2015 Incheon Marathon: Guyader Again

Two World Inline Cups on the same day!

While the 33rd edition of Rennes sur Roulettes was in full swing, Korea hosted their biggest race of the year. This unfortunate overlap of the two stages of the World Inline Cup was due to the last minute change of date of the Korean event, initially planned on May 17th.

Incheon: The 2nd biggest skating marathon in the world

Just as usual, the marathon — still confidential for us, Westerners, proved to be a real skating festival. With no less than 3000 skaters at the start, the Incheon Roller Marathon (South Korea) is still today the biggest marathon in the world, behind the firmly established Roller Marathon of Berlin (Germany). After deserting the historical route around the international airport, the event took place, like last year, on the side of the Yellow Sea, in the city of Incheon. Used to the event, Yann Guyader was part of the rare non-Asian representatives at the start.

Race story

With 4 laps of 10 km on the program, the race promised to be tactical, like often in Korea. the first half of the race was relatively calm, since the few attempts at breakaway from Yann Guyader were unsuccessful. It should be said that the whole pack seemed to have teamed up against the thirty-year-old skater.

After understanding that it would be complicated to give the slip to the rest of the pack on a route essentially made of long straight stretches, Yann decided to spend most of the race in the stream. Let’s note that the extreme heat (over 35°C on the start line at noon, local time) made the race very demanding and tempered the skaters’ spirits.

Only in the 4th and last lap, did the tempers flare with several attempts at breakaway. 3 kilometers from the arrival, the victorious breakaway seemed to be taking shape, when a Korean skater decided to try his luck solo. Tired of being ceaselessly chased, Yann Guyader decided to let it be and seemed to resign himself to the 2nd place. But as the breakaway skater had widened a gap that seemed irreversible, Yann and another Korean skater counter-attacked.

Only the French skater managed to catch up on the fugitive, about 500 m from the finish line, and got another victory on Korean soil. By the way, the pack was very close to pip him at the post!

Next stage in France, on May 14th, 2015 with the Roller Marathon of Dijon

Useful links

Our page on the 2015 World Inline Cup in Incheon South Korea

By Alfathor
Translation: Chloe Seyres
Photos : EOC-sports.com