He dared to attack during the bike part, but it didn’t do much, as he was taken back into the group, but when he hit the run course he just went for it again, this time with success: France’s Maxime Hueber-Moosbrugger just won the European Championship Duathlon in Bilbao, Spain. With quite some strong French and Belgian athletes on the start line – the top duathlon countries in the world – there was some fierce competition in Bilbao. Hueber-Moosbrugger still managed to stay ahead of race favorites Benjamin Choquert (FRA) and Arnaud Dely (BEL), who took second and third.
Even though, Britain’s Hugo Milner pulled the field into one long line by running an impressive first 5000 meters, everything eventually merged into a big group on the bike. Hueber-Moosbrugger was right in the mix, but didn’t plan to just settle in this massive pack. The French athlete tried to place an attack, but the other athletes soon caught up with him again. That meant all he could do was wait for the run to make his next move.
After a quick transition, Hueber-Moosbrugger was ready to burn another match, this time with the intended result. Hueber-Moosbrugger was off right from the start, running a strong 2500 meters. He was hunted down by a fellow strong Frenchman, though: Choquert. The course shouldn’t have been much longer – then it would have been hard for Hueber-Moosbrugger to claim the gold – but he crossed the line as the winner of the Duathlon European Championship in Bilbao. Choquert had to settle for second, while Dely ran to a strong third place. Even stronger, considering Dely was slowed down in a turn right before T2, and therefor one of the last athletes to start the final run.
