With only two minutes’ gap between the professional men’s and women’s gunstarts, it wasn’t long before Ryf started overtaking the male field on the bike course with a 2:12:27 split. This put her in sixth overall off the bike and more than 17 minutes ahead of the nearest woman. But the Swiss speedster had still more to give and continued to increase her lead over the half marathon until she broke the tape in a new record of 3:57:47.

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