Jul

Holten ITU Triathlon World Cup

By robin

Photo: triathlon.org | János Schmidt

Great comeback in the Netherlands

With the Hamburg round of the Dextro World Championship only a week away, the majority of the stars of ITU triathlon decided to sit this one out but that didn’t stop the up and coming names putting on a fantastic show as Erin Densham and Ivan Tutukin took victory in the Netherlands.

Densham, the 2006 U23 World Champion, who spent most of the 2009 season on the sidelines after undergoing heart surgery returned to the top level of racing with a comfortable victory that puts her right back up there with the two Emma’s (Snowsill and Moffatt) as favourites for an all Australian sweep of the medals in London come 2012.

Once again it was Hayley Peirsol that led the women’s field from the water. The former swimmer, who has a sub-16 minute 1500m to her name completely obliterated the opposition taking a 45 second lead out onto the bike. Despite her best efforts the main field was not letting Piersol have it her own way.

Shortly after Piersol was caught a group of 18 athletes broke clear. The group contained the two local favourites, Neiske Becks and Lisa Mensink, who raised the crowd volume another notch by leading the select group into T2 with what was now a minutes lead.

It didn’t take Densham long to assert her authority though and her surge was too much for the rest as she cruised home almost a minute ahead of a jubilant Anna Maria Mazzetti of Italy.

With the heat taking it’s toll on the men’s field, there were a number of attacks on the bike course before the Australian pair of Brendan Sexton and Joshua Amberger finally got away to enter T2 with a small lead.

Behind the duo of Tutukin and Yulian Malyshev ran through the field to join Joao Pereira and Brice Daubord approaching the line and the inevitable sprint finish which Tutukin won with a surprising turn of speed, leaving the others to fight over the minor positions.

Women