Tyler Butterfield has taken to the start line in Mexico at the Monterrey Ironman 70.3.
Butterfield was 5th out of the water in the clocking a time of 24:30, Sylvain Sudrie was the early leader with a time of 24:24, Barrett Brandon was second in 24:25 and Kevin Collington was third in 24:26.
The Pro Men at the first Bike Split 18 km, Butterfield had moved up one spot six seconds behind Collington who had overtaken the leader Sudrie who at that point was in second.
American Andrew Starykowicz led the Pro Men's race at 45 km's with Collington, Butterfield and Sudrie a half a minute back.
Starykowicz bumped his advantage to 52 - 58 seconds on the trio of Collington, Sudrie and Butterfield at 63 km's mark.
Starykowicz was first off the bike and was in and out of T2 and on the run, Serrano, Butterfield, Sudrie and Collington dismounted their bikes second through fifth and headed into T2, +2:00 to +2:09 back of Starykowicz.
At 4.4 km into the run, Collington has grabbed the lead and has a 23 second advantage on Starykowicz with Butterfield just 10 back of second place.
Collington still holding onto the lead as Butterfield claimed second after passing a fading Starykoicz. Starykoicz has Sudrie coming up hard behind him and is looking to be slipping out of podium contention in Mexico today.
Collington opened a gap of +1:18 on Butterfield with half of the run completed. At 17 km's, Collington has been successful at holding off Butterfield who is running in second (+1:05). Serrano has a solid grasp of third, +2:33 back of the leader.
Kevin Collington is the 2017 IRONMAN 70.3 Monterrey champion in a winning time of 3:42:13, Bermuda’s Tyler Butterfield was second in a time of 3:42:59 and Francisco Serrano completed the podium with time of 3:45:05.
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