In an at times rainy and thus wet Austria, Tom Hug has just won Challenge St. Pölten for the second time in a row. After the swim, the German pro athlete was forced to start catching up, to eventually win with a nice lead.
After the swim – 1900 meters – Hug was more than two minutes behind the fastest men at the front and also fell outside the top ten. Biggest names within that top ten at that time included Maurice Clavel, Ognjen Stojanovic and Nicolas Mann, but after the first few kilometers on the bike, Hug managed to at least immediately establish himself within that top ten.
From then on Hug continued to gain time and positions, but it was not yet enough to actually take over the lead in the race. Once back in T2, he was second, but it was his compatriot Hannes Butters who was still half a minute ahead of him. Ondrej Kubo, Michael Weiss and Will Draper were in positions three, four and five at the time, conceding about a minute and a half to the first man.
During the run, however, it was immediately Hug who ran toward the lead position and saw his lead grow quickly as well. In the end, he won the race in a time of 3:52:48. Kubo was second in 3:54:59 and Draper third in 3:55:28.
In the women’s race, the win went to Laura Zimmermann. Chloe Sparrow and Sarah Schönfelder finished second and third.
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