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Elyse Gallegos competes at the UCI Esports World Championships. Photo: @SWpix.com<\/p>\n
We previewed the UCI Cycling Esports World Championships Final in Abu Dhabi last week, and were looking forward to seeing how the two women who competed in Kona last month would fare. Turns out they managed to find some power in their legs after all the IRONMAN World Championship training \u2013 Germany\u2019s Merle Brunn\u00e9e took fifth, while American Elyse Gallegos was 11th. <\/p>\n
The racing took place in a custom-built virtual world that was developed on the MyWhoosh Platform, with riders using Elite Justo 2 smart trainers calibrated by the UCI to ensure fairness and accuracy. <\/p>\n
The women\u2019s race was won for the second year in a row by New Zealand\u2019s Mary McCarthy, who took control of the event in the first stage, the Mountain\u2019s Verdict. McCarthy was able to push over 7 watts\/ kg to easily take the stage over last year\u2019s runner-up, Brazil\u2019s Gabriella Guerra. McCarthy continued her domination through the second stage, Puncher\u2019s Playground, a 12 km points race. McCarthy held her lead through the final stage, an eight-lap course with sprints at the end of each lap. Guerra was able to maintain her second-place position, while Italy\u2019s Francesca Tommasi took the final sprint to edge out Camila Ahlberg (SWE) by one point for the final spot on the podium.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was an absolutely incredible red carpet experience,\u201d Gallegos said in a message earlier today. \u201cMyWhoosh paid to fly each of us out to Abu Dhabi from our countries, paid for our stay, (and provided) literally a top-shelf experience from start to finish \u2026 The stages were super tough. Stage 1 was the climb in which I put out the same power (NP 318 watts for 14min, 5.2 watts\/ kg) as the qualifier, yet placed 19th \u2026 Stage 2 (I got) a bit overheated \u2013 I went in and scored a few more points \u2026 and managed 15th.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the final stage Gallegos felt that all the endurance training for Kona paid off as she won two of the eight sprints and took fourth in the stage. She ended up in 11th, and was the second of the five Americans who competed. <\/p>\n
\u201cSuper happy with that, though, and learned a lot,\u201d she wrote. \u201cAlready looking forward to next year!\u201d<\/p>\n
In the men\u2019s race Germany\u2019s Jason Osborne took his third title in impressive style, like McCarthy leading from start to finish and taking the win over Poland\u2019s Michal Kaminski and Belgium\u2019s Lennert Teugels. <\/p>\n
Osborne has finished on the podium at all of the UCI\u2019s Esports World Championships, with his three golds (2020, 2024 and 2025), a silver (2023) and a bronze (2022). He also won a silver medal as a rower at the Tokyo Olympics. <\/p>\n
\u201cTo be honest, I was not really happy with stage 1 because I couldn\u2019t put the same gap I had in the semis, [held virtually on 3 October]\u201d Osborne said in an interview with the UCI after the race<\/a>. \u201cI wasn\u2019t feeling that great but on stage 2 I could really push on and then it just got better each stage. On stage 3, I went on the front with Lionel Vujasin and we worked well together.\u201d<\/p>\n You can see the full results from the weekend\u2019s racing in Abu Dhabi here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Super Sam Holness Raffle<\/p>\n Photo: Ryan Sosna Bowd<\/p>\n Back in my days editing Triathlon Magazine Canada, I was proud that we were one of the first media organizations to do a feature on Sam Holness, who in 2022, became the first autistic athlete to complete the IRONMAN World Championship. Holness hasn\u2019t slowed down since then, continuing with his quest to \u201cbecome a professional triathlete and to change the perceptions about Autism and Neurodiversity, through sport,\u201d according to his bio on his website<\/a>.