Farlow, Pedersen Win Challenge Copenhagen

On a beautiful Danish summer day in the Danish capital Copenhagen, 2,000 triathletes raced the third edition of KMD Challenge Copenhagen.

Read the race recap from the Challenge Series below:

Athletes swam 3.8K in the lagoon of Amager Beach Park, rode 180K in Copenhagen and the northern countryside and finished off with a marathon of 42.2K along the Danish harbor front. Over 150,000 spectators once again made this triathlon event a big summer party in the Copenhagen streets.

Australian Aaron Farlow took the honors and the men’s title leading from start to finish. Home country favorite Camilla Pedersen had an impressive iron distance debut to win her third Challenge title of the year after a dramatic fall that almost cost her the win.

Men’s Race

Farlow was out of the water just behind Dane Andreas Borch, but quickly took the race under his command on the bike. Farlow pushed hard and bridged open a solid gap to the closest followers, last year’s winner Tim Berkel and 2011 runner up, Jimmy Johnsen. The fast running Mads Vittrup-Pedersen trailed the leaders on the entire bike leg and even had to take a four-minute time penalty before exiting T2. Farlow kept a strong pace on the run and Berkel soon faded leaving Jimmy Johnsen as a lone follower. From behind the light footed Vittrup started to reel in the leaders but Farlow proved to be too strong. Vittrup and Jimmy Johnsen battled it out for the Danish LD Championships in the last few kilometers and Vittrup proved too fast for Johnsen who like last year had to see a faster runner take the honors. Farlow took a beautiful win, Vittrup the Danish title and Johnsen an honorable third place and podium finish.

Women’s Race
In the womens pro field 2012 Long Distance World Championships silver medalist Camilla Pedersen took charge from the gun and stormed out in front on the swim, exiting the water just in front of last year’s male winner Tim Berkel. Pedersen soon found a solid pace on the bike and started to build up a commanding lead. Charging hard from behind, in her return to long distance racing, former LD World Champion Lisbeth Kristensen kept the lead within striking distance. Out onto the run, Pedersen continued her solid form. Pedersen looked in complete control with the lead at the 23K mark being over 10 minutes. In a dramatic turn of events Pedersen took a tumble at around 25K and by the 27K mark the lead was down to three minutes. Pedersen crashed hard on her left hip spending several minutes on the ground. Lisbeth Kristensen had caught and past Pedersen by the 31km mark only for this lead to be short lived as Pedersen regained control at the 35K. Pedersen recovered and entered the finish shoot with a comfortable three-minute advantage to take her first iron-distance win. Kristensen secured second place, with a fast running Katja Konschak rounding out the podium.

Men
1) Aaron Farlow, Australia – 8:20:09
2) Mads Vittrup-Pedersen, Denmark – 8:24:57
3) Jimmy Johnsen, Denmark – 8:25:15

Women
1) Camilla Pedersen, Denmark – 9:12:27
2) Lisbeth Kristensen, Denmark – 9:15:24
3) Katja Konschak, Germany – 9:19.54