Sylvain Denis, Walloon elite athlete, made his comeback last weekend at Verlaine. After a persistent hamstring injury, this was to be his first test of the season, or a very thorough training. Not holding back, he made it to the second spot, only having to bow his head to Nicals Schyns. Chris Bessemans was also present after his performance at RBR Geel one day earlier.
Chris proved to be the best duathlete at the RBR Series one day earlier, chose the double and started in Verlaine, resulting in an eighth place. It has to be said that there was a significant gap to the first two.
Schyns started off strong in the first run and managed to gap the competition. Sylvain Denis considered Verlaine an in-depth training session, managed to run a tad faster than foreseen and overtook Schyns on the bike. "Nicolas was riding strong, so I had hoped to catch him sooner. In the end I only took 10 seconds after the bike leg. I knew that, given my injury, this would not be sufficient during the second run. But the most important part is that I managed to run without pain," says Sylvain.
Nicolas won in 58'37, Sylvain Denis came second in 59'24. Jessy Potiez was the best of the rest in 1hr00'45. ATCC athlete Valerie Leroy won the female race in 1hr10'05, just over a minute lead over Sinead Doran, extending her good form from past cross duathlons. Natacha Kubica came third.
Original article posted on 3athlon.be by Hans Cleemput on 09/04/2018
Translation by @T0v3