The first Continental Cup race of 2023 took place in La Guaira, Venezuela yesterday. With temperatures nearing 30 degrees (Celsius), the athletes took on the Olympic distance for the first time this season.
Men’s race
Amid incredibly choppy conditions, the men took to the water from a beach start. Such was the size of some of the waves, those on the support boats did well not to get seasick.
Irving Perez of Mexico and Ramon Armando Matute of Ecuador broke clear and were the first out of water. Together, they built a solid lead of 38 seconds over the next athletes.
Perez and Matute rode hard through the early stages of the bike and tried to force the bike. While Perez is a former World Cup winner and in 2021 was the Americas Champion, it was realistically too early in the year to launch a two man breakaway over the Olympic distance.
As such, Perez and Matute were soon absorbed into a pack of eight men. Sitting within the pack was Perez’s compatriot, Rodrigo Gonzalez. A World Cup winner in Huatulco in 2018, Gonzalez had arrived in T1 in the middle of the field.
Over the course of the 40km, there was not a lot to separate the men, although some pushes were made. However, with Perez and Gonzalez in the field there was too much experience for anyone to escape off the front.
As a result, attention soon turned to the run. Of the contenders, Matute had perhaps the best form having won the Viña del Mar Americas Cup in November.
However, it was Gonzalez that soon surged ahead of the field and firmly stamped his authority over the race. His sole WTCS appearance in 2022 came in Montreal although he has a best WTCS finish of 5th which came in Bermuda in 2018.
In La Guaira, he showed all of his class as he put together a smooth 34:20 over the run and finished with a substantial lead. Perez was the second man home, finishing 1 minute 21 seconds behind Gonzalez.
Matute rounded out the podium in third place.
Women’s race
Although Xisca Tous wore number one on the start line, Maria Carolina Velasquez Soto came in as the form athlete. After winning a first World Cup medal in Viña del Mar in November, the Colombian athlete won an Americas Cup in Manta. On paper, Velasquez was also the strongest runner in the field so would need to be watched.
With a 7am start, the waves had not yet built to the levels seen in the men’s race, although conditions were hardly flat.
Despite the chop, the pace was pushed from the start in the water. In particular, Romina Biagioli made sure to keep the tempo high. In her last race of 2022, Biagioli won the Americas Cup in Viña del Mar. However, she was not the first woman out of the water and in the end it was Ivana Kuriackova that led the front group. Having also ended her 2022 with a silver medal at the Asia Cup in Manama, Kuriackova was not to be underestimated.
A largely uneventful bike course followed as a front pack of fifteen athletes stayed together. That played straight into Velasquez’s hands and she promptly delivered the fastest run of the day by 24 seconds to earn the win.
Tous out-ran Biagioli to take silver. With a buffer over 40 seconds to 4th place, Biagioli ended up taking a fairly comfortable bronze medal.
Several of the athletes will also be on the start line at the next Americas Cup in La Habana in Cuba in two weeks. One particularly interesting aspect of that race will be to see if Velasquez can make it three wins in a row.
View the full race results here.
