On a day full of thrills and spills at El Anillo – Extremadura in Spain, it was Switzerland’s Loanne Duvoisin and Arthur Serrieres of France who came through the tough conditions to be crowned 2021 World Triathlon Cross Champions.
It was fast, it was flat and it was
very, very muddy on the bike course and it clearly suited the two champions as
both found themselves well-positioned out of the second transition and heading
out onto the 6km run. The 2019 U23 Women's World Champion Duvoisin then put the
throttle down to claim a first full world title ahead of reigning Winter
Triathlon World Champion Sandra Mairhofer (ITA) and 2016's U23 World Champion Aneta
Grabmullerova (CZE).
“Today the bike went really well
after an awful swim for me,” said a thrilled Duvoisin. “I passed Sandra at the
end of the bike course and found the legs to finish strong. My preparations
haven’t been that good coming back from a fall at the beginning of the season
and it has taken a lot of work to get back to this point.”
And it was an emotional Serrieres who
took his first ever world title having left absolutely nothing out on the
course to achieve his dream, fellow Frenchman and defending champion Arthur
Forissier crossing for silver ahead of Spanish cross triathlon legend Ruben
Ruzafa.
“It was very tough, very emotional at
the finish line,” added the Frenchman. “I didn’t think I’d be at the top at the
end, I’m so happy. I had to push to the line and give everything to get my
first world title. For sure I will be back to defend my title next year and
hope to be in even better shape.”
The men were underway first and,
after the previous day’s silver in the Aquathlon race, it was again Richard
Varga stretching out the swim and leaving the field chasing his wake for most
of the 1km opening segment.
By the time he was coming out of
transition and onto the one-lap bike loop, the Slovakian’s nearest rival, Jesus
Jimenez Gimeno (ESP), was already 30 seconds back, Lukas Kocar (CZE) a minute
and the rest of the field even further off the pace but crammed full of
mountain bike specialists ready to make up the ground.
And that is precisely what they did,
Theo Dupras (FRA) absolutely flying through the 20km to post the fastest bike
split by a minute over Serrieres, the flatness of the course suiting him, the
mud proving little obstacle for the experts.
His teammate knew that he still had a
strong run in him, though, and Serrieres proceeded to claw his way back towards
the front over the first of three laps and making no mistakes all the way home,
even as the unusual course took the athletes up and onto the roof of the El
Anillo building.
Forissier outpaced Ruzafa to hold
firm for silver, Kocar running himself into fourth ahead of Dupras and Varga
edging a dramatic sprint for sixth with Eneko Llanos Burguera (ESP).
Federico Spinazze of Italy won the
U23 world title, Portugal’s Francois Vie the Juniors’.
“That was a tough race, but I did my
best and have no regrets,” said Forissier. “I had a strong bike but we didn’t
really catch the lead group and by the end I knew I had the run to catch the
guys in front of me. Apart from Arthur – he was just too fast.”
“From beginning to end it was pushing
hard,” said Ruzafa. “I tried to swim as fast as I could and gave everything on
the bike, I think third is a great result for me. Different parts of the course
suited us all differently, so it was always changing out there, it was very
hard.”
Much like Varga had in the men’s
race, it was Saturday’s women’s Aquathlon Champion Margot Garabedian of France
again showing her skills through the water to lead the women. She, too, was
able to string out the field significantly, carving out a minute of daylight
over Mairhofer and Michelle Flipo (MEX) out of T1.
Duvoisin soon found herself two
minutes back, the 2019 World Champion Eleonora Peroncini (ITA) two-and-a-half,
but while Peroncini struggled to get to grips with the bike course, Duvoisin
was able to begin closing down the leaders with every turn.
The inexperienced Garabedian had
fallen well back while Grabmullerova was going well on the bike to find herself
in third place but it was Switzerland’s 2019 U23 World Champion Duvoisin who
caught Mairhofer towards the end of the bike and from there she never looked
back.
Italy’s Marta Menditto was also
looking strong on the run to move into fourth position, but nobody could hold a
candle to Duvoisin who crossed the line almost two full minutes ahead of
Mairhofer and nearly four minutes over Grabmullerova, Mexico’s Flipo crossing
the line in fifth. Italy’s Giulia Saiu won the Junior World title.
“Loanne caught me at the end of the
bike but had the better running legs and I couldn’t catch her. She is an
awesome person and I’m so happy for her,” said a delighted Mairhofer
afterwards. “I had a really good swim but the rest was just okay, not good
enough to be champion. I caught everyone up early on the bike, Grabmullerova
lost me for a bit, then I managed to come back.”
“I was about 20 seconds behind Loanne
and Sandra off the bikes and I can’t believe I managed to keep the gap behind
me on the run,” said Grabmullerova. “I’ve had a lot of bad luck recently and
didn’t finish my last two races, so this is unbelievable.”
All the results from Sunday's races
can be found here
https://www.triathlon.org/results/result/2021_world_triathlon_cross_triathlon_world_championships_extremadura?mc_cid=a074d06bdb&mc_eid=6139649918
ABOUT WORLD TRIATHLON
World Triathlon is the international
governing body for the Olympic and Paralympic sport of triathlon and all
related multisport disciplines around the world, including duathlon, aquathlon,
cross triathlon and winter triathlon. Triathlon made its Olympic debut in
Sydney 2000, with a third medal event, the Mixed Team Relay, added to the
programme at Tokyo 2020, while para triathlon was first added to the Paralympic
programme at Rio 2016. World Triathlon is proudly committed to the development
of the sport worldwide, with inclusion, equality, sustainability and
transparency at our core as we seek to help triathletes at all levels of the
sport to be extraordinary.
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