With a swim in the turquoise Tyrrhenian Sea, a rolling bike in the Tuscan Archipelago and a marathon run through the resort of Marina di Campo, the Elbaman is the jewel in the Italian triathlon crown.
Advertisement
Held since 2005 and annually sold-out months in advance, the setting for the Elbaman is Elba, Italy’s third-largest Island after Sicily and Sardinia, and located 20km west from the mainland.
The 11th edition kicked-off at 7am on 27 September with two 1.9km swim laps in the warm 20°C plus waters of Marina di Campo Bay, before athletes exited onto the bay’s golden sands and commenced the three 60km loops (totaling 2,500m of elevation gain) around the island’s western peninsula.
With a pre-race goal to break the course record of 9:39hrs, the brilliantly named reigning champ, Lucky Berlage of Belgium, led the field at the halfway stage and would continue to dominate onto the three-lap marathon run. In rising September heat, Berlage broke the tape in 9:26hrs to overcome Alessandro Alessandri’s 2007 Elbaman record.
Winning the women’s in full-distance race was Caroline Engelke-Horn, with the middle-distance winners being Marta Bernardi in the women’s event and Gabriel Hopf in the men’s.
Advertisement
The 12th edition of the Elbaman takes place on 25 September 2016, with entry opening soon at www.elbaman.it.
Comments are closed