Forissier, Riou win XTERRA Italy - Lake Garda
Press Release / 07.06.2019
French athletes Arthur Forissier and Morgane Riou captured the XTERRA Italy-Lake Garda off-road triathlon elite titles with winning times of 2:41:22 and 3:10:02, respectively, on Sunday, May 26, 2019, in Toscolano Maderno.
For Forissier, it is his first XTERRA win this season and the second major victory after winning the 2019 ITU Cross Triathlon World Championship last month. For Riou, it was her first victory of the season following a fourth-place at XTERRA New Zealand and a sixth-place at the XTERRA Asia-Pacific Championship.
In the men's race, Italian Matteo Bozzato was first out of the water together with Mathurin Boutte and Floriano Nicollardi. Thirty seconds behind were fast swimmers Doug Hall and Tiago Maia, and another 30 seconds behind were the favorites; Forissier and last years Garda Champ Arthur Serrieres. The first loop of the bike found Forissier and Boutte together in the lead with Italians Filippo Rinaldi and Bozzato working together just 15 seconds behind the leaders. Last week's XTERRA Malta Champion Rui Dolores was in fifth place proving that this year he has made big improvements.
After a crash by Rinaldi, Forissier made his move on the second loop and entered transition in first place with 60 seconds to Rinaldi. Bozzato would enter in third place but Serrieres was coming strong from behind in fourth place and Dolores was still maintaining his fifth place with a solid performance. Forissier was on fire, pushing from the start of the run and opened the gap to three-minutes over Serrieres, who moved into second place by the end of the first run split. Rinaldi held strong in third place just 30 seconds behind him and Dolores moved to fourth having overtaken a cramping Bozzato.
Nothing would change during the second half of the run and Forissier crossed the finish line first, with last year's winner Serrieres in second, and Rinaldi was the first Italian and third overall in the elite category. Dolores had another great day among a strong field of athletes and finished fourth. Filippo Barazzuol was the second Italian of the day to complete the top five. A great performance of note from Xavier Dafflon from Switzerland, who started the run in 12th place but managed to finish sixth.
Elite Men's Results
PL NAME, NAT Time Points
1 Arthur Forissier, FRA 2:41:23 75
2 Arthur Serrieres , FRA 2:43:38 67
3 Filippo Rinaldi, ITA 2:46:06 61
4 Rui Dolores, POR 2:46:30 56
5 Filippo Barazzuol, ITA 2:48:19 51
6 Xavier Dafflon, SUI 2:48:43 47
7 Riccardo Ridolfi, ITA 2:49:01 43
8 Francesco Figini, ITA 2:49:33 39
9 Lorenzo Ciuti, ITA 2:50:21 36
10 Geert Lauryssen, BEL 2:50:38 33
11 Karel Dusek, CZE 2:50:47 30
12 Samuel Jud, CHE 2:51:45 27
13 Matteo Bozzato, ITA 2:54:01 25
14 Aleix Sierra Oliver, ESP 2:54:33 23
15 Doug Hall, GBR 2:55:40 21
In the women's race, super-fast swimmer Nicole Walters was first out of the water with a three-minute lead over Sabrina Harpaintner. Another twenty seconds later, the 2019 ITU Cross Tri World Champion Eleonora Peroncini, together with fellow Italian athlete Sandra Maihrofer, exited ahead of Anna Tomica from Poland.
After the first half of the bike, Peroncini had taken the lead from Walters and had a one-minute gap over Helena Karaskova. Riou was working together with Karaskova to close the gap. Karaskova pushed on the second loop and took the lead reaching transition with a small gap to Riou and Peroncini just behind in third. Maihrofer was in fourth place three-minutes back, and Alizee Paties was in fifth. Riou made her move and took the lead at halfway through the run on the steepest section of the course. Karaskova was not done and would re-take the lead on a technical downhill. Peroncini was not able to keep pace with the front duo and was already two minutes and 30 seconds behind them.
In the end, Riou broke away from Karaskova and opened up a 60-second gap at the end to finish first. Karaskova came in second and Peroncini third, four minutes later. Fourth place went to Maihrofer and fifth to Paties.
Elite Women's Results
PL NAME, NAT Time Points
1 Morgane Riou, FRA 3:10:03 75
2 Helena Karaskova, CZE 3:11:06 67
3 Eleonora Peroncini, ITA 3:15:07 61
4 Sandra Mairhofer, ITA 3:17:09 56
5 Alizee Paties, FRA 3:21:19 51
6 Sabrina Harpaintner, DEU 3:27:15 47
7 Anna Tomica, POL 3:29:30 43
8 Camille Defer, FRA 3:31:21 39
9 Nicole Walters, GBR 3:42:31 36