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Predict an outright women’s favourite in Ibiza? Good luck

Pick your race-winning strategy for the PTO European Open.

Photo by: PTO

With eight of the top 10 women in the Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO) world ranking set to line up tomorrow morning in Ibiza, there’s been lots of anticipation for an incredible day of racing.

You can see the list of impressive names on the start list here.

Pick your race-winning strategy

What will make the PTO European Open even more exciting is the mix of race styles we’re going to see in action. Great Britain’s Lucy Charles-Barclay, easily the sport’s top swimmer, will look to try and lead from start to finish. Her countrywoman Holly Lawrence will look to keep her company at the front of the race, too.

Lucy Charles-Barclay led the way on the bike at the 2022 Ironman World Championship, Photo: Kevin Mackinnon/

The five-time Ironman and five-time Ironman 70.3 world champion, Daniela Ryf (SUI), won’t be with Charles-Barclay after the swim, but will look to use her dominating bike strength to pull clear and hold off the rest of the field thanks to a solid lead into T2. Add Canadian Paula Findlay to that mix.

Then there’s the super-runners. Germany’s Anne Haug has been posting frighteningly fast run splits of late. But so has Canadian Tamara Jewett, who ran a 73-minute half marathon to win Ironman 70.3 Oceanside last month. Ashleigh Gentle used her incredible run talent last year to take the wins at both the PTO Tour events – taking home the $100,000 top prize in Canada and the US. You can add Ironman world champ Chelsea Sodaro to that prestigious super-runner group, along with Great Britain’s Emma Pallant-Browne, fresh off her second world Duathlon title last weekend.

“I think it’s really exciting to have the first PTO European event,” PTO #1 Gentle said today. “I think that it’s great that we’ve expanded from the US and Canada and I’m waiting for one in Australia…”

Daniela Ryf returns to old coach Brett Sutton. Is Ibiza the first race of a make-or-break year?

“I think it [the line up] makes it interesting for the fans…to watch the athletes race face-to-face,” Ryf said. “It brings out the best of the athletes, but also, of course, it makes it interesting to watch because you never know who’s going to win.”

So which race style is most likely to lead to the win tomorrow? Good luck figuring that one out.  While two of the top-10 in the standings won’t be in the race (Laura Philipp pulled out due to illness, Kat Matthews has elected to race the World Triathlon Long Distance Championships on Sunday), the field does still include a who’s who of long-distance racing. While adding 70.3 world champ Taylor Knibb to the mix would be interesting, tomorrow’s race is going to be fascinating to watch as we see three distinct styles of racing put to the test.

It’s hard to imagine how it won’t be an exciting day.

How to watch the PTO European Open