Astana team boss Alexandre Vinokourov has been crowned age-group Ironman 70.3 World Champion.
Vinokourov finished the event in Nice, France, which is half the distance of a standard Ironman, in 4:28:47 and won his age group in the process.
Covering the swim in 33 minutes 55 seconds, Vinokourov made his real gains on the 90km bike ride in 2 hours 24 seconds, almost 10 minutes faster than his closest competitor.
With that buffer, the 45-year-old lost five minutes on the 21.1km run. The time was strong enough for the 2012 Olympic champion to finish 92nd overall.
The same distance was covered by overall winner Gustav Iden of Norway in a time of 3 hours 52 minutes, 36 minutes faster than Vinokourov.
After retirement, Vinokourov has been focusing his attention on Ironman triathlons. Last October he competed in the full Ironman World Championships in Hawaii, finishing in just over nine hours, seventh in his division and 201st overall.
