On the other side of the World races have been commencing for over a month, in Europe the ETU Quarteira Continental Cup is the opening race of the season. The start list for the women and men was stacked, a really strong field as always, which didn’t disappoint on race day with some exciting racing.

 

Friday’s race course recce gave the competitors the chance to familiarise themselves with the bike circuit, 6 laps of a slightly different course this year for the seniors. Each lap featured three 180 degree dead turns (the bottom deadturn by transition was removed this year), a steep climb (~600m) and obviously a fast decent with a relatively tight corner adding to the excitement.  The competitors also had the opportunity to practice race starts, running in and out of the water and getting use to the conditions in the sea straight after the bike recce, although as last years race showed the conditions can change on race day.

 

The Welsh contingent for the senior race included Zoe Thomas in the women’s field and Morgan Davies and Iestyn Harret in the men’s race. There were a number of other British athletes in the senior races, Lucy Hall, Jess Learmonth, India Lee, Jenny Manners, Hannah Drewett, Katie Synge and Grace Hobbs for the women’s. The men’s field included Matthew Sharp, Chris Perham and James Teagle. 

 

13:45 saw the start of the women’s race with choppy conditions making it a harder swim than in the recce where the waves were larger but a lot more spaced out (a great surfing set). That said, post-race the women said it was choppy out the back of the course with big waves smacking them in the face so they had to breathe the other way.  

 

What a start we had, Jess, Lucy and Pamela Oliviera (Brazil) clearly had a game plan. They stood far right with Aileen Reid and a number of the other top 10 ranked women standing on the left of the blue carpet. Jess, Lucy, Pamela and Kingma (Netherlands) went from the gun, these girls showed how to take the swim out, opening up a 38s gap on the first 750m lap and a further 20s on the second lap and headed out of T1 onto the bike with a 1.15minute lead on 5 chasers who were quickly swallowed up by the next group within the first lap of the bike. Zoe had a strong swim, she was in the middle of the main pack on lap one, pacing it well and came out right next to Aileen at the front of the main group heading into T1. Zoe’s got great transition skills, so when she fell around the turn point with her bike in hand and was then bumped on the ground as other girls leant on her to keep their balance it was a bit of a surprise. Zoe collected herself well, stayed in control, didn’t panic and got on with the job. She and Hannah quickly established themselves at the front of a line of women, and they had swallowed up the 5 chasers behind Lucy, Jess, Pamella and Kingma on the first lap. Jess and Lucy had gone through T1 like a rocket. They were committed and started the bike so strongly they had dropped Pamela and Kingma straight away. These two girls were on a mission, it was really impressive to witness and after the first lap the gap was 1.40minutes to the front group which consisted of 20 women. Zoe, Hannah, Aileen, Pamela and a few others tried to create a break and when they did open up some small gaps during the bike leg the other women closed them down (and rightly so, you wouldn’t want them to escape but frustratingly the group didn’t cooperate and people sat on or chased down but didn’t contribute to the work at the front). Jenny was attentive and riding smartly at the front of the group. Unfortunately she didn’t manage to get in a move with the other women which could have added some more firepower and maybe would have meant they could have set about chasing the two leaders in a more focused manner. Grace, India and Katie unfortunately DNF’d during or after the bike but will return to fight another day and all were ok, no obvious injuries. 

 

Throughout the 40km bike Lucy and Jess showed how to be committed, these two had led from the gun and were setting about riding one of the strongest bike legs I have ever seen. They were in Team Time Trial mode, the gap kept growing back to the main pack, 1.15 became 1.40 and then it was 2.30 and before long more than 3 minutes. For each of the first 3 laps they could see each other as they passed at the bottom of the hill (Jess and Lucy were coming down and the main group were going up) or on opposite sides of the road on the flat sections. Before long, Lucy and Jess saw the other group going up the hill as they were on their way back on the flat and the gap was near 4 minutes. Despite some mechanical issues with their bikes which forced them to slow down at times, demonstrating just how technically strong and physically committed these two were, they headed into T2 well clear. Within the last two laps the chasers were riding what looked like a very relaxed group ride, with Zoe being attentive towards the front now but settling in to 4th or 5th wheel so she did not needlessly put her nose in the sea breeze.

