Starboard duo Leo Nika and Penelope Strickland have taken out the first stop of the 2017 EuroTour, saluting at the ‘Agios Nikolaos on SUP’ festival in epic downwind conditions on the beautiful Greek island of Crete.

Leo, the winningest athlete from the 2016 Tour, came home in a time of 1:29:56 to defeat compatriot Paolo Marconi (RRD) by almost 2 minutes, while Federico Esposito made it a clean sweep of the men’s podium for the Italians after finishing third.

Conditions were firing along Crete’s north-east coast as competitors enjoyed a world class downwind run for the first 10kms, showcasing the potential for the windswept Greek Islands to become a downwind hotspot. As the photos show, Crete looked more like Hood River or Western Australia as the small but clearly stoked field enjoyed near-endless bumps.

But when paddlers entered the home straight, heaven became hell as the final few kms turned into an upwind/sidewind nightmare, which tested everyone’s strength and produced some big time gaps on the results sheet after many paddlers were left limping home.

Giorgos Frangos (NSP) gave the home nation something to cheer about with a fourth place finish, before another two Italians in Giordano Capparella and Martino Rogai crossed the line to make it 5 of the top 6 for Team Italy.

Although the women’s field was relatively light it did feature a few internationals, which included Carolina Cup top 10 finishers Penelope Strickland and Susak Molinero.

With the open ocean knowledge she’s honed back home in New Zealand combined with her board of choice being the built-for-bumps Starboard Ace, Penelope blitzed the field to win by a wide margin and finish just 5 minutes outside the men’s top 10. Susak took a solid second place for Team RRD, while Germany’s Susanne Lier rounded out the podium for NSP.

The event, which was held in the picture postcard perfect town of Agios Nikolaos, also included the EuroTour’s signature fun races; it looks like one of the highlights this summer will be the awesome new Red Dragon four-a-board team races.

The 12-stop Tour – part race series/part European summer holiday – takes a break next week before 11-straight weeks of back-to-back events, including the ‘Prime’ level races in France, Spain and Germany starting with the St. Maxime SUP Race Cup in late May.

But if you can’t get to Europe don’t worry: boosted by the big turnout for our Carolina Cup Facebook Live stream, SUP Racer will be streaming 4 or 5 Euro Tour events during the peak of summer.

Until then, follow the Tour on Facebook for more pics and updates from the race in Greece, and take a look at the full results from the elite long course down below.

all photos by Gwen Marche/EuroTour

 

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#	Athlete	Nation	Time
1	LEO NIKA	ITALY	01:29'56"142
2	PAOLO MARCONI	ITALY	01:30'34"947
3	FEDERICO ESPOSITO	ITALY	01:31'19"610
4	GIORGOS FRANGOS	GREECE	01:31'45"216
5	GIORDANO CAPPARELLA	ITALY	01:32'36"247
6	MARTINO ROGAI	ITALY	01:34'31"644
7	JEREMY TEULADE	FRANCE	01:34'45"913
8	CLAUDIO NIKA	ITALY	01:34'58"272
9	ALEXANDROS PRAPAS	GREECE	01:35'42"643
10	PAUL LENFANT	FRANCE	01:38'10"998
11	NIKOLAOS SIRIGOS	GREECE	01:38'12"865
12	JOEP VAN BAKEL	NETHERLANDS	01:40'23"614
13	CRISTOFER BULLANT	CYPRUS	01:42'59"554
14	KONSTANTINOU KONSTANTINOS	GREECE	01:44'14"923
15	BELAR DIAZ	SPAIN	01:45'59"616
16	ΑΠΑΛΑΓΑΚΗΣ ΔΗΜΗΤΡΗΣ	GREECE	01:47'36"257
17	ΚΟΥΜΟΥΔΙΟΥ ZAXAΡΙΑΣ	CYPRUS	01:54'17"958
18	ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΟΥ ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΣ	GREECE	01:56'37"300
19	ΚΛΕΙΝΑΚΗΣ ΓΙΩΡΓΟΣ	CYPRUS	02:07'24"769
20	ΓΕΡΑΛΕΞΗΣ ΚΩΣΤΑΝΤΙΝΟΣ	GREECE	02:09'49"708
21	NORM WEBER	DEUTSCHLAND	02:11'58"808
22	ΖΕΡΕ ΜΑΡΙΟΣ	GREECE	02:25'48"423
23	ΠΑΠΑΔΑΚΗΣ ΝΙΚΟΛΑΟΣ	GREECE	02:27'26"355
24	ΚΑΡΑΙΣΚΟΣ ΑΘΑΝΑΣΙΟΣ	GREECE	02:28'40"704
25	ΚΑΛΑΤΖΑΚΗΣ ΝΙΚΟΣ	GREECE	02:45'06"757

#	Athlete	Nation	Time
1	Penelope Strickland	New Zealand	01:43'29
2	Susak Molinero	Spain	02:13'54
3	Susanne Lier	Germany	02:21'56
4	Caterina Stenta	Italy	02:55'25
5	Iliana Lakafosi	Greece	03:10'21