There can be no doubt WTS Leeds belonged to Flora Duffy from Bermuda. Heading into the fourth leg of the World Triathlon Series in Leeds, fresh from her win in Yokohama she would be the one to beat, but no-one could guess how much she would dominate the race.
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Britain’s Jess Learmonth took the lead early in the 1.5km swim, which took place in the Roundhay Park Lake, with Non Stanford 18 secs behind at the end of the first swim lap. She would hold and extend this lead through the second lap, and exited the swim first, with Flora Duffy in fourth, and Non Stanford in 18th, about a minute down.
Always a strong cyclist Learmonth set out on the bike leg with a mission to prove, however this lead was short-lived as on hearing how far back Stanford was, she decided to hold back to help get Stanford back into contention.
Flora Duffy then made her move and before the first bike lap was over she was part of a leading group of four that included Alice Betto (Italy), Maya Kingma from The Netherlands and Taylor Spivey from USA.
This group meant business and increased their lead every lap, from 01:05 after the first lap to 02:30 by the time they headed into T2. This was an incredible lead over the chase group, which included Stanford and Learmonth, and the chances for a Brit making a podium finish were looking slim.
Heading into the run Flora Duffy had to be the favourite, and within minutes she dropped Betto, Spivey, and Kingma – the cycling leg having really taken its toll. Kingma would then be dropped and it looked like silver and bronze positions would be fought between Betto and Spivey, with Spivey proving to be the stronger runner. Betto would take third and be the first Italian to make a WTS podium.
“It felt amazing,” says Spivey. “I worked really hard trying to keep up with Flora, but it was worth it!”
“It was a perfect race,” says Betto.
A phenomenal run from American athlete Kiirsten Kasper saw her overtake Kingma to get into fourth, and would end the race as the leader of the series. A great performance on the run by Learmonth left her in 6th place, her best WTS finish.
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But the day would belong to Duffy and her campaign to retain her world championship title is very much on…
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It’s WTS Leeds and 80,000 spectators are out lining the streets hoping to see the Brownlee brothers in winning form in their home city. But could they deliver again on home turf? Without Spaniards Mario Mola and Javier Gomez in the mix their main opposition came from current series leader Fernando Alarza, also from Spain.
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As expected Richard Varga (SVK) was first out of the swim with Jonny in second and Alistair not far behind. Both had a great transition and were out on the bike leg as part of lead group with two the Frenchmen Pierre Le Corre and Aurelien Raphael.
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However the chase group, led by Alarza were chasing hard and halfway into the intro lap, when it looked like the leaders would get swallowed up, the Brownlees decided to break and go alone after it was clear the Frenchmen could not go with them.
At the end of the intro lap they had a lead of just 6 secs, but by the end of the first city lap the lead had extended to 11secs, and a fantastic second lap saw them double this to 24secs. Over the next five laps they would increase this lead to 01:13 – would this prove enough of a cushion to see them repeat last year’s success and take first and second?
The answer was an undeniable yes. There was no way these brothers were going to let anyone back into the race for gold and silver, and a one-two finish was soon assured but how would it fall? In the end it was Alistair again who made his famous dominating move with about 2km to go, and from then on the race was his.
Behind the Brownless the race was on for third between Great Britain’s Adam Bowden and Tom Bishop, and Alarza. Both Brits were looking strong and for a brief time there was hope Britain could make it a clean sweep on the podium, but with 4km to go Alarza made a decisive move and broke away for bronze, leaving Bowden and Bishop to take a fantastic fourth and fifth respectively.
A historic day for British triathlon with Great Britain taking four out of the top five places.
“It was really special,” Alistair told BBC Sport. “You can never expect to win a race and know what is going to happen.
“The last few hundred metres leading up to Millennium Square was amazing. I will remember this experience for the rest of my career.
“We were riding really hard on the bikes. For the first three laps of the circuit, we were probably riding as hard as we ever have. That took it out of us on the run.”
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Jonny said: “It was a hard way to do that race, to be the two of us from the end of the swim. If I want to beat Alistair, that is not the way to do it. I basically turned it into a long-distance hard man’s race and he is a bit harder than me.”
Brothers go 1-2! @AliBrownleetri and @jonny_brownlee earn gold and silver in front of their hometown crowd! #WTSLeeds pic.twitter.com/RUgApOjxDC
— TriathlonLIVE (@triathlonlive) June 11, 2017
It’s WTS Leeds and 80,000 spectators are out lining the streets hoping to see the Brownlee brothers in winning form in their home city. But could they deliver again on home turf? Without Spaniards Mario Mola and Javier Gomez in the mix their main opposition came from current series leader Fernando Alarza, also from Spain.
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As expected Richard Varga (SVK) was first out of the swim with Jonny in second and Alistair not far behind. Both had a great transition and were out on the bike leg as part of lead group with two the Frenchmen Pierre Le Corre and Aurelien Raphael.
However the chase group, led by Alarza were chasing hard and halfway into the intro lap, when it looked like the leaders would get swallowed up, the Brownlees decided to break and go alone after it was clear the Frenchmen could not go with them.
At the end of the intro lap they had a lead of just 6 secs, but by the end of the first city lap the lead had extended to 11secs, and a fantastic second lap saw them double this to 24secs. Over the next five laps they would increase this lead to 01:13 – would this prove enough of a cushion to see them repeat last year’s success and take first and second?
The answer was an undeniