Reigning Ironman world champions conquer in Dubai

 “It was really tough out there, but this course is very fast,” he said. “I had a real dream of a day, one of those days you can just push with the pace the whole day. It was a perfect day for me.”

 Ryf faced a little more challenge to her lead on the women’s side. Swiss compatriot Caroline Steffen was nipping at her heels from the swim and took the early lead on the bike. However Ryf came back at her in the final third of the ride to get onto the run two minutes ahead of Steffen. She held that lead with a steady run, finishing in 4 hours, 1 minute, 9 seconds. 

“I’m really happy actually, it’s a great start,” She said. “Big compliment to Caroline. I think she did really good in the first 50km on the bike. She really pushed the pace and she was really hurting me and then I tried to wait a bit.