Last Sunday another cross duathlon took place south of the language border. Just as in Hofstade and Westende it was a sunny day in Jubise. On top of that, a battle took place between Flemish Kevin Strubbe and French athlete Robin Tournant. The women's race was dominated by the French.
Under a shining winter sun 240 participants started the 9th edition of the cross duathlon with a 4/23/2 distance. Organized by TCDM (Triahtlon Club De Mons) it turned out a great succes. The course was unchanged and consisted in 90% offroad with some technical climbs. Start for the mostly single track course was given at 11hr40 and in the first 500m, French Robin Tournant, last years U23 XTerra European Champion, managed to gap everybody. He arrived in T1 with a 20 second lead on Sylvain Denis by TriGT and Boris Rolin. Another 20 seconds later followed Tim Vijverman, Wim de Coene (Belgian and vice-World Charmpion duathlon), Nicolas Marin and Sylvain Versierd (both representing the French Valenciennes Triathlon Team).
The MTB course started off on a golf pitch, but quickly entered the woodlands battered by tractors, making the technical course even heavier. After one lap, Tournant had a 1 minute gap on Svensson athlete Kevin Strubbe and Denis. They were followed by Vijverman, Matthias Evrats and de Coene. Tournant started the final run in the lead, Strubbe, who put down the fastest bike split, closed to one minute, but was never a threat to the French.
The race for third was more exciting, but Rolin was just that bit faster during the final 2km run than Vijverman. de Coene Finished 5th, just ahead of Romain Denis. Sylvain Denis hit the wall during the second bike lap and had some technical issues afterwards. He finished 41st. The women's race was dominated by French Olivia Peytour for the 'Go Fast Armantières' teal. 5'30 later Marie Debroux came in second. Perinne Goldman completed the French women podium.
Next year, the 'Duathlon Vert' is op for its 10th edition, the organisation is planning something special. We like to think a long distance course.
Thanks to Kevin Strubbe for the race report
Results of the Jurbise duathlon
Original article by Hans Cleemput on 3thlon.be on 21/02/2018
Translation by @T0v3