Taupo's Bryan Rhodes finished fourth in Ironman Canada at Penticton today.
He was more than 12 minutes behind Canadian Garret MacFadyen, who claimed his first international Ironman victory in the final qualifying race before the Ironman triathlon world championship in Hawaii in October.
Rhodes led the pro-elite competitors out of the waterin a slick time of 48 minutes 34 seconds before he was passed by Australian Chris Legh 70km into the 180km cycle leg.
Rhodes came into transition in a group with MacFadyen and two-time Ironman New Zealand winner Stefan Holzner, of Germany, nearly 5min behind Legh.
Legh later dropped out, leaving MacFadyen to cruise clear to win in eight hours 30 minutes 57seconds, with a 12min buffer to fellow Canadian Jasper Blake.
Holzner held on for third, 12sec ahead of Rhodes, who finished third in the same race three years ago.
Leading results of Ironman Canada (3.8km swim, 180km bike, 42km run): Garret MacFadyen (Canada) 8hr 30min 57sec 1, Jasper Black (Canada) 8:43.01 2, Stefan Holzner (Germany) 8:43.54 3, Bryan Rhodes (NZ) 8:44.06 4, Mike Neill (Canada) 8:52.04 5.
