Ironman 2016: swim, bike | PHOTOS

Ironman 2016: bike, run | PHOTOS

Ironman 2016: on the sidelines | PHOTOS

Ironman 2016: YOUR PHOTOS

IronKids | PHOTOS

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BYRON Bay triathlete Tim Reed overcame an eight-minute gap off the bike leg along with torrential rain to win his first Ironman Australia Port Macquarie race on Sunday.

Reed played catch-up for the majority of the race to Lennox Head product Clayton Fettell before he made his move on the run leg, winning in a time of eight hours, 16 minutes and 33 seconds.

David Dellow finished in second spot in 8:22:17 with Fettell slipping to third in 8:23:21.

"I got drowned early on by one guy that I'm not particularly happy with, but then I just settled in and knew I was riding well," Reed said.

"I figured I'd wait til the second lap of the bike before I started really pushing any power."

Reed's full Ironman success comes 12 months after he won Ironman 70.3 in Port Macquarie last year, with the 31-year-old admitting the longer distance didn't come naturally.

"The 70.3 distance suits my physiology a lot better so this was something mentally I had to really fight for," he said.

"I'd never gone as deep before in a race so it means so much because you do a few of these and you bomb out; but for me I've just always wanted to be good at whatever I do, that's the way I am so to be able to win an Ironman is magic.

"It's just a distance where people start to categorise you into a distance in the sport but I always believed I was versatile enough to win an Ironman and I just knew it would take time. It's taken a few to get right, but I got there."

"I've done three or four Ironman's as a pro and I've never really got it right so even today I don't think I got it right, I just got it right a bit more than the other guys."

Reed used the memory from previous years in the half Ironman where he was in a similar situation trailing Fettell off the bike.

He said he was confident he could track him down.

"We had a 70.3 a couple of years ago and he had about five or six minutes off the bike in that and I wound it back to pretty close within a minute over 21 (kilometres)."

"To put seven or eight minutes into guys you've had to really work on the bike and it's a courageous way to race but it can catch up to you and it did so full credit to him, it was an impressive race from him."

And how did Reed sum up his first full-distance Ironman win?

"Tough, but worth it. There's no other way to describe it than when you get to that finish line it's a magical feeling."

CALIFORNIAN Beth Gerdes played out an almost perfect race on the way to claiming her first Ironman Australia Port Macquarie title yesterday.

Gerdes finished in a time of 9:10:27 after she sat in the top five athletes for the whole race although she said her swim leg surprised her the most.

“It was surprising to me because I am an average swimmer, but I love the swim course here - it’s beautiful, calm water and going over the weir was really cool,” she said.

Last year’s champion Michelle Bremer led the run leg for 37 of the 42 kilometres, but couldn’t hang on, finishing second in 9:13:33.

Dimity-Lee Duke finished in third position with a time of 9:42:15.

Gerdes, who competed in her first Port Macquarie event, paid tribute to the fans who had lined the streets since the early hours of the morning.

“It was amazing to be here in Port Macquarie with all the amazing fans here, it was crazy and I’ve never seen anything like it,” she said.

“On the run I had a huge deficit coming off the bike, but the energy from the crowd was like none other and it kept moving me forward and I was able to eventually win it. I’ve done all the other Ironman’s in Australia so my goal was to do Port Mac so now I have done them all.”

Gerdes said she would like to return to the Hastings in 12 months time.

“I don’t like the expression defend the title, but I’d love to come back and do it again,” she said.

Defending champion and runner-up Bremer said Gerdes was just simply too good.

“I still did a PB for the run of about three hours 10 minutes which was about four minutes quicker than I’ve done before but Beth had a storming run and made up all that ground,” she said.

“I’m disappointed I held the lead until 37 kays, but had nothing to give when Beth came by. Overall I had a good race, so I can’t be too upset about it.”