The Frenchman Léo Bergère, with a time of 3 hours, 40 minutes and 24 seconds, won this Sunday the Half Ironman of Valencia, a test that had its first edition in the city and ended with victory by the Danish Laura Madsen in the women's category.
This Ironman 70.3 València has been the first of the three years signed by the city and has had a participation of 2,800 triathletes, the record, as explained by the company itself, for the first edition of an Ironman, which has distributed more than 40,000 dollars in prizes.
Madsen, with a time of 4 hours, 9 minutes and 58 seconds, finished ahead of the German Lena Maidser, who took second position in this test that in the men's category also had a German in second position, Jan Straatman , who finished with just a second ahead of his compatriot Jannik Schauffler after a great comeback in the last stretch of the half marathon.
Bergère and the German triathlete who finished second were the big favorites of this test, which consisted of swimming 1.9 kilometers in a route around the Marina of Valencia and then cycling for 90 kilometers on a route that included the ascent at various levels of the Calderona mountain range and, after descending again to the city, do a half marathon in the garden of the old bed of the Turia river.
Although the Swiss Sven Thalmann was the fastest to complete the first of the three disciplines with just over a second over Bergère, the French triathlete has begun to impose his pace on the handlebars. In fact, none of his pursuers, neither Straatman nor the British Joshua Lewis nor the Spanish Carlos Oliver, have managed to catch his wheel and keep up with him.
Something very similar happened in the women's category, as the Danish Madsen controlled the race as soon as she started riding the bike and after surpassing the German Caroline Pohle, who had been the fastest in the almost two kilometers of swimming. After that, the race was behind her and it was Maidser who took second place, beating Pohle, third and 25 seconds slower than her teammate.
