World champion Irma Heeren (NED) and rockie-of-the-year italian rocket Alessandro Alessandri imposed thier law at the ocasion of the final of thr 1997 European Duathlon Series held in the magnificient city of Calais over the classic 10/40/5 km distance, a race marked by extreme winds and lessons of tactics.
In the women’s race, heeren set the pace together with world-class marathoner Alena Peterkova (CZE) and in front of Canadian pair Sarah Howell and Lucy Smith, on the 2x5 km running course stretching through Calais City centre. Heeren then proved stronger than any of her opponents and broke away, reaching transition area for her last 5 km run with a comfortable 45 sec margin. She cruised to the finish line to score her sixth win in this year’s series and secure the 1997 cup title, ahead of today’s runner up Peterkova and last years winner in Calais Lucy Smith.
In the men’s race, duathlon wordls runner up Yann Millon executed all opposition during the first 10 km run, building an amazing one minute lead over a chasing pack including moust favourites: Austrialian pair Noble-Bentley, Portuguese Lino Baaruncho, Italian Alessandri, czech Chroutovsky and French pair Cazorla - Lebrun. Two big guns were already in trouble: European championship runner up Armand Van der Smissen and Mexican Mario Salazar. The bike coure entitled Dutch surprise-of-the-day Huub Maas to come from behind and take a courageous lead, in the head wind. Maas built a 50 sec lead that brought him overjoyed to the transitions area for the second run. Unfortunately for the flying biker, his run suffered from the efforts wasted on the bike, and Maas had to let a devastating Alessandri take the lead and secure both race flowers and cup title, French duathlon leader millon taking the bronze
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