Gustav Iden wins the Challenge Daytona with a comeback in the foot race

After the women's test where the Canadian Paula Findlay has achieved a clear victory, it was the men's turn, where practically the best triathletes in the world were on the starting line.

Among them were Javier Gómez Noya, Alistair Brownlee, Vincent Louis Gustav Iden o Lionel Sanders although there were many more figures among them. Eneko Llanos along with Noya were our representatives in the test,

The test has been contested entirely at the Daytona International Speedway circuit where the athletes have completed the following segments:

• 2.000 meters of swimming, taking 2 laps in the inner circuit lake.
• 80 kilometers of cycling, where 20 laps of the 4 km of the circuit have been completed.
• 18 kilometers of running, with 4 laps of 4,5 km

The winner has won $ 100.000

This PTO championship distributes more than $ 1 million in prizes, with the winners taking $ 100.000, the second classified $ 70.000 and the third $ 50.000

See in this article the PTO vs IRONMAN awards comparison

Competition

The test began at 20:00 Spanish time with the 2.000 meters of swimming where the first to get out of the water was Henri Schoeman followed by Andrea Salvisberg and Vicent Luis at 3 seconds.

Behind in a very stretched group Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee came out fourth and fifth, while Javier Gómez Noya was sixth. Eneko Llanos came out of the water in 44th position at 2:39 and Lionel Sanders in 49th position at 3:29 of the heads

In the cycling segment, in the first laps a very stretched group of 12 units in 17 seconds was formed, with Los Brownlee, Noya, Luis, Florian Angert or Ben Kanute among others.

When passing through kilometer 40 of the cycling segment, 13 triathletes were in just 36 seconds, where Noya passed 11th to 24 seconds behind Alistair Brownlee who led the test.

From kilometer 50 Javier Gómez Noya lost time going through PK 60 with a 1:31 disadvantage over the group of 11 leading units.

In the leading group, Jonathan Brownlee and Vicent Luis were sanctioned for Drafting.

In the passage through T2, a group of 7 triathletes arrived in just 22 seconds with Rodolphe Von Berg in the lead followed by Alistair Brownlee, Magnus Elbaek, Sam Appleton, Florian Angert, Tim O'Donnell and Thomas David.

Vicent Luis arrived at 1:07 along with Lionel Sanders who made a spectacular comeback in this segment.

Gómez Noya left the bike in the th position with 3:44 behind the leaders of the test.

In the race on foot, the first kilometers Sam Appleton took the lead trying to leave alone through PK 4 with 7 seconds of advantage over Thomas Davis and 13 over Von Berg, O'Donnell and Alistair Brownlee.

The Briton shortly after had to stop with a cramp when he was in the lead, losing all options to fight for victory. Finally he had to withdraw from the competition.

Gustav Iden, with a spectacular comeback in the race, was cutting positions, passing the duet of Appleton and David near kilometer 7 of the race

Iden, IRONMAN 70.3 world champion in 2019, got off the bike at 1:28 from the leaders

In the passage through the PK 10 of the race, Iden already led by almost 50 seconds to a group formed by Davis, Applenton, Schoeman, Sam long and Von Berg.

At this point Noya passed in position 18, climbing positions, but 3:59 from the head of the race.

In the passage through PK 10 of the race, Iden already led by almost 50 seconds to a group consisting of Davis, Applenton, Schoeman, Sam Long and Von Berg.

At this point Noya passed in position 18, climbing positions, but 3:59 from the head of the race.

In the following kilometers, everything focused on the fight for the podium positions, where at PK 14, the British George Goodwin came back and placed second, leaving the rest of the triathletes and leaving alone. At that point Sanders was already fifth, 5 seconds behind third.

Finally, the Norwegian Gustav Iden he got the victory and the PTO Championship with a time of 3:05:06.

The second position has been for the North American Matthew hamson(3:05:57) and third has been George Goodwin (3: 06: 09)

Lionel Sanders he has come very close to getting on the podium.

As for the Spanish Javier Gómez Noya has been eleventh and Eneko Llanos 31º.

Classifications

More information soon.