It’s double celebration in the Forissier household, because the French brothers Felix and Arthur have just dominated the European Championship Xterra – which took place in Belgium. In the women’s race, it got pretty exciting in the final stages, but in the end it was the Swiss Loanne Duvoisin who crowned herself European Champion.
The European Championship Xterra was about 1.5 km of swimming, 35 km of mountain biking and 10 km of off-road running. During the swim and bike, the differences – at least among the fastest men – were still fairly small; somewhat surprising since the course was more than challenging and tricky. Still, the real differences at the front of the race were only made during the run. There it turned out that Felix Forissier had the strongest legs and after 2:31:21 he eventually crowned himself European Champion. His brother Arthur eventually followed at over three minutes and finished second in 2:34:33. With that he was just ahead of Spaniard Ruben Ruzafa, who crossed the line after 2:34:58.
In the women’s race, the win went to Loanne Duvoisin, although the differences were small in the end. Duvoisin came out of the water with a considerable gap, but then cycled very strongly and took over the lead in the race. She never relinquished it: she won the race in 2:57:11. Less than a minute later, Sandra Mairhoifer came in second in 2:58:14 and shortly behind, Alizée Paties came in third in 2:59:47.
