Sam Dickinson has claimed his first long distance victory at IM70.3 Italy. The BMC athlete led the race from start to finish to break the tape in a time of 3:40:17. On the podium, he got accompanied by Rostyslav Pevtsov (AZE; 3:41:42) and Seth Rider (USA; 3:43:06).
Sam Dickinson toed the line in Italy with fire in the belly. That motivation was clear from the start of the race as Sam led the pack out of the water. A large group of eight other athletes followed in his footsteps.
On the bike, Dickinson immediately took control of the race. He pushed the pace straight away and started to break away. After 20k, he opened up a gap of 40 seconds over the first chasers. At the halfway mark, that advantage had grown to one minute. The BMC athlete kept extending that lead with another 47 seconds as he flew into the final 20k. Sam didn’t take his foot off the gas in the final stages of the bike and kept pushing hard. He eventually reached T2 with a commanding lead of 3’30. Just like on the bike, Dickinson flew out on the run course to extend his gap even more. After completing the first four kilometers in just over 13 minutes, he ran 4’14 in front of Hellwig in second place. From that point onwards, the Brit started to control his lead as he started the second half of the run, nearly three minutes in front. Sam kept his pace more than solid towards the line and came home victorious in a time of 3:40:17. Dickinson secured his first long distance victory after a convincing performance with the fastest swim and bike split of the day.
Felt really strong all day
Afterwards Sam reflected on his first long distance victory: "Managed to take the win today. Beach start, which was really good, managed to exit the water in the front and lead out a group of 4 out of transition. Rode solid early and managed to open up about a minute gap in the first 20k, so pressed on individually. Came off the bike with a lead of almost 4' to the other favourites and kind of managed the gap from there. On the 3 lap run course I was able to keep a healthy advantage in lap one and two and was able to enjoy a bit more on the final lap. Really pleased with my victory. The bike leg is definitely what it won today. Huge thanks to my team and really looking forward to the next one".