\u00a0 <\/p>\n Holness competed at the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Marbella, and has teamed up with some of his sponsors on a charity fundraiser to support Ambitious About Autism,<\/a> a group that provide education, employment and support services for autistic children, ad the Superhero Sport foundation<\/a>, which helps remove barriers to sport for people with disabilities. <\/p>\n The GiveWheel raffle has prizes worth over US$19,500, including the fully built Canyon CFR Di2 bike that Holness rode in Marbella, along with personalized gifts from Lucy Charles-Barclay and Gustav Iden. There are 20 prizes that include:<\/p>\n A fully built Canyon Speedmax CFR Di2 triathlon bike with a retail value of \u00a310,199 (in size small, as ridden only once by Holness in Marbella. Canyon will service the bike and ship it to the lucky winner)\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a31,000 HOKA product voucher prize (comes as 2 x \u00a3500 single-use vouchers)<\/p>\n 10 x HOKA \u00a3195 footwear single-use vouchers<\/p>\n 2 x \u00a3300 SunGod vouchers for performance or casual eyewear<\/p>\n 1 x HUUB Anemoi trisuit plus wetsuit of choice (worth over \u00a31,000)<\/p>\n 5 x euro 150 Maurten nutrition vouchers<\/p>\n Maurten have also kindly arranged for athletes to donate items including;<\/p>\n Gustav Iden \u2013 signed pair of shoes<\/p>\n Lucy Charles-Barclay\u00a0\u2013\u00a0winning trisuit from Ironman 70.3 Eagleman this year and signed Ironman World Championship 2025 swim cap<\/p>\n Photo: Ryan Sosna Bowd<\/p>\n Tickets cost \u00a310 each, 3 for \u00a320 and 10 for \u00a350. To buy tickets and support the fundraiser please visit\u00a0https:\/\/gvwhl.com\/PGACO<\/a><\/p>\n Chris Hammer Makes IRONMAN Debut<\/p>\n American Paralympic gold medalist Chris Hammer completed his first IRONMAN in Arizona, finishing 35th in the pro ranks (49th overall) with his 8:48:26 finish time. Hammer, who was born without one hand, completed the swim in 1:01:20, then rode 4:37:17 and ran the marathon in 3:02:09.<\/p>\n \u201cMy goal was just to finish, but my dream was sub-9 hours, which I managed to do \u2026,\u201d he wrote on Instagram. \u201cI can say with confidence that I never want to do this distance again unless I specifically train for it (which I probably won\u2019t, with LA 2028 soon becoming the focal point of my training).\u201d<\/p>\n I certainly won\u2019t be surprised to see Hammer toe the line at an IRONMAN again at some point, but am also looking forward to watching him compete in LA first.<\/p>\n Canadian Ed Veal Completes First (and Possibly Only) IRONMAN<\/p>\n While you can\u2019t hear what he\u2019s saying, Canadian Ed Veal kept his description of his 10:42:03 finish at IRONMAN Arizona pretty simple. \u201cSavage \u2026 Savage.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s humbling as \u2026 (we\u2019ll leave out the expletive),\u201d he said to a friend right after finishing. <\/p>\n \u201cThat stretch is the longest two minutes of my life,\u201d he continued, pointing at the finishing chute.<\/p>\n For those who aren\u2019t familiar with Veal\u2019s cycling accomplishments, the 49-year-old represented Canada at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in 2016 as part of the team pursuit squad, and was part of the bronze-medal winning team at the Pan Am Games in 2015. Veal also held the Canadian one hour record (48.587 km), which was broken by Lionel Sanders (51.304 km) in 2020.<\/p>\n I need to disclose that my son was part of the worlds and Pan Am teams with Veal, and also that my wife looked on with glee as Veal suffered through his race in Arizona. At a dinner we held with the team pursuit athletes some time around the Pan Am Games in 2015, Veal told my wife (Sharon Mackinnon, who won the 60 to 64 age group in Kona in 2024) that \u201canyone could just roll off the couch and do an IRONMAN.\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019m pretty sure that Veal didn\u2019t exactly \u201croll off the couch\u201d to do the race in Tempe \u2013 he put together an impressive 1:10:15 swim, a speedy 4:26:35 bike (the 35th fastest of the day), but he did spend more time completing the marathon \u2013 he got that done in 4:50:56. <\/p>\n Tags:chris hammer<\/a>Elyse Gallegos<\/a>IRONMAN Arizona<\/a>Sam Hollness<\/a>UCI Esports World Championships<\/a> \t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Elyse Gallegos competes at the UCI Esports World Championships. 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