The second stop of the Olympic qualification last period takes athletes to the Portuguese capital for the World Triathlon Cup Lisbon. A thrilling standard distance race that will line up some of the best athletes of the world, including the Maurice Lacroix World Triathlon Championship rankings leader Kristian Blummenfelt, chasing the second victory of the season after his win in the World Triathlon Championship Series Yokohama last week.
With expanded start lists, to provide more athletes with the opportunity to race given the shortened start to the season, there are likely to be some surprise names making their way into the top ten at the end of the 1.5km swim, 40km bike, 10km run, even more considering that 26 men lining up in the beach this Saturday have been on top of a World Cup podium before.
You can watch all the action over on TriathlonLive.tv on Saturday from 12.30pm local time.
Wearing the golden number 1 will be Spaniard Mario Mola. Three-times world champion, Mola has been on top of the podium dozens of times and everywhere around the world, but Lisbon will be his second World Cup since 2016. He will start the season in Lisbon after deciding to skip WTCS Yokohama to get more training in the banks and focusing his preparation on the Olympics this summer. Mola will try to kick off his 2021 season better than how he finished the 2020 one, a disappointing one for the Spaniard that could only finished in 46th place in the World Championships in Hamburg last year. The strong Spanish team will line up also Fernando Alarza, fresh from Yokohama, and some names to follow in the next years, like Kevin Tarek Vinuelas -gold medallist at the Doha Beach Games in aquathlon, or Genis Grau.
The main contenders for the Spanish team will be indeed the Norwegians. Kristian Blummenfelt, Gustav Iden and Casper Stornes will try to use the bike course, with one climb up on each of the eight laps, to break away and show some horse power, knowing that if it comes to a run race in hot conditions, they know how to deliver.
Belgium’s Marten Van Riel proved to be in great shape in Yokohama, confirming the brilliant start of the season for the Belgian Hammers star, after an almost two-year hiatus from competition due to an injury. Also with a great Yokohama experience behind them are Jonas Schomburg (GER), Bence Bicksak (HUN) and Alois Knabl (AUT).
Another athlete that will be returning to the top level competition will be Canadian Tyler Mislawchuk, back on the blue carpet after an almost two year’s hiatus due to the pandemic.
For Dmitry Polyanskiy (RUS), Lisbon will be his World Triathlon race start number 190. He has won four world cups before, but indeed the most experienced athlete in World Cups of the field is Gabor Faldum (HUN), with 53 starts.
On the other side, three athletes from the ASICS World Triathlon Team will be lining up in Lisbon, all in the chase of valuable points that could help them in the race for the Olympics: Diego Moya (CHI), Ognjen Stojanovic (SRB) and Badr Siwane (MAR).
World Triathlon Cup Lisbon - Men’s race
22 May, 12.30pm WEST
TriathlonLive.tv