 

Jess and Lucy headed out onto the run with just over 4minutes to spare. Jess looked really strong and her run split showed evidence of that, she settled into a great rhythm and just set about getting from A to B as quickly as she could. The large crowds on the side were giving her plenty of encouragement and when she had opened up around a 40s gap to Lucy it was clear who had the best running legs on the day. Jess had lewd from the gun to the tape, a feat which you very rarely see in triathlon which shows just how strong a performance it was. Credit to Lucy, she ran really well and comfortably stayed ahead of some of the faster women in the main pack who were chasing her after a dominant display all day. Aileen, Pamella and a few others started the run quite hard, Aileen looked sensible with her pacing and reeled in some of the others who had gone off hard during the run. However, Periault and Dodet, the two French U’23 girls were super strong and ran clear off the front of the main pack runners. Meanwhile Zoe had set about putting her race plan into action. She held a consistent pace throughout, she looked comfortable and relaxed and put the 10th fastest run together on the day to secure her first top 10 position at an ETU Cup. She ran away from a number of strong competitors in that 20strong main pack who headed onto the run. Overall, Zoe displayed a strong performance across all disciplines, being attentive tactically during the bike and composed during the run.

 

Women’s Results

 

1st Jess Learmonth

2nd Lucy Hall

3rd Leonie Periault

10th Zoe Thomas

 

MENS RACE REPORT

The men’s race was full of fast racers. Last year showed a dominant French team lead out of the water and three of them team trialled on the bike to create French win. This year looked to start very similarly, Raphael and Shaw led out the swim but this year were joined by the German athlete Breinlinger . These guys were almost 30s clear of the front pack going onto the bike and held them off until the final two laps. The British men were right up there, Chris Perham had another strong swim, the same as last year, and got himself established in the front chase pack. Morgan was just off the back of this group and unfortunately as the way a race can go it meant he had to settle for the second main pack on the road together with Matthew Sharp. James Teagle was off the back of this group in another small chase pack and Iestyn was a little further back again. Iestyn ended up in a small group doing a lot of work. It was easy to spot Iestyn on his bright yellow bike and he was constantly on the front working in his small pack. 

 

Throughout the bike leg it looked as if the three leaders would stay away, they shared the work from the looks of things and the gap hovered around 40-60seconds to Perham’s group with Morgan and Matt Sharpe’s group a further 40s back. The front chase pack however got organised pretty quickly and with 3 laps to go really started to put the work in and made it across to the front three creating quite a big group. Meanwhile James Teagle’s group had also got the bit between their teeth and bridged up to Morgan’s group who just didn’t work enough at the front to make any significant inroads into the leaders. Morgan and Matt were also seen near the front and appeared to be riding smartly, doing enough in case anything happened but not doing more than anyone else.  There were quite a lot of passengers in that front group unfortunately.

 

Onto the run and the home nation’s Pedro Palma together with Frenchman Raphael set about running a strong 10km. Some of the other front pack athletes were together in small bunches but as the 10km run went on they soon became thinned out spaced by a few seconds apart. Morgan’s pack had come in around a minute behind the leaders, Montoya and a few others launched out of T2 and managed to get a small group of 4 or 5 away from their compatriots including Morgan. Matt Sharpe tried to go with them in the early stages, he looked very strong and put out a really fast pace. As the 10km went on Montoya was picking off people in that front group, just how close to the podium could he get? Morgan looked comfortable in the first few laps, he was running really well, looked very strong and at an increasing pace he was picking off people in front of him. Before long he had closed the gap to Chris Perham who had been in that front group off the bike. At the front of the race, Raphael showed his dominance and led the final few km from the front and powered away by a few seconds from Pedro, both of which were cheered on by the large crowd. Montoya set the quickest run time of the day but finished just outside the podium with Spain’s Castro stepping on the third place. Meanwhile, Morgan had closed down to Perham and Russell White overtaking Matt Sharpe in the process. It was a sprint finish and unfortunately from a Welsh perspective Perham just had enough to pip Morgan and Russell to the line (results don’t show this at the moment). Iestyn who reportedly had some stomach issues ran a really solid time further back, which had the swim and bike panned out differently, would have meant the end result could have been different. 

Hats off to all the men, that was a really exciting race, some breaks on the bike, fast running, some tactical running on people’s shoulders and numerous sprint finishes to sort out the positions.

 

Mens Results

 

1st Aurelien Raphael

2nd Pedro Palma

3rd David Castro Fajardo

14th Morgan Davies

50th Iestyn Harret