It was a glorious day in Miami for Challenge Miami, one of the first pro races of the season, with some amazing performance from some of the world's finest triathletes.
The shorter middle-distance style race took place at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. Athletes swam the 1.6km in the lake adjacent to the venue, while the 62.7km bike leg started at the Speedway before heading out on x17 laps of a 3.5km loop. Athletes finished with a 16.9km run. Total distance for this unique Challenge race was 81.2km.
Women's race
It was a British 1-2 in Miami but perhaps not the way we expected it to fall. Like we predicted Lucy Charles-Barclay led the swim but Sara Perez Sala was very close behind, with the chase group of Jodie Stimpson, Paula Findlay and Fenella Langridge just 1 minute 40secs behind them. The battle of the bike leg was on. Charles-Barclay and Perez Sala shared the lead for the whole bike leg but passing a lapped athlete on the left meant Charles-Barclay incurred a two-minute time penalty. By the last lap on the bike Perez Sala was in the lead with Charles-Barclay 6 seconds behind in second, and Findlay in third 2mins 15secs behind Perez.
However the two minute penalty saw Charles-Barclay start the run leg in fourth position, behind Stimpson.
A phenomenal run performance from Stimpson saw her take the lead in lap 5, with Charles-Barclay in third
Stimpson would hold on to that lead to finish first, with Charles-Barclay managing to overtake Perez Sala to take second. Then in the final stages American Jackie Hering ran through to take third.
Men's race
Jan Frodeno was one of the first out of the swim, with Ben Kanute, Nicholas Kastelein and Tim O'Donnell, but it wasn't plain sailing from there. Out on the bike Andrew Starykowicz and Magnus Ditlev edged out Kanute, Kastelein and O'Donnell to battle with Frodeno for the lead. In the end Starykowicz entered T2 first but the other two close behind.
Out on the run Frodeno's superior run pace soon became apparent and by lap 4 he had a lead of over a minute (01:21). Canadian Lionel Sanders was also working through the pack and by lap 4 had ran himself into 4th position. He would finally finish in second, with Kanute in third after a good run leg.
The top six in each race gained PTO World Raking points, which will count towards the innovative Collins Cup selections, set to take place later in the race season.