses some 30 seconds on this group and Rutger storms out of the water together with Norman Stadler another 2min30sec later. Up to now everything goes in line with his expectations.

The bike leg consists of a short 8km lap through Kona, followed by a long journey on the Queen K highway to the turning point, then al the way back to Kona. Rutger’s intention is to join the group with Reid, DeBoom and Brown (the better runners) before the turning point. On the way back, there is typically a lot of bad wind, which makes it quite difficult for a lonely biker to come back. During the lap around Kona, Rutger can stay with Stadler, but once on the highway,  he has to let him go. After 55km  Al Sultan leads Sindballe, Lessing en Chris Lieto by two minutes and the big group by 3 minutes. Stadler is only 200 meter behind this group, while Rutger, together with McCormack is another 3 minutes behind. Stadler joins the group and immediately leaves them behind. Sindballe also attacks and goes after Al Sultan. There is almost no wind and this leads to high biking speeds. At the turning point Al Sultan still leads, now with Sindballe at 3min30. Lieto and Stadler at 4min45, Widoff at 6min40 and the group at 7 minutes. Van Lierde has dropped out of the group and follows at 7min30, while Rutger turns at 8min37, but only 1min30 behind the group with Reid and DeBoom., a little worse than planned but still quite good.

Shocking news a few kilometres later: Stadler has a flat tire and looses a lot of time, so that even Rutger passes him.   Slowly but surely Rutger comes closer to the group. Alas, just when he has come within 200 meters, he sees how Peter Reid attacks and moves away. A little further, around km125, he joins the group together with Stadler, who came back from behind. Meanwhile Reid is gone however and DeBoom, Chabaud and Widoff also have escaped.   Rutger’s group, without Stadler who unfortunately has another flat,  now is 8 minutes behind Al Sultan, who continues to increase his lead. At km 150 Sindballe follows at 1min15, Reid at 4min50, Lieto at 5min, Widoff and Chabaud at 6min25, the remnants of the group with Rutger and Brown at 7min30.   All of a sudden, Rutger meets 'the man with the hammer'. He drops out of his group, but remains calm. He concentrates on eating and drinking for a while, which gives him back his normal strength. 10 minutes later Rutger he comes back and rejoins his group. Meanwhile Al Sultan has weakened a little bit too and is passed by Sindballe. From now on the positions remain about the same. Sindballe starts the run with an advance of 1min20 on Al Sultan, 6 min on Reid and Lieto, 7 min on Widoff and 9 min on Chabaud.

Rutger starts the run in 9th position, 11min30 behind Sindballe,  and together with Cameron Brown and the unknown Pontano from Spain. Sindballe, not a very good runner anyway, apparently has overdone it during the bike leg and quickly has to cede the #1 position back to Al Sultan. Peter Reid goes very fast in the beginning and moves firmly into third position. Rutger runs quite constantly but reasonably fast and stages a comeback. After 16km, Al Sultan still has a comfortable lead of 4 minutes on Reid and Widoff. Sindballe is still 4th and Rutger has moved up into 5th position with a delay of about 7 minutes.  Rutger continues his attack and quickly moves by Sindballe and Widoff. However, behind him Cameron Brown, who has been running at a very constant pace, also is moving forwards. Rutger comes within 100 meters of Peter Reid, but sees how Brown has come within 100 meters of himself too. Coming out of the energy lab, Brown first passes Rutger and immediately afterwards Reid too. Rutger sees it all happen but feels his forces fade away. From now on he will have to fight to keep his 4th position against Widoff, who is coming back, followed by a very strong McCormack.  Luckily he is able to defend his position and finishes fourth after Al Sultan, Brown and Reid. This is now the third consecutive year that Rutger finishes in the top 5 at Ironman Hawaii. A fantastic performance!
 

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