Eneko Llanos took the top podium spot at the 2010 Tri Grand Prix Basque Country event in Zarautz, Spain. Catriona Morrison defeated Leanda Cave and Mirinda Carfrae in the women's race.
Paul Matthews, Eneko Llanos and Mathias Hecht were first out of the water with Scott Neyedli, Torsten Abel, Mikel Elgezabal and Clemente Alonso not far behind.
Hecht pushed the pace on the bike and managed to get away from all pursuers. By the time they all hit T2, Llanos was 1 minute down and Alonso, Abel and Elgezabal trailed by another minute.
The fleet footed Llanos then charged into the lead on the run and although the final result was close, Llanos appeared to be in control and crossed the line first in 3:58:14. Alonso finished in second place with a time of 3:58:42 and Elgezabel's time of 3:59:43 made the Spanish podium sweep perfect.
"I took the lead in the first of the three laps of the run. I got a good gap at the end of the first lap, and although I knew Clemente was coming fast from behind I took a conservative pace just to maintain the first place. I didn´t want to push harder because I have more races coming in the next weeks and I didn't want to hurt myself," said Llanos to slowtwitch. "Clemente was close at the end but I had a good margin and never saw my win at risk."
In the women's race Leanda Cave started her day with a super fast swim and had almost 3.5 minutes in the bank as she started the bike.
Catriona Morrison, Mirinda Carfrae and Jo Lawn were all chasing very hard on the bike but barely made a dent into the lead of Cave. As they started the run, Cave's lead was still about 3 minutes.
Morrison though put the hammer down on the run and caught Cave late in the run to claim the win in Zarautz in 4:18:25. Cave held on to second in 4:19:07 and Carfrae finished in third place with a time of 4:22:33.
"Pretty tough little cookie point to point ocean swim round the coastline with some pretty large swell and only two buoys the whole way. I'm surprised that I didn't swim back across the channel," said Morrison post race. "3 lap bike course rolling first lap and then the last 20k was epic - kind of like the beast in St Croix multiplied by 2 and then another 3k steady climb shortly after that. Great honest course - very very pretty."
The pros battled for a prize purse of € 40,000 and Eneko Llanos and Catriona Morrison each earned € 8,000.
Tri Grand Prix Basque Country
Zarautz, Spain / June 12, 2010
swim 1.2m / bike 56m / run 13.1
Top 5 men
1. Eneko Llanos (ESP) 3:58:14
2. Clemente Alonso (ESP) 3:58:42
3. Mikel Elgezabel (ESP) 3:59:43
4. Mathias Hecht (SWI) 4:00:24
5. Torsten Abel (GER) 4:00:33
Top 5 women
1. Catriona Morrison (GBR) 4:18:25
2. Leanda Cave (GBR) 4:19:07
3. Mirinda Carfrae (AUS) 4:22:33
4. Joanna Lawn (NZL) 4:34:52
5. Edith Niederfringer (ITA) 4:9:51
