Chris Stirling (UK) Dominates At The Canada Man/Woman Extreme Triathlon

Press Release / 11.07.2017

Lac-Mégantic, July 9, 2017. The first edition of the Canada Man/Woman Extreme Triathlon was blessed with exceptionally good weather conditions. Sole triathlon of this kind in North America is still fairly uncommon and attracted some 215 athletes, from 11 countries to take the challenge of going over a race course totalling 226 km with a climb of 4 000 m.

The morning of the start, as a commemoration for the victims of the July 2013 railway tragedy of Lac-Mégantic, the triathletes have solemnly undertaken their long day with the "Wind Walk", walking silently towards the start in "Parc des Vétérans" on a wooded boardwalk that was built along the railway.

Under the benevolent light of a full moon, at 4:30 am, they entered the cold and choppy waters of Mégantic Lake in preparation for the 3,8 km swim, first stage of this triathlon. Nobody suspected that the lead of the race would be so close between the expected winner, the British Chris Stirling and his closest rival, the Canadian Jérôme Bresson from Saint-Théodore-d'Acton.

With a time of 1 h 8 min 51 s, Chris Stirling took 13th position after the swim, behind Jérôme Bresson who benefited from a small advantage with a time of 1 h 6 min 33 s.

Both of them had to push hard on their bike in order to gain some positions. After 180 km biking, they occupy the 2nd and 3rd positions with only 41 seconds between them. Less comfortable on asphalt, Chris Stirling regained all his confidence and speed on the trail running section and took a definitive lead over his nearest rival.

He became the overall winner of this, the first Canada Man/Woman Extreme Triathlon in a time of 11 h 08 min 24 s. Jérôme Bresson finishes 2nd with a time of 11 h 23 min 58 s and Brian Rusche from Toronto took the 3rd position with a time of 11 h 33 min 44 s.

In the women's race, Lyne Bessette, the Olympian cyclist from Sutton dominated. In 8th position after the swim, she passed all the other women on the bike section and crossed the finish line in a time of 12 h 37 min 43 s. Joannie Desroches and Sandrine Tirode, both from Montréal, finished in 2nd (14 h 44 min 25 s) and 3rd (15 h 27 min 28 sec) position respectively.

For the Relay category, the men team "Bionick Triathlon" arrived first in a time of 11 h 09 min 45 s, second, the mixed team "L'équipe à Bébette" in a time of 11 h 41 min 09 s and in 3rd position, the men's team "Club Attitude" in a time of 11 h 52 min 28s.

All along the race course, the triathletes were warmly cheered by the people from the region of Megantic who gave them some more courage and energy to reach the stars before midnight!

[Chris Stirling was racing for SleepMonsters.com/Triathlon Hideaway and we'll his full race report of the day on site soon.]

For the full set of results :

https://www.sportstats.ca/
www.caxtri.com
https://www.facebook.com/CAXTRI

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