Bermuda is ready. Saturday afternoon sees the second stop of the 2019 World Triathlon Series take over the island once more and as the athletes go through their final preparations, last year’s winners Flora Duffy and Casper Stornes, number one Katie Zaferes and returning legend Javier Gomez Noya gave their pre-race thoughts to the assembled media.
Javier Gomez Noya said on returning to the WTS circuit: “I’m really excited to be back to ITU racing after a year more focused on long distance races. This is my first big race this year, and the goal is to qualify for Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Let’s see how it goes, but obviously when you hit a start line you do it because you want to win the race.”
On the course in Bermuda. “It is a really tough course, and I really like that, I think those fit me well. Hopefully I can have a good race and be ready for the next ones coming up.”
The defending Men’s Champion Casper Stornes said on training for Corkscrew Hill for the last few weeks in high altitude in Spain, “We found a similar hill in Sierra Nevada and we did specific sessions for a few weeks, 20 minutes of replicating Corkscrew Hill. We have done the same preparation for the race as we did last year.”
On whether they had a strategy planned before the race last year: “Yes, we did. In all competitions we (the trio) try to be together on the bike, as it is our strength. Last year we had this planned, to go the three of us together, but I went a bit earlier and Kristian and Gustav stayed in the pack a bit more and relaxed for a bit. I didn’t expect to win but I thought I could make a top 10.”
Katie Zaferes discussed about her sprint finish in WTS Bermuda last year, “I took some notes from Flora’s race here last year to try to improve my performance tomorrow. I am just going to race very aggressively. Hopefully I will have a good swim and I can push the bike from the start, and make people really work if they want to race with me.”
Former World Champion Flora Duffy talked about competing in the relay, “It’s really cool that I can do a relay with two people from other sports. I haven’t done a relay in years, and I don’t even know if my teammates have ever done a triathlon, but they are great athletes and I am sure it will be great to be out there racing with them”.