When Europe Triathlon announced the host city for this year’s European Multisport Championships, they called Banyoles the “Capital of Triathlon” in Spain. A big call since there are quite a few spots with a long tradition of big triathlon events in the country. As a hosting location for international short distance events for more than 35 years and also middle distance races for more than 20 years, Banyoles certainly has its place there. With a race organizer having several decades of experience in multisport, you should expect a smooth and well-organized event. Though on the other hand, we’re in Spain…

But let’s start with the good things – and there certainly are some. We received overwhelmingly positive feedback about the event venue at the Estany de Banyoles. The lake is very clear and the surrounding area as beautiful as in the pictures. And the race itself went quite smooth. In my race preview I raised some concerns about the bike course, which mainly consisted of some out and back sections. Though for the number of athletes the roads were wide enough for bidirectional race traffic in most parts. I was told about some crashes due to some rather aggressive speed bumps – though that is something hard to avoid in many areas in Spain and nothing to blame the race organizer for.

While the race itself went quite smooth, the organization before and after seemed to be a bit chaotic. There were several changes in the race schedule shortly before the race, which apparently haven’t been communicated very well. This led to some athletes missing their start and subsequently being disqualified for starting in the wrong wave.

Apparently, the race organizer was not fully aware of the World Triathlon Competition Rules regarding the finish of an aquabike race. They refused to locate the finishline before the dismount accordingly. Though they changed it accordingly after an intervention of one of the national team managers. Thanks to this initiative we got a finishline that allowed a safe and fair race finish for aquabike athletes.

Update: In an email the race director told me, that it was always planned to do it that way, but that just the slide with the image showing the finish on the race course was wrong. What I heard from athletes sounded a bit different, but might has been due to the fact that – according to the race director – “there was a confusion at the briefing”.

After the race the organizers showed some consistency about changing schedules without proper communication. The award ceremony was brought forward for almost two hours, leading to some athletes missing it and podium pictures with empty spots on the podium.

But let’s get to the more positive part of the event – the race itself.

The Men’s Race

With several former overall winners of World and European Championships on the start line, the field of the men’s race was definitely one of the strongest we’ve yet seen in a European championship race. The swim was mainly dominated by some strong swimmers from Spain. In his very first aquabike race Hugo VILELA ORTIZ lead the field coming into T1 with a gap of almost 90 seconds to his fellow countryman Valerio CHINEA MIRZOYAN and another minute to the rest of the bunch, led by Ukrainian Yevgen SLAVNIY. Best of the prerace favourites after the swim was Igor FRANKO, about three minutes behind the leader, while Tommy NIELSEN followed another minute behind.

With the water temperatures close to 30°C and the air temperatures reported between 35°C and 38°C, it was obviously a non-wetsuit swim, which is usually a big plus for the good swimmers. But with a quite selective bike course in challenging conditions waiting for the athletes, it’s not a big surprise that the race was decided on the road.

For more than 6 years Mathieu DUMONT clocked the fastest bike split in every aquabike race he competed in (which were mainly World and European Championships). This streak came to an end at last year’s European Championships in Pamplona, where he missed the best bike split by only a few seconds after a mechanical problem with his bike.

In Banyoles there was another Frenchman who even managed to beat Mathieu’s performance on the bike. Paul VANOTTI showed a remarkable performance on the Catalonian roads. After coming out of the water more than six minutes behind the leader and also losing quite some time through transition, Paul started his bike leg in 38^th position. With a bike time of 02:11:31 he passed all 37 athletes in front of him, to take the overall win. While he finished top 10 in last years European and World Championships, Paul showed up in great form in Banyoles. At last year’s World’s in Pontevedra he finished 9^th, almost 14 minutes down on winner Igor FRANKO, who he managed to beat this time by 23 seconds. It was the first time the Ukrainian was beaten in an aquabike race since he started competing in 2024.

The fight for the remaining spot on the podium was quite exciting with five athletes separated by only 52 seconds. The group was led by Tommy NIELSEN, who’s race went anything than perfect. He lost all of his nutrition on one of the speed bumps quite early in the race – certainly not making the race any easier with temperatures close to 40°C. Later in the race he got a 2-minute time penalty for taking too long to pass another athlete on an uphill section. It’s always difficult to judge if a penalty whether a penalty was imposed fairly. According to Tommy it was his own fault as it was true that it took him a few seconds too long to pass the other athlete. But given the circumstances that it was an uphill section and the other athlete accelerated while he passed him, it sounded like a situation in which referees usually exercise some discretion.
Nevertheless, he had to serve the 2-minutes penalty and crossed the finishline exactly two minutes down on the winner.

In his first international aquabike race Marcel WEBER showed a strong performance to come in 4^th, missing the overall podium by only two seconds. Only twelve seconds later his fellow countryman Frank ERK finished the race. The German veteran once again showed a remarkable performance on the bike. With the third bike split he passed Hugo VILELA ORTIZ, the young Spaniard who was leading the race after the swim and came in six seconds after Frank to finish the race in 6^th place.

