It was an emotional first cross triathlon world title for Felix Forissier of France on Friday afternoon as he came through a tough Ibiza course to take the tape. There had been plenty of incident over the 20km bike as first defending champion Arthur Serrieres was out of the race then Arthur Forissier was unseated, but Felix kept his cool and his concentration to go on and take the tape with a gutsy run, edging Lukas Kocar (CZE) into second, Arthur Forissier with bronze.
“I am so happy,” said a smiling Felix Forissier. “It is such a great feeling to be able to compete with my brother. Two years ago, he was world champion and I thought then that maybe one day that could be me. He was pushing the pace and I just wanted to not lose sight, but when he came off, Kocar was pushing it hard too. I knew I had the legs to catch him and then it was my time to push!”
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Spain’s Kevin Tarek Vinuela Gonzalez was first out of the water by 12 seconds from Michele Bonacina, Eric Lagerstrom (USA) out third from the 1km swim and setting himself up well for the mountain bike.
The younger Forrisier, Felix, was 30 seconds back, defending champion Serrieres a minute off the front after an unusually poor swim, along with Forissier senior.
The brothers worked their way through the field to hit the front by the end of lap one, Lagerstrom and Kocar both going well as the leaders bunched together, Ruben Ruzafa sitting 40 seconds back trying to make up ground.
With the front six bunched on lap one and Serrieres finding himself stuck off the back, the defending champion took it upon himself to try and make things happen, but the risky, rocky line resulted in a puncture.
One fix later he was back at the top of the course, but the fix hadn’t lasted, and that was to be the early end to the French star’s hat-trick hopes. Arthur Forissier also came off hard to allow Lukas Kocar to take the lead and push the pace, Felix giving chase.
The powerful Kocar began to take control on the bike, Frenchman Maxime Chane briefly into silver position before Felix made another surge to move ten seconds ahead of his brother.
Lagerstrom was now 90 seconds back and falling out of medal contention, while Forissier made up precious seconds on the Czech leader in transition and then made sure he applied the pressure as early as possible, surging to the front and putting 10 seconds into Kocar over the first 1500m.
The lead stretched out even further from there, and Felix Forissier took the tape and the gold by 25 seconds, Kocar 20 seconds ahead of Arthur Forissier, Maxim Chane in fourth and the legend Ruben Ruzafa crossing in fifth.
For the full results, click here.
