Antonio Benito Lopez took 4th place at T100 Vancouver after an incredible surge in the final kilometers of the run. The BMC athlete made his decisive move at the very end of the race to charge from 6th to 4th place, resulting in a 3:15:11 finishing time. Belgium scored a 1-2 with Jelle Geens (BEL; 3:12:49) outrunning Marten Van Riel (BEL; 3:13:38) for the win and Mika Noodt (GER; 3:14:46) rounding out the podium.
Strong in all three disciplines
Two weeks after a difficult race in San Francisco, Antonio Benito Lopez toed the line in Vancouver looking for revenge. The day started perfectly with him coming out of the cold water as leader of the first chase group, only 30 seconds back to the leading pack.
On the first lap of the bike, Antonio rode in between the front of the race and the big chasing group while hanging around that same half minute deficit for a long time. At the halfway mark, he had settled inside that chase group, battling for 5th place, 50 seconds behind the leading quartet. Lopez kept riding attentively in that group, making sure the gap towards the athletes in front of him didn’t grow too much. After a strong bike performance, the Spaniard racked his bike in 5th place, less than a minute down from the lead. In the first kilometers Antonio ran shoulder-to-shoulder with Kyle Smith, battling for that 5th position. Just before the halfway mark, the BMC athlete decided to not overdo and settle for his own pace in 6th place, 1 minute back of the podium places. The distance towards the closest athletes in front of him never grew to more than 40 seconds, so Benito Lopez knew there was still a lot possible if he dug deep. And so he did. With 4k to go, he had cut down his deficit towards 4th place to 20 seconds. Having paced his efforts perfectly, Antonio was able to put in a final surge. With 1.5k left, he managed to move up to 5th and another kilometer later, he placed his final kick to take over 4th place. Antonio posted a finishing time of 3:15:11, only 25 seconds back to the final podium spot. An excellent, well-paced performance in all three disciplines, where he never raced outside top 8 all day long, capped off with a perfectly executed run. The Spaniard's performance gets him up to 5th in the T100 Championship rankings.
Pushed to the limit
"What a race", Benito Lopez reflected. "The T100 Series keeps surprising me. Anything can happen at any moment and they truly push you to your limit. I am really happy with this result and how I raced today. I felt really strong in all 3 disciplines and hungy for more. Time to recover now and to get ready for the World Triathlon Long Distance World Championship in two weeks time".
Lucy Byram takes 9th in Vancouver
After a difficult swim, the BMC athlete entered T1 in 17th place. But, that’s where she started to swing things around. With a very strong bike performance and 3rd fastest bike split of the day, she moved all the way up to 6th place. On the run, she gave it her best and crossed the finish line in 9th place with a time of 3:41:50. Taylor Knibb (USA; 3:30:50) broke the tape as Julie Derron (SUI; 3:32:55) and Jessice Learmonth (GBR; 3:33:18) came home 2nd and 3rd.
Teammate Miguel Hidalgo toed the line in Vancouver as well for his first ever T100 race. After a very strong swim, he exited the water in the lead group. But the limited time to prepare on the TT bike after his WTCS win only 2 weeks ago and racing on 3 continents in the past month, eventually caught up with him in the closing stages of the bike. Hidalgo had to withdraw from the run. A huge lesson learned and Miguel is confident he can come back to win one day. "It’s been a while since I learned this much in a single day. I wasn’t quite prepared and made some naive choices on the bike. Just grateful for the chance to grow through it. Patience, I always find a way".
