It’s never too late to be on top of a World Cup podium for the first time, must have thought Petra Kurikova (CZE), 31 years of age, and who stormed the field with an impressive run that gave her the victory at the 2022 World Triathlon Cup Pontevedra. Second crossing the finish line was Lisa Tertsch, from Germany, while Sandra Dodet (FRA) claimed the bronze medal.
The 2022 World Triathlon Cup circuit landed in Pontevedra, Spain, for the third stop of the year, and a start list packed with athletes trying to get some more Olympic qualification points before the summer break. Fifty-eight athletes lined up in the pontoon on the Lerez river, ready for a 1500m swim, eight laps to cover 40km on a bike course flat but very technical to finish with a 10km run across the city center, and with hundreds of spectators lining up in the streets to cheer for the athletes.
A group of six athletes, commanded by Kate Waugh (GBR) and including Lena Meißner (GER), Jolien Vermeylen (BEL), Mathilde Gaultier (FRA), Sophie Alden (GBR) and Marina Kyryk (UKR), took easily control of the swim, and started to open a gap that by the time that they finished the first of the two laps, it was significant. The six of them stretched the field as much as they could before exiting the river for the long run up to transition, and by the time the small group was already on their bikes, they had already a 20 seconds margins with the chasers, Emma Jeffcoat (AUS) and Anna Godoy Contreras (ESP).
The speed bump right after the mountline was key for a few athletes, with Kyryk loosing the leader’s train, and slowing the trio chase group a bit, so even before the end of the first lap of the bike, there was a large pack of athletes trying to get organised to avoid the leaders opening a massive gap.
It did work out well, and in the eight laps of the bike course, the leaders never had more than 45 seconds of a lead. The group of five seemed to be working together to try to increase the gap, but the chasers managed to get organised despite being a large train, and managed carefully the numerous speed bumps (28 per lap, for a total of 224), the corners and the technical sections around the city.
The five leaders -Alden, Waugh, Gaultier, Vermeylen and Meißner- made it safely to the second transition without any mayor issues, and with 50 seconds over the chase group, but knowing that some of the best runners of the field were on that chase group, and some had fresher legs having stayed at the back of the large pack on the bike. The small group started to run leaving Meißner quickly behind them, while a few seconds behind them, the chase was on from the first minute.
It was Lisa Tertsch who decided to go full gas in the first lap, followed by Lea Coninx (FRA), while the leaders run though some of the most iconic landmarks of Pontevedra in the first lap. Quickly Alden and Meißner were dropped a few meters, while Lisa was approaching them like a train, with Coninx and Petra Kurikova following her steps. It only took Tertsch one lap to be on a position of fighting for the medals, and by the time they were crossing transition halfway through the run she was already in the first place, with Waugh in second and Vermeylen in third place. But behind them, another hurricane came flying: Petra Kurikova, an excellent runner, and catching athletes one by one.
With less than a kilometer to go, the efforts of the experienced athletes paid off and while Tertsch faded away on the list little climb to the Plaza de la Peregrina, she moved to first place, no one able to follow her. She entered the stadium to grab the tape and the first ever World Cup victory of her career by herself, with Tertsch managing to hold on to second place.
“I still can’t believe it, it’s amazing, ” said Kurikova, still amazed by her own performance this Sunday in Pontevedra. “We were a big group on the bike and I was a little bit scared, I was at the back of the group but then it was a run race, I know I am a good runner so it was good for me.”
“I just told myself I am going to give it all like I did in Hamburg and it worked out really well. I tried to stay present and focussed and it worked out really well today,” said Tertsch, bronze medallist in Hamburg WTCS a couple of weeks ago.“On the run, in the last 5 kilometers, that is where the race is decided always and that was the case today. You always got to stay patient. So I did, tried my best, and it did pay off”.
The third bronze was for another athlete that came from the second bike group, Sandra Dodet, that with a magnificent run proved once again that she is one always to be considered for podiums when it comes to World Cup races.
“I need to be consistent on World Cups to be better on WTCS. I had a pretty bad race two weeks ago in Hamburg, so I am really happy to be on the podium today,” she explained. “With the swim and the bike that I had today, I couldn’t believe that I could be on the podium, so I was very surprised and very happy.”’
Eva Daniels, from Luxembourg, claimed the fourth place, also coming from the chase group on the bike, while the fifth place was for Waugh, and Spanish young star Noelia Juan closed the top six athletes.