The European season kicked off with memorable racing today at Anfi Challenge Mogán-Gran Canaria with wins by Damien Le Mesnager (FRA) and Caroline Pohle (GER).
The day started with calm and warm conditions as the sold-out field gathered on the Anfi del Mar beach. In the men’s race, Bortolamedi led out of the water in 21:55 and quickly took control on the bike, quickly creating a lead of just under a minute to his chasers, Vicente Hernández Cabrera (ESP) and Pierre Dupuy (FRA), at times reaching speeds of 80kph. He continued to build his lead throughout the bike, astounding age group athletes as he passed then at speeds of over 60kph on the flats. Behind him, Dupuy was chasing but the big mover was Le Mesanger who had ridden up from 17th to third by the 35km point, riding even faster than Bortolamedi. Everything changed at the start of the fourth and final lap as Le Mesanger made his move, overtaking Bortolamedi to take the lead but Bortolamedi was not letting him go, retaking the lead twice before arriving into T2 first by just three seconds. But it was Le Mesnager who posted the fastest bike split in 2:03:35, a full four minutes faster than Bortolamedi. Behind them Dupuy arrived in third, 50 seconds further down, with Matt Kaminer (RSA) over three minutes further back in fourth.
After running neck and neck with Bortolamedi for the first couple of kilometres, Le Mesnager took the lead and never looked back, taking his first professional win in 3:48:09. Bortolamedi held onto second in 3:50:05 while in third place was Michele Sarzilla (ITA) in 3:55:31, a man on a mission who ran up from 13th off the bike and posted the fastest run of the day in 1:13:59.
“It was a tough day there was a lot of wind on the bike and run,” said Le Mesnager. “I had a bad swim and I pushed very hard on the bike to catch Michele and I thought the run was done. The last 5km on the run was very hard, too hard! But I’m very happy to take my first pro win here today.”
In the women’s race, Sarah-Jane Goodwin (RSA) exited the water first in 24:45. Pohle was 23 seconds behind and within the first kilometre took the lead on the bike, never under any threat from that point on. Behind her the chasers were evenly spread, each racing their own race about a minute apart. Justine Guerard (FRA) led the chase for the first half of the ride before her fellow countrywoman, Anne Sophie Pierre pushed her down into third. Behind them, British athletes Meg McDonald and Nikki Bartlett had ridden up the field into fourth and fifth respectively. By the time they arrived into T2 Pohle had a 2:50 lead over Pierre with Bartlett in third, another four minutes down. Throughout the run, these placings never changed with Pohle continuing to dominate the run as she did the bike. She took the win in 4:18:17 with Pierre coming in second in 4:21:44 and Bartlett rounding out the podium in third in 4:24:24.
“This victory is very special for me as last year was very tough, it’s very emotional,” said Pohle at the finish line. “It’s the best way to start the season. I’m back and I’m so happy, I worked so hard for this and I’m so proud of myself. For everyone it was very hard, it was very warm and the wind was absolutely crazy!”
For further information, visit www.challenge-grancanaria and for full results go to https://toptime.live/resultados/challenge-mogan-gran-canaria-2026/.