The Challenge Gran Canaria at Mogan turned out to be a tense clash between six elite athletes on the half distance triathlon. Two of those were Belgians who directly confronted Patrick Lange, World Champion Ironman. Pieter Heemeryck finished 6th, Bart Aernouts 4th, not far behind Lange. The win went to Spanish Pablo Dapena who was also on the podium in Rome last week. Yvonne Van Vlerken dominated the female race.
Van Vlerken made the difference on the 90km bike course. Only Ewa Komander managed to keep the gap within 5 minutes, all other competitors lost over 10. Yvonne won in 4hr38'41, Komander second and Anna Noguera took third.
The male race had a lot more tension. Andi Boecherer went on an adventure during the bike leg, chased down by Pieter Heemeryck and Patrick Lange. BMC Vifitsport Team had to endure a DNF by Patrik Nilsson, but was compensated when Bart Aernouts joined the lead group at the end of the bike leg.
In the concluding half marathon Pablo Dapena took the lead from Boecherer. Lange followed in third 40 seconds later and another half minute went by for Bart Aernouts. The top four was set and in the final stages Sven Riederer overtook Pieter Heemeryck for fifth. Michael Van Cleven was third Belgian on 15th.
(https://www.facebook.com/bmcvifitsporttri/videos/2156844894548224/)
In the short distance race the Belgians were present as well. Tim Baelus kicked off his season in the Olympic distance race at Mogan, finishing second after German Fabi Eisenlauer.
The half distance races was crowded with strong Age Groupers. Kris Verbiest came 14th, 3rd M30. Hugo Debusscher second M45. M50 bronze went to Christophe Quartier, 4 seconds ahead of Gerd Goedhart.
Original article posted on 3athlon.be by Hans Cleemput on 21/04/2018
Translation by @T0v3