Taking place at the Homestead-Miami Speedway, the Challenge Miami Pro Race saw Jodie Stimpson and Lucy Charles-Barclay record a British one-two.
In a line-up packed with American athletes, it was Charles-Barclay and Spaniard Sara Perez who led the way throughout the 1,600m swim in the spring-fed lake at the centre of the oval racing circuit.
The pair entered T1 together, one minute and forty seconds ahead of Stimpson, fellow Brit Fenella Langridge, and winner of the 2020 PTO Championships at Challenge Daytona, Paula Findlay.
Perez and Charles-Barclay traded the lead throughout the 39 mile bike leg, with the Brit looking strong on her return to racing since before the pandemic. The course was a technical one that took the athletes part on the oval circuit and part on routes around the lake.
Remaining neck-and-neck, Charles-Barclay was issued a two-minute penalty for overtaking on the left which she took straight from T2 to allow Perez to establish a lead.
The penalty put her alongside Stimpson and Findlay who, alongside Langridge who pulled out at T2 with injury, had kept in touching distance of the leaders with a two minute deficit across the bike leg.
It wasn’t long before the two British athletes were able to drop Findlay and set off in pursuit of Perez for the remainder of the 10.5 mile run.
Stimpson started to pull ahead of her compatriot, cutting down the lead that Perez had built and increasing the gap back to Charles-Barclay with each lap of the oval run course.
With around three laps to go, Stimpson raced herself to the front of the field as she overtook the Spaniard and carried on to forge her own lead, with Charles-Barclay also passing Perez to move into second place.
The Spanish athlete would ultimately drop back to finish fourth, however Stimpson pushed on to see her cross the finish line and become the inaugural Challenge Miami champion one minute and twenty-four seconds ahead of Charles-Barclay, who herself was a minute ahead of American Jackie Hering in third.
Hear what they both had to say after the race in their interview's with Challenge Miami below:
