Canadians win double gold at IRONMAN Indian Wells

It was a clean sweep for Canada at the top of the podium at the IRONMAN 70.3 Indian Wells-La Quinta as Paula Findlay of Edmonton and Lionel Sanders of Windsor, Ont. captured gold in the women and men's event, respectively. 

Findlay had nearly a minute lead on Holly Benner and Elise Lagerstrom of the United States at the conclusion of the swim portion. She didn't stop there as she only increased her lead. 10 miles into the bike portion of the race the Edmonton native had nearly doubled her lead.

By the time the bike portion was over, the 30-year-old Canadian had a 6:55 minute lead over Benner. She closed out the win with a final time of 4:07:37, nearly eight minutes ahead of runner-up Alissa Doehla and 10 minutes ahead of bronze medallist, Chelsea Sodaro. 

Sanders rallies to victory

On the men's side, Sanders' win didn't come as easily.

At the conclusion of the swim portion, Sanders was more than a minute back of the lead and not even in the top-five. Yet, 25 miles into the bike race, the Windsor, Ont. native turned on the jets, as he took over third place and was less than 40 seconds back of the lead. 

From there, Sanders overtook the lead with 17 miles remaining on the bike and he never looked back, ending the bike portion with a 1:37 minute lead. The Canadian then closed out strong as he cruised to the win with a commanding five minute lead.