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Romain Guillaume wins IM70.3 South Africa, Emma Pallant 4th IM70.3 Dubai

Romain Guillaume took the victory in IM70.3 South Africa. After dominating the entire bike leg the Frenchman managed to consolidate his lead during the run and finished the race in a time of 4:08:57. James Cunnama (ZAF; 4:11:26) secured second place as Kyle Buckingham (ZAF; 4:14:29) finished third.

The day started perfectly for Romain Guillaume. He entered T1 in 5th place, trailing the leaders by only 7sec. In the first few kilometers on the bike Romain took the lead and straight away increased his pace to put the rest of the lead group under pressure. He immediately broke away and at the halfway point he had already a substantial gap of 2:35 over second place. The BMC-Etixx athlete continued pushing during the second half of the bike leg and jumped off his bike with a lead of 6 minutes.

During the run Guillaume controlled the race all the way. His lead dropped back to 5:14 halfway, but his win was never in danger. After 4:08:57 Romain crossed the finish line in first place. The first victory for him and second win for the team in the 2017 season.

Afterwards Romain was obviously pleased with his win: “I am very satisfied with my performance today. I’m really happy with the fact that my training approach and all the efforts over the past months are starting to pay off. This victory gives a lot of satisfaction and enables me to work with a lot of confidence towards my first big goal of this season: IM Lanzarote. Today all three disciplines went well. I gave my all on the bike without thinking about the run. On the run I felt good too, and I was able to control and consolidate my lead. This win is fantastic boost for the upcoming season.”

On Friday, Emma Pallant (4:07:05) finished 4th in IM70.3 Dubai. It was her first race for BMC-Etixx Pro Triathlon Team p/b Uplace. Pallant excelled during the run putting together the fastest run split of the day. Daniela Ryf (CHE; 4:01:40) won the race with Ellie Salthouse (AUS; 4:04:05) in second and Sarah Crowley (AUS; 4:06:23) in third.

Emma Pallant exited the water in 12th place with a deficit of 2’30 over the lead of the race. During the first part of the bike leg, Pallant was able to close down the gap to the top five to 1’ and kept her position in the field. In the last few kilometers on the bike, the British athlete lost some time, but Pallant knew she had a lot to go for with her incredible running pace. And she definitely did. Emma immediately found her running legs and managed to pass some of her opponents in the first kilometers of the run. She kept going strong and with a time of 1:18:21 she produced the fastest run split in the women’s field. Pallant finished in 4th place only half a minute shy of the podium. A great performance for Pallant to defend the BMC Etixx-colors for the first time.

Emma looked back at her performance: “I am happy with my race and my 4th place finish. After missing the bike pack, I had to tough it out today and try to stay in contention on the bike to finish with a strong run. We worked hard over the last few weeks to optimize my nutrition plan and it worked so well today. So there are lots of positives to take out of today’s race.”

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