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Lisbon, Portugal, May 10: Frederic Belaubre won the 2008 European Triathlon Championships and thus earned his 3rd European title in 4 years. Vanessa Fernandes was victorious in the women’s race and now has won a record 5 titles, and that is not even counting her U23 and Junior crowns.

Richard Stannard was first out of the water followed closely by Belaubre and Stephane Poulat. Javier Gomez who was a few further seconds behind.

A massive group of 47 men started the bike together but eventually a group of seven that included Olivier Marceau, Andreas Raelert, Belaubre, Tony Moulai and Poulat managed to get away. By the time the seven hit T2 they had an almost 90 second cushion over the chasing pack.

By the 5 km point, Belaubre and Moulai managed to get away from Marceau, Poulat and Raelert and it soon became clear that a French athlete would take the 2008 Men’s title. In the final kilometer, Belaubre made his move and pulled ahead of his teammate and cruised to his third European title. Moulai held on to second place and Marceau nipped Raelert at the line.

The fastest swim among the women belonged to Joelle Franzmann who led all the women out of the water. For a while she rode alone on the somewhat flat 40 km bike course but soon the chase pack caught up with her.

The front group of 18 women managed to ride together well and gained a minute advantage over the first chase pack by the time they hit T2. Most of the pre-race favorites were in that front group including Fernandes, Nicola Spirig, Lisa Norden, Franzmann and Christiane Pilz. But Kate Allen who was a favorite too started the day with a slow swim and by the time she came off the bike she was more than four and half minutes behind.

Once on the run though, Fernandes immediately took charge and opened a nice gap. She would eventually cross the finish line first and thus take her 5th European Championships title. Nadia Cortassa finished second and Norden out-sprinted Spirig for third place

2008 Lisbon ETU Triathlon European Championships

Top 10 Elite Men

1. Belaubre, Frederic (FRA) 1:53:03
2. Moulai, Tony (FRA) 1:53:23
3. Marceau, Olivier (SUI) 1:53:54
4. Raelert, Andreas (GER) 1:53:54
5. Poulat, Stephane (FRA) 1:53:54
6. Simko, Pavel (SVK) 1:54:02
7. Gomez, Javier (ESP) 1:54:44
8. Zeebroek, Axel (BEL) 1:54:44
9. Riderer, Sven (SUI) 1:55:03
10. Petzold, Maik (GER) 1:55:08


Top 10 Elite Women

1. Fernandes, Vanessa (POR) 2:05:46
2. Cortassa, Nadia (ITA) 2:06:25
3. Norden, Lisa (SWE) 2:06:44
4. Spirig, Nicola (SUI) 2:06:44
5. Franzmann, Joelle (GER) 2:06:47
6. Vodickova, Radka (CZE) 2:07:05
7. Dollinger, Eva (AUT) 2:07:10
8. Ryf, Daniela (SUI) 2:07:25
9. Harrison, Jessica (FRA) 2:07:38
10. Abyssova, Irina (RUS) 2:08:04