Australia’s Matthew Roberts may not be European, he still won today’s Europe Triathlon Cup in Kitzbühel. Just one second behind him, Germany’s Jannik Schaufler settled for second place, while Germany’s Simon Henseleit took third (+0:05).
Athletes who qualified during yesterday’s qualifier events, got to toe the line at the first of three short triathlons that took place today. Each triathlon consisted of a 250-meter swim, a 5.6K bike ride and a 1500-meter run. After the first series, the slowest ten athletes would be eliminated, leaving 20 athletes to start in the second series. Finally, another ten athletes would be left to race for the medals in the final series.
First two series
In the first two series, most of the field merged into one big lead pack on the bike, which meant everything came down to the run part. It was David Bove who took the win in the first series, followed by Schaufler – who finished each of the series with silver – and Henseleit. In the second series, the win was for Spain’s Esteban Basanta Fouz, second place went to Schaufler and third was for Roberts.
Final series
Just like in the first series, it was Australia’s Roberts who was first out of the water. He was followed by the German brothers Cedric Osterholt and Jonas Osterholt, who hopped on their bikes four and five seconds – respectively – later. Just like in the other series, initially, everything merged on the bike. Except that this time one athlete crashed: that was Bove, who won the first series. That meant one athlete was down. Meanwhile, another athlete attacked and took off. It was Czech’s Radim Grebik who created a little gap towards the rest of the field while in the saddle. Once he racked his bike back into T2, he enjoyed a 10-second advantage.
On the run, that advantage soon disappeared, as Roberts and Schaufler found a great rhythm. Soon they caught up with Grebik, took over, and ran off. Roberts continued to sprint towards the victory. Just a few meters before Schaufler, Roberts broke the tape. He needed 16:43 minutes to complete the short triathlon. Roberts settled for silver one second later, while Henseleit took third.
