After a race long led by a large lead group, it was just Beth Potter who won the Europe Triathlon Cup Quarteira by a great running performance. Second place was for Frenchwoman Emma Lombardi and third woman was Germany’s Lisa Tertsch. The race was an Olympic Distance.
Not entirely unexpectedly, the American Summer Rappaport led the swim, keeping a heavy pace despite the heavy waves. After exactly twenty minutes, she put her feet back in the Portuguese sand and was the first to go to the transition area.
In T1, however, it was the British Sophie Alden who got her bike out of the racks just a bit faster and could start her forty-kilometer bike ride. Immediately behind her was a group of ladies, who were able to catch up with her after a few hundred meters; this created a leading group of seven athletes in total. In addition to Alden and Rappaport, the French Candice Denizot and Emma Lombardi, South African Sarah-Jane Walker, Dutch Barbara de Koning and British Beth Potter were also in the leading group. With these ladies, all the favorites were already together and after a few kilometers, German Lisa Tertsch and Anabel Knoll, Portuguese Melanie Santos, Maria Tomé and Helena Carvalho, and Spanish Iria Rodriguez joined them, so the leading group consisted of more than ten women.
On the bike there were several attacks, but in the end no one managed to escape on the technical and also hilly course of Quarteira. The leading group, with Knoll as the first athlete, came back in its entirety in T2, with which the battle on the final ten kilometers promised to be a very exciting one.
During the run, it was initially Lombardi who started to set the pace and while the leading group quickly fell apart, it was then Potter who took over the lead and added to the pace. No wonder, since the British runner is known for her exceptional running level and decides races more than once during the run. Still, Lombardi was able to follow seemingly comfortable. Behind them it were Tertsch and Rappaport following as third and fourth.
With about three kilometers to go, Potter thought it was enough to run together with Lombardi and stepped up the pace once more. This acceleration proved too much for the Frenchwoman and so Potter decided the race in time. She finished after 1:58:56. Lombardi followed in 1:59:18 and Tertsch in 2:00:34.
