In a stellar weekend for Suunto Ambassadors, Javier Gomez (ESP) finished third and Helen Jenkins (GBR) second in their respective races at the Madrid round of the ITU Dextro Energy World Championship Series on June 4 and 5.
Gomez was third to brothers Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee having spent most of the race with the British duo at the head of the race. Gomez was one of the first out of the water after the 1.5km swim leg and worked hard with the Brownlees during the 40km bike to establish a strong breakaway of 12.
On the 10km run, Gomez and the Brownlees quickly opened a gap over their rivals but soon even Gomez couldn’t hold the ferocious pace. Crossing the line arm in arm with his brother, Alistair finished in 1h 51min 6sec to win the ITU Madrid event for the third time running.
Gomez came in 45seconds behind, his third spot enough to keep him top of the ITU World Championship Series rankings. Fellow Suunto Ambassador Jan Frodeno (GER) was sixth a further 52 seconds back.
“It was a good race, always good to get on the podium at home,” said Gomez. “Today there were two guys stronger than me, they showed an impressive level – all credit to them. I will keep on working to try and beat them in the next one.”
“It was amazing how they won today. We (three) worked really hard on the bike leg to make the breakaway. I tried to follow them on the first lap of the run but they just smashed me. (Alistair) did 30min 8sec on the run, which is one minute faster than in 2010 – that’s impressive!”
“I didn’t taper much for this race,” said Gomez who is building his season around a successful defense of his World Championship title. “There are a lot of important races coming up, in London and then in Beijing where the World Championships will be decided so there’s still a long way to go.”
For Frodeno, it was a welcome return to the top ten after a disappointing first race of the season in Sydney.
“It was a really tough race, I’m happy. For the first time in about six months I was able to push a little bit. It’s a long way to go, it’s 14 months to the next Olympic Games and this is a good starting point. I’m really looking forward to the rest of the season.”
“After the swim, the guys went really hard on the first hill and I couldn’t quite go with them. It took me two laps to catch up which really hurt me, I was on the limit the whole time. For the rest of the cycle, I was just trying to recover.”
“It was an honest race. All three disciplines were taken to maximum (level), which is good – that’s the progression of the sport. It’s great to see and be a part of.”
In the women’s event, Jenkins was second to Canadian Paula Findlay who sprinted ahead of a lead pack in the final metres of the run.
Jenkins was happy with her silver, particularly after cuts from a bike crash in the opening round in Sydney became infected and put her out of training for two weeks during the lead-up to Madrid, but said she just couldn’t hang on to Findlay.
“I was kind of hanging on and my legs weren’t feeling great and I knew that Paula was going to push on (at the end of the run),” said Jenkins. “I just wanted to hang with her, but I just couldn’t keep up, she was just too good over that last 400 metres.”
Jenkins now stands in fifth on the overall rankings with the next ITU World Championship race taking place in Kitzbühel, Austria on June 18-19.
Photos by ©Delly Carr/ITU