Lucy Hall on giving it everything, and the ‘amazing’ Nicola Spirig

Lucy Hall was understandably delighted after grabbing yet another podium at Challenge Mallorca on Saturday.

The British star followed up her third at the duathlon that was Challenge Salou and last week’s superb victory in Budva by making it three podiums in three weeks thanks to another stellar third place. Earlier in an excellent 2021 season she had also picked up wins at IRONMAN 70.3 Gdynia and The Championship in Samorin.

The 29-year-old posted the quickest swim of the day as usual in Mallorca, and then followed it up by riding solo for the entirety of the bike leg with the best split of the day. It was only on the second half of the run that she was eventually caught and passed by Swiss pair Nicola Spirig and Imogen Simmonds.

The run was so hard – Lucy Hall

Afterwards she said: “That was so hard, I rode as hard as I could and towards the end my watts were dropping and I thought the run was gonna be so difficult.

“I had a gap and tried on the first lap, the first hill, to be conservative because I didn’t wanna like overdo it. On the flat my coach always says to try and pick it up on the flat bit because that’s where you make the gains, that’s where people start to relax. But I think I might have have just overdone it a bit because the run was so hard.”

Lucy paid tribute her Swiss conquerors, particularly the remarkable 39-year-old Spirig – who went on to break the tape first for yet another thrilling victory.

Hall hails the ageless Spirig

“They’re such goood athletes – and Jodie (Stimpson) and Indie (Lee) as well, they were coming. I just knew I had to go, I just tried my best to do everything I could to win the race.

“Nicola is such a good athlete – she has three kids, it’s amazing! So to come third today, I’m so happy.”

Hall reflected on a gruelling month so far, and was delighted with the way she’d been able to cope with that triple challenge.

“Three back to back – I knew it would take a lot – but I actually think, having found time in between, the recovery worked really well for me. I’ve learned a little bit over the last three weeks, about myself.”

Spirig needed full power

Nicola meanwhile admitted she had needed to go full Spirig to make the pass on Lucy, and re-iterated her love of this venue.

“I was really happy I could combine a holiday with family, a training camp and racing here. It’s a great place, I really enjoyed the race and it’s great to come away with a win.

“I had to give everything on the bike as Lucy and the others were riding really strong and then I was going out on the run really fast so I was dying a bit on the second half but it was a good challenge to run Lucy down!”