On Saturday Romain Guillaume took the first victory of the season for the BMC-Etixx Pro Triathlon Team powered by Uplace. In the half distance triathlon of Guadeloupe the Frenchman dominated from start to finish. With a time of 4:07:00 he set a new course record. Andrej Vistica (CRO) finished second as Francky Favre (FRA) completed the podium.
A day later Sofie Goos put up a solid performance and finished 5th in IM 70.3 Buenos Aires.
Dominated from start to finish
Early in the swim Romain took the lead together with Toumy Degham. After the first swim loop the duo had opened up a small gap. In the second part they retained their lead. Romain exited the water in first position, closely followed by Degham and a big chase group.
Clearly Romain felt great on the bike. After 5k Romain had a small gap over the peloton and from then on he stepped up his pace and was able to brake away from the big group. Halfway through the bike leg the BMC-Etixx athlete had an advantage of 2 minutes over Antoine Jolicoeur Desroches. Romain kept his high pace and extended his lead to 7 minutes entering T2. With his bike time he smashed his previous bike record from last year with more than 5 minutes.
With a comfortable lead Romain started the 21k run. The Frenchman saw that his lead was big enough, so he started to save some energy with the long upcoming season in mind. Romain maintained his pace and broke his own course record from last year.
Very satisfied
Romains first race of the season directly resulted into a victory, the first for the team this season. Afterwards he was obviously very pleased. Especially about the way he won the race.
"It’s always nice to win, but to win with a new bike and course record feels even more satisfying. I felt great on the bike and didn’t doubt to brake away when I saw that I had a small gap after 5k. Smashing the bike record by 5 minutes shows the work I’ve been putting in on my bike this winter is paying off. So I’m really happy I took the win today, but the way I did makes me even happier. This race gives me a great feeling building up towards IM70.3 Puerto Rico in two weeks."
Solid Top 5 finish for Sofie Goos in IM 70.3 Buenos Aires
Sofie Goos started off her season in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Feeling really good in training the past few weeks, she was eager to show this in the race. Sofie came out of the water in 6th , 3 minutes behind the leading quartet. With a solid ride on the flat 90km bike course, she could move up to 4th having top 3 still in her sight. Although finishing off the race with a strong half marathon, Ariane Monticello could still overtake her, ending the race in 5th place. Sofie looked back at her first race of the season rather dissapointed: “Not my best day, or sure not good enough. All three disciplines were average, and that's obviously not the way to make it to the podium. Sadly I did not have the legs I felt in training the past weeks. I had a really good preparation coming into the race and felt confident to put up a strong performance today. Unfortunately, it did not come out in the race today. But I’m still eager and even more motivated to train hard to get the best out of myself in the next races!”Britain Kimberley Morrison won the race in 04:20:43, before Dede Griesbauer (USA) and Ariane Monticeli (BRA). |