The Pro-Am race made it’s first appearance at Challenge Daytona in 2019. The race where a pro teams up with two age group athletes to complete a Sprint Triathlon as a relay, took place at Challenge Miami. Victory ultimately went to the team featuring Spanish pro athlete Pablo Gonzalez Dapena, Challenge Family CEO Jort Vlam and Triathlon Today editor-in-chief Tim Moria.
Dapena started the race off in style by completing his 800-meter swim in 9:47 minutes, maintaining an average speed of 1:13 per 100 meters. On the bike Moria completed the 20 km with an average speed of 38.5 kilometers per hour, while Vlam ran to victory in the last five kilometers by stopping his watch at 20:57. Team Rudy von Berg seized the silver 44-seconds behind Team Dapena, while 1:34 later Team Lionel Sanders grabbed the bronze.
“It was cool to be a part of this myself,” Moria noted afterwards. “This Pro-Am concept narrows the gap between pro athletes and age groupers, and that is something that can only benefit the sport. For a lot of people, it’s enjoyable when you can race together with the top athletes that you normally only see on television.”
A day before the Pro-Am race pro athletes competed at Challenge Miami’s main event. Read our men’s race report and our women’s race report.
