LENZENHEIDE WINTER TRIATHLON CUP
20 February: The Swiss resort of Lenzerheide in the canton of grison hosted the first ITU Winter Triathlon Cup of 2000 here today. The exciting venue is situated around the frozen Lake Lai with the 2863m Mount Rothorn serving as background.
The race, also part of the Swiss Winter Triathlon Cup, consists of a 7km two lap run round Lake Lai, a demanding 14km two lap mountain bike (100m climb each lap) and a final 10 km two lap x-country ski.
The reigning World Champion Nicolas Lebrun of France and Marianne Vlasfeld of the Netherlands proved too tough of all challengers. Under a slight but constant snowfall, and with the sun only showing up on occasion, Iwan Schuwey of Switzerland and Lebrun went head-to-head during the run leg. Lebrun broke away on the mountain bike course and held his lead through the bike to Cross Country Ski Transition, despite having a problem putting on his skis. Marc Ruhe of Liechtenstein, who crashed on the bike, managed to recover and catch Lebrun on the ski, as did Paolo Riva of Italy, who was in 6th position after the run. Lebrun held off his challenger to win by 2 seconds over Ruhe, with Riva another 35 sec behind.
After the race, Riva claimed he was focussing on the Winter Triathlon World Championships in Jaca, Spain in 2 weeks times, but felt he should have been closer to the leader on the snowy and technical mountain bike section.
In the women's race Marianne Vlasveld of the Netherlands held off the challenge of hometown favourite Karin Möbes of Switzerland who is still suffering from the broken rib she suffered 2 weeks ago. Möbes lost 2 minutes in each of the first two sections, so Vlasveld only had to fight against herself and the wintry conditions. Karin Bliemhuber of Germany, the reigning World Junior Champion was 3rd.
ITU President Les McDonald attended the event, accompanied by newly elected Swiss Triathlon President Anne-Marie Gschwend and Vice President Rene Kissling.
VIEW THE RESULTS
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