Once again, the longest day of the year has returned to Porto. On Saturday, October 8, we had the return of the Spirit of 78 Triathlon to the routes that have been covered by athletes in previous years. We made the point of keeping the routes of the 3 sports practically the same as those originally defined in 2017.
We can say that the Spirit of 78 triathlon is starting to reach maturity, the moustaches are already present in practically all the faces of the male athletes, the speedos and tops already surpass the lycra suits and the steel already represents a third of the bikes in competition.
In its sixth edition, the race increasingly marks all those involved in it. To keep the spirit as close as possible to the original spirit of 1978, athletes must bring their own team of assistants. With them, also come their families and many friends, making the event a great triathlon celebration. Not to mention that many of the athletes present are repeaters, some were present in more than one edition.
For those unfamiliar, the Spirit of 78 Triathlon is a race that honours those who in 1978 joined John Collins to carry out a triathlon race that joined the 3 main races in Honolulu, “The Waikiki Rothwater Swim”, with 3, 8km long, “The Around-Oahu Bike Race”, which went around the island with a perimeter of 180km and ended with the completion of the Honolulu Marathon route. And for this tribute to be well done, athletes are encouraged to show up with a moustache, in the case of men, swim trunks, top and with steel bicycles with gears in the frame.
The night was still very dark and cold, when the first athletes began to arrive to the central point of the event and started all the ritual that a triathlon race requires. Being an event that would last well over 10 hours, attention to detail is essential, the supply cannot fail and the equipment must be in place, ready to be used.
With all the athletes in the water, the last briefing is given and with the first rays of sun tearing the horizon, the start is given. Swimming, as it is carried out close to the mouth of the Douro river, has to be done with the flow of the water. This year it was done, close to the change of tide, almost at low point of the tide, which brought added difficulties, especially in the final part of the route, with the approach to the stairs that give access to the transition park to be done very slowly. At this point, the men's race was led by Hugo Mota, followed by Tiago Amaral and Paulo Costa. The only woman in the race, the 2021 champion, Viola Campanini, came out of the water as part of the men's platoon.
The 180km of cycling, done in 6 laps around a circuit, are not easy, without major climbs, the constant ups and downs end up grinding your legs. Like in 1978, the road is open to traffic. This year, the route had a small change, on the farthest return a roundabout was built, which made the turn to the return much safer and added about 300m to the route, meaning that in the end the athletes had to cycle exactly 180km. In this segment, since early, 3 athletes stood out, Válter Nogueira, Rui Amorim and Hugo Ferreira, all of whom took the lead in the race at a certain point. In the transition to the run, Válter Nogueira led the race, followed by Hugo Ferreira and Rui Amorim. Viola, did a very consistent cycling, her expression was showing the desire to overcome the time of the previous year.
The run is also done on a circuit, forcing athletes to pass 12 times in the transition area, where a big party is held throughout all day. This year, the race turned out to be the executioner of many athletes, having ended giving up in this segment, about a third of those who were in the race. Válter didn't let go of the first place, Rui soon reached the second position, which he kept until the end and Hugo ended up in the third position. It should be noted that the fourth and fifth placed riders carried out the race with the rigor that the Spirit of 78 Triathlon demands, wearing a moustache, speedos, top and bicycles over 30 years old. Viola finished the race comfortably, despite the heavy accident she suffered in March of this year that almost kept her out of Triathlon.
The champion was Válter Nogueira, having completed the race in 10h11, followed by Rui Amorim, who spent 10h21, and finally Hugo Ferreira, with 10h36, completed the 3 places on the podium, all athletes from Clube Zupper. The Italian Viola Campanini was crowned, for the second consecutive year, champion of the Spirit of 78 Triathlon, having needed 12h51 to complete the race, not having been able to achieve the objective of improving the time she brought from the previous year.
It was beautiful to see a large number of athletes, friends and families staying in place waiting for the last athlete to cross the finish line, so that the podium ceremony could take place. As in 1978, we always wait for the last athlete.
Once again, the highlight goes to all athletes who started the Spirit of 78 Triathlon dressed up as they did in the 70’s, and with old race bicycles.
With a big smile on their faces and the SpiritMan, the replica of the first trophy offered to the first athletes to complete the Ironman in 1978, in their hands, all athletes returned home with a feeling of accomplishment.
For 2023 the event is already scheduled for October.
