It was a busy weekend for TBB staff and athletes in Langkawi Malaysia at the M-dot Ironman seaon opener.  The pro race saw 3 teamTBB athletes racing two of whom finished in the top 5 on the day.

Japan’s Hiro Nishiuchi had a wonderful race finishing 2nd with the fastest marathon split on a scorching hot day.  This is certainly his best IM result to date. Marino Vanhoenacker took top honours.

Hiro raced sensibly in the conditions picking off the opposition as the day heated up and went from a 5th place position starting his last 8km loop of the run to 2^nd at the line.

Everyone at teamTBB was delighted with Hiro's performance.  However, we were less excited about the implementation of WTC's application of the new pro rules as Hiro's time was unfortunately 2 minutes past the 5% rule of the winner. So with a great race time of 8hrs 50 minutes he was 30 minutes behind Vanhoenacker who finished in 8:20.  Hiro therefore lost his automatic qualifying spot for IM Hawaii.

At the same time finishers from 3^rd place down on the men’s side and 4^th on the women’s side will not receive any prize money as they didn’t finish within 8% of the winner’s time.

For the women, the Wongstar did a great job with her first top 5 finish in an Ironman event. Former teamTBB member Belinda Granger was the repeat winner.

There was also great news on the age group front for The Bike Boutique. Emma Bishop, TBB's marketing manager, won her age group 30 – 34 years in 11:07 and qualified for Hawaii.  Wong, TBB Kuala Lumpur head mechanic won his age group 35 - 39 qualifying for IM Hawaii for the second year in a row.

The Bike Boutique also performed its yearly role as event sponsorand official bike partner. A troop of 4 mechanics and 4 retail staff supported the 600 race participants with great passion.

It was a fun filled event where the TBB family delivered a stellar performance in all departments: pro athletes, age groupers and TBB staff alike!

Read the full ironmanlive report here

Read how SlowTwitch reported the day

Find out what the Wongstar thinks of the day by reading her blog and read Hiro's blog here