Coming out of T1 Mathieu DUMONT started business as usual, making up his way through the field from the back, after losing almost 10 minutes in the swim. Despite the selective course the competition in Banyoles was just too strong to make it all the way up to the podium ranks and he had to settle for 7^th place at the finish.

After a consistent performance in the swim and on the bike Koen MEEUS from Belgium took 8^th place overall, half a minute ahead of Carlos GARCIA RUFO, while Spanish champion Fabian BADIA VICENT rounded out the top 10 just like in last year’s race in Pamplona.

Although the 10^th placed athlete was the same as last year, the time difference from 1^st to 10^th place was only 6 minutes and nine seconds. Despite the demanding conditions clearly the closest race we ever had in European Championships, showing just how high the level of competition has become in our sport. This is also supported by an athlete who has frequently finished in the top positions in international aquabike races in recent years and was now quoted saying, that he had switched back to triathlon because the competition isn’t as fierce there – which is definitely true in the over 50 age groups.

 

The Women’s Race

Also the women’s race was the closest we ever had at European Championships, with less than 12 minutes separating the top 10, despite the first two finishers of the race having quite a gap to the rest of the field.

But first things first. As expected in my race preview two British girls were the first to exit the water. Hayley DAVIS was closely followed by Aquabike.World’s social media angel Georgia HAMBLETT. After a fast transition Georgia even led the field after T1 – Chapeau Georgia!

But just as in the men’s race it was to expect that the race would be decided on the bike section of the race. Prerace favourite Kristina BUHLER started her bike leg more than 8 minutes behind the fastest swimmers. A time gap that seems impossible to close on an 83 km bike course. Not for the German though. With a bike split of 02:32:26 she put almost seven minutes in the second fastest female cyclist, the young gun Mathilde AUDRERIE. At the finishline Kristina had put almost two minutes into her French rival, who also finished second overall. Chapeau Kristina BUHLER!

Almost five minutes behind the winner, Pilar RARO GARNES won the fight for the remaining spot on the podium on home soil, beating German Kai SACHTLEBER by just 13 seconds.

Three minutes later Toni SENIOR led a group of British athletes, followed by the fastest swimmer Hayley DAVIS, and other strong swimmers Claire MARTIN and Becky COLEMAN, both of which managed to keep their top eight rank on the bike. French teenager Rose CROISE finished in 9^th place in her very first aquabike race while Rhiannon BRITT rounded out the top 10.

On the bike Georgia unfortunately couldn’t quite show the performance that she hoped for and ended up in 16^th place overall. Though she was able to console herself with a victory in her age group. Congratulations European Champion Georgia HAMBLETT!

 

2026 European Aquabike Championships Medal Table

Rank	Country
1.	United Kingdom	10	7	11
2.	France	5	2	0
3.	Spain	4	5	4
4.	Germany	3	3	2
5.	Austria	1	1	1
6.	Denmark	1	1	1
7.	Ukraine	1	1	0
8.	Belgium	0	2	1
9.	Netherlands	0	1	1
10.	Hungary	0	1	0

No surprise here. As always in European Championships, Tem GB is dominating the medal table. No less than 28 medals were brought home to the island by British aquabikers – 19 of which won by female athletes. Though in the men’s medal table it’s actually the event’s hosting country Spain, which is leading the ranks with four gold, two silver and four bronze medals.

 

The Ugly Side of Banyoles

If you read my race report and the aftermath from the standard distance World Championships at Torremolinos back in 2024 you might remember “the ugly” incident at that race. Several athletes of the same agegroup noticed that they had a puncture when they wanted to start their bike leg, later reporting that this was quite obviously a case of manipulation. As I learned later this was not the first time this happened and unfortunately it wasn’t the last time. One of the top ranked athletes reported, what was another obvious attempt of manipulation on his back tyre. Fortunately, however, this attempt failed, because of the athlete using tubeless tyres with plenty of sealant.

For now, I won’t reveal any further details. But if you’re competing in any big international aquabike races in the future (or potentially also other big races in Spain), keep your eyes open in transition and leave the transition zone as late as possible before the race.

What makes these incidents so alarming is not only the audacity of the perpetrators, but also the ignorance with which World Triathlon is responding to them. So it seems to be even more important that athletes look out for one another.

Have you noticed something suspicious?

As of today, there was only this one isolated case that I heard about in Banyoles. However, if you have seen anything suspicious or have been a victim of an attempt of manipulation on your bike at Banyoles or any other aquabike race, please get in touch with me through our social media channels or simply drop me an email at mail@aquabike.world.

Let’s hope this arbitrary way of dealing with increasing competition doesn’t catch on in future aquabike races.