France’s Émile Blondel-Hermant and Belgium’s Lotte Claes get to call themselves the winners of the 2022 edition of the renown Alpe d’Huez Duathlon. Both athletes made the difference in the saddle, when climbing up the Alpe d’Huez.
Blondel-Hermant reached his bike together with a little group of three athletes that noted a run time of 20:53 over the first 6.5 km. On the bike, the Frenchman soon disappeared, because he ended up riding approximately 2:30 minutes faster than his fastest chaser: Emmanuel Lejeune (BE). During the final run, Lejeune – who ran 17:55 over 5K – was actually 41 seconds faster than Blondel-Hermant. Blondel-Hermant was already too far ahead to catch up with him, though. He ended up claiming the victory nearly two minutes before Lejeune took second. The final podium spot was taken by France’s Baptiste Domanico.
In the women’s race, the battle was on between two Belgian athletes: Claes and Alexandra Tondeur, who ended up finishing in second place. While the two seemed to be a good competitive match during the first run part, Claes was off as soon as she hit the bike course. With a bike time of 59:16 minutes, Claes was seven minutes faster than Tondeur. Even though, Tondeur managed to run the second run part a few seconds faster, there was no touching Claes anymore. Claes crossed the line 6:35 minutes ahead of Tondeur, who took home the silver medal. France’s Emma Wasser (+7:48) rounded the podium.
