Germany’s Caroline Pohle prevented Imogen Simmonds from winning her third race in a row (after winning Challenge Barcelona and Challenge Mallorca) because after an exciting duel between the two, Pohle has just won Challenge Vieux Boucau. Under tough weather conditions, the main battle soon proved to be between these two women, thus ultimately resulting in a German winner.
Already after the swim, it was Pohle and Simmonds in the lead; Pohle came out of the water after 26:46 minutes and Simmonds followed in second in a time of 27:23.
On the bike Pohle stayed ahead for quite a long time, but after about fifty kilometers Simmonds passed her anyway. From then on, the Swiss athlete – who was on paper the biggest favorite – began to ride away from Pohle as well, but not as fast as she had undoubtedly hoped. Her lead grew to forty seconds at most on the bike, which meant that a really crucial difference did not materialize for the time being. Emilie Morier followed in third back in T2, but that was minutes behind already.
During the run, Pohle quickly managed to make up her deficit and after five kilometers both ladies were running together – with a slight advantage for Pohle. At that point, it was Charlene Clavel who was running in third, but at more than six minutes and so the battle for victory would be solely between Pohle and Simmonds.
What followed was a run in which Pohle constantly took the lead, but did not see her lead increase beyond a maximum of 30 seconds. In the end, Pohle won in a time of 4:04:32, while Simmonds finished second in 4:05:02. Clavel took third place in a time of 4:11:36.
