Kristian Høgenhaug started his season in style claiming the win at Challenge Salou after a dominating performance. Due to the cold weather conditions the swim was cancelled and replaced by a 4km run. Kristian was outstanding on the bike and ran a superb closing half marathon to take an impressive win in his season opener on the Spanish Costa Dorado. The BMC Pro Triathlete took the title in 3:24:07. Sanchez finished second (3:24:50) with Holm completing the podium (3:24:56).
Afterwards a very happy Høgenhaug relfected on his performance: "It turned out in the best possible way, first place here in Challenge Salou. It turned out to be a duathlon instead of a triathlon due to weather, although it is quite nice now. But in the morning the temperature of the sea water was 13 degrees and the air temperature was 4 degrees. So we did a 4k run, 85k on the bike and then ended with a half marathon. It turned out perfectly for me. I didn't quite expect to win here with almost 70 guys at the starting line. This should have been a runners race, but I rode away with Robert Kallin and Ruben Zepuntke. And then from there I could control it in the half marathon.
One of my best performances
Kristian continued: "It went pretty well, I think I did a new PB power on the bike and still had very good legs on the run. I ran a 1h12 for the closing half marathon. I am quite excited, a good rust buster for the Ironman World Championship in St George in 5 weeks time. I think I am ready."
Chelsea 7th at IM70.3 Oceanside
Chelsea Sodaro finished 7th in a stacked field at IM70.3 Oceanside. The BMC athlete came home in a time of 4:16:07. The race was won by Taylor Knibb (USA; 4:06:32) with Luisa Baptista (BRA; 4:08:45) and Holly Lawrence (USA; 4:09:17) crossing the line in second and third.
With a beach start, Chelsea Sodaro was ready to take on a stacked field. She exited the water in 8th place, 1’45 behind the front group. On the bike, Chelsea rode her own pace. That resulted in a 9th place, entering T2 with about a minute down on 7th place. Sodaro made quick work of that 7th position as she took that place over just before the halfway mark of the run. From that point onwards, the BMC athlete managed her pace to the line to take home 7th place.
Afterwards Chelsea looked back at her race: "Today was tough for me. I feel like my training indicated a better performance but I didn't quite put all of the pieces together. I picked up on some of the things I need to work on and I'll take those forward into the rest of the season
