Norway’s Hans Christian Tungesvik usually does long distance triathlon events, but tried something different and registered for a Winter Triathlon event. He surprised both himself and the rest of the field with the win (1:16:47) at the 2021 World Triathlon Winter Championships in Andorra. Eight-time world championship winner and race favorite Pavel Andreev had to settle for second place (+0:59). while Italy’s Giuseppe Lamastra completed the podium (+1:03).
It was Italy’s Franco Pasavento who took off fastest during the run and he managed to stay ahead of the pack for the entire 6.2 km run leg. He completed the first discipline in 22:24, leading the first chaser, the 2008 Ironman World Championship runner-up Eneko Llanos by 41 seconds. Right on his heels were Spain’s Victor Manuel Del Corral Morales and Italy’s Daniel Antonioli in third and fourth (+0:45). Race favorite Andreev took 1:25 longer for the first discipline and entered the transition in 10th place, getting ready for the hunt.
In the first lap of the bike Andreev closed twenty seconds on the race leader – Pasavento – who was losing some of the advantage he had over the chasers. Even faster than Andreev was France’s Maxim Chane, who managed to bike from 21st after the run to second on the second lap of the bike, chasing down Pasavento. Pasavento completed the 12 km of mountain biking in first place after 44:18 of racing, enjoying a six-second advantage on Chane and 24-second lead on Andreev, who found himself in fifth place after the bike.
During the cross-country ski leg everything changed again – surprisingly Christian Tungesvik moved himself from out of the top five and eventually took the lead and would take the win by a minute over the race favorite Andreev. Lamastra took home the bronze medal. Pasavento didn’t get rewarded for his strong racing in the first two disciplines, falling just short of the podium with a fourth place finish. Ironman athlete Llanos kept up in the run and bike, but wasn’t ready for this level of cross-country skiing. He finished in 16th place.
