France’s Arthur Serrieres and Swiss’ Loanne Duvoisin just claimed the victory at the World Triathlon Cross Championship in El Anillo – Extremadura, Spain. With a finish time of 1:23:43 hour, Serrieres got to break the tape and call himself the 2021 World Champion Cross Triathlon. Duvoisin attacked on the bike and run, which saw her move up in the ranking until she reached the first place. She needed 1:37:42 hour to complete her race. Athletes were faced with some challenging weather conditions and had to cover a distance of 1000 meters in the water, 20 km for the muddy bike part and six km on the run.
Men’s race
Serrieres was far back after the swim part, but that didn’t stop him from going all out on the bike. The eventual winner entered T1 with a deficit of 1:22 minute to the fastest swimmer and race leader: Slovakia’s Richard Varga. While Serrieres had a hard time in the water, Varga had a hard time in the saddle. Serrieres moved up in the ranking and Varga quickly fell back. Serrieres noted the second-fastest bike split; behind France’s Theo Dupras who was first to rack his bike. Varga, on the other hand, lost almost four minutes in comparison to the fastest cyclist of the day.
During the run, Serrieres quickly caught up with Dupras. Running 21:45 minutes, Serrieres managed to stay well ahead of his competitors and take the title. France’s Arthur Forrisier claimed silver (+1:07) after an exciting battle with Spain’s Ruben Ruzafa. Ruzafa completed the podium by taking third (+1:13).
Women’s race
Just like Serrieres in the men’s race, Duvoisin needed to make an effort on the bike and run to get closer to that golden medal. After the swim, Duvoisin was in eight place, more than two minutes behind the race leader: Margot Garabedian (FRA), who won yesterday’s World Championship Aquathlon.
On the bike, Duvoisin moved to the first place within a few kilometers, and that saw her heading out onto the run with a nice advantage on her chasers. Duvoisin didn’t even need to dig that deep during the final discipline, because she ran across the finish line almost two minutes before Sandra Mairhofer (ITA) took second. Czech’s Aneta Grabmullerova finished in third place (+3:45).
Junior and U23 winners
In the U23 category, the World Championship title was won by Italy’s Federico Spinazze. Duvoisin took the double, as she was the fastest overall and fastest U23 athlete. The juniors raced earlier today in a separate and shorter event. It were Portugal’s Francois Vie and Italy’s Giulia Saiu who broke the tape there.
