Pablo Dapena took a fantastic victory in his first half distance race of this season at Challenge Poland. The BMC athlete raced all day in front of the race and made the final break with an incredible run performance. Dapena broke the tape in a time of 3:44:47. On the podium, Pablo was accompanied by Sergiy Kurochkin (UKR; 3:49:22) and Kacper Stepniak (POL; 3:51:02).
A few months after the birth of his child, Challenge Poland kicked off the long-distance season for Pablo Dapena. The swim went perfect as Dapena exited the water in 3rd place, following the two leaders in their footsteps. From that point onwards, it was already clear the race would be decided by those three athletes. On the fast bike course, Pablo was pushing the pace in the first two laps. As he didn’t manage to open up a gap, the Spaniard made a conscious decision to sit at the back of the leading group and save his energy in the final bike lap. On the run, Pablo Dapena showed his race tactics were correct. Pablo left T2 in 3rd place, but in the very first kilometer he already made the pass to take the lead and control over the race. Dapena kept his pace high towards the line and his victory was never endangered. Ultimately, he broke the tape in a winning time of 3:44:47, posting a run split of 1:11:02. A real confidence booster towards his next race in a weeks time, the IM70.3 European Championship in Elsinore.
What a day!
Afterwards Pablo Dapena looked back at his excellent performance: “The beach start isn’t in my favor with my short legs but I managed to swim well and to exit the water in the lead group. During the bike, we were with three athletes working really well together to open up a gap over the rest of the field. On the run, I felt my best. I tried to keep my pace around 3:20/km towards the finish line, because I wanted to test myself towards IM70.3 Elsinore next week. That race will be a big challenge surely. All in all, I’m just happy to be back again after all the problems during the last months. It looks like it’s going in the right direction.”
