It’s a race that attracts dozens of professional athletes every year, and with some 100 pro athletes on the start list, this year was no different: thanks to that it wasn’t a big surprise that Challenge Mallorca proved to be a very exciting race, including fast new course records. There were wins for Tom Hug and Alanis Siffert.
In the men’s race, large groups were close together when Belgian Peter Denteneer came out of the water first after 23:24 minutes. Despite nineteen men starting the bike leg quite close together, in the end it was first Cenzino Lebot and then Jack Hutchens who called the shots during the 90 hilly kilometers across the Spanish island. Both athletes returned to T2 at about the same time, but during the run, Tom Hug and Quentin Barreau quickly closed in.
Hug even ran so fast that he broke the course record with a time of 1:08:35 and took the win with a finishing time of 3:44:25. Hutchens still finished second in 3:44:58 and Ognjen Stojanovic was also very close with a time of 3:45:34.
For Hug, his victory was hardly imaginable: “Last year I finished 15th here and I didn’t expect to come back here now to take the win. It feels unreal.”
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In the women’s race, it was Therese Feuersinger who dominated the swim; she came out of the water first after 24:38 minutes and then had a lead of more than two minutes over her first pursuers. On the bike, Alanis Siffert and Lisa Norden then went in pursuit, but Feuersinger still stayed ahead solo for about seventy kilometers. Norden passed her first, but in the end it was Siffert who secured victory thanks to an impressive run. She did so in a new course record: 4:10:21.
Anne Reischmann, who advanced to the front during the run, finished second in 4:15:01 and Norden finished third in 4:15:24.. Siffert expressed happiness with both victory and her new course record. “I saw course record on the board, and I thought it would be such an honor for me to break it, but I didn’t have it really in mind”, said Siffert at the finish line. “We had a great battle with Lisa, and the crowd just helped me to push.”
