No Spanish sunshine or high temperatures, but rain, wind and even low temperatures: Challenge Barcelona was turned into a duathlon today due to dangerous water conditions, but it didn’t spoil the fun for Belgian Jonathan Wayaffe. In a race in which he showed he was strong from the start and in which he also consistently raced nicely from the front, he just recorded his second victory as a professional athlete. Caroline Pohle took a strong win in the women’s race.
Half an hour before the start, the race was changed to a duathlon over 5 kilometers of running, 57 kilometers of cycling and 15 kilometers of running: the waters of the ocean may have been somewhat flat at the time, but the expectation was that that would soon change and so no risks were taken. For Wayaffe, that wasn’t so bad, because after a minute of silence observed at the start of the race to remember all the Spanish victims of the storms of the past few days, he quickly and powerfully took the lead during the first run. Wayaffe was joined by a large but constantly shrinking group, which thinned to less than 20 men during the first five kilometers.
Even on the bike, a large breakaway remained ahead, although that group quickly narrowed to eventually twelve men. Through the streets of the city centre of Barcelona, the pace was high and the athletes were not afraid to reach speeds of up to 60 kilometers per hour. When halfway through the bike leg it suddenly started to rain heavily, the pace dropped a bit, but the pace was still remarkably fast. While Wayaffe managed to hold on in the group, giving himself a great starting position for the run, it was Brit Samuel Dickinson who eventually broke away and started the run solo in the lead.
During that run, however, it was soon Italian Michele Bortolamedi and Wayaffe who proved to be the fastest and got caught up in a nice duel with each other. In the process, Wayaffe was able to rely on his always strong running legs, attacking with a few kilometers to go and securing a stunning victory. He won the race in 2:18:55, while Bortolamedi was second in 2:19:14. Briton Jack Hutchens finished third in 2:20:00.
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In the women’s race, for a long time it looked like Jessica Learmonth would win the race. She immediately took the lead during the first five-kilometer run and basically gave no one a chance to catch on. During the cycling, her lead only increased and at the start of the fifteen-kilometer run, she had a lead of several minutes.
During that run, however, it was German Caroline Pohle who proved incredibly strong and made up her deficit within ten kilometers. In the last five kilometers, she even grabbed a small lead, to win the race in a time of 2:37:36. The battle for the podium was exciting, as Learmonth followed in second in 2:39:03 and Elisabetta Curridori followed in third in 2:39:16.
