Javier Gomez pulled off a wire-to-wire win crossing the finish line three minutes clear of his nearest competitor to claim the Ironman 70.3 Barcelona title in 4 hours, 1 minute, and 39 seconds.
The Spaniard put on a master class over this middle distance course he debuted on five years ago. He led out of the water, clocking 22:31 over the 1.9-kilometer swim. Once out on his bike, the eight-time world champion put even more pressure on his competitors to chase him down as he hammered the hills and attacked the technical descents on the 90-kilometer cycle course.
While his closest chasers David McNamee and Bart Aernouts were able to narrow the gap to just seconds off the bike, Gomez unleashed his lightning-fast run and quickly pulled clear again. He took only 70 minutes to complete the concluding half marathon and ran across the finish line to cheers from the hometown crowd.
This successful outing in Barcelona is a valuable waypoint in Gomez’s Road to Kona. The next stop? His debut Ironman in Cairns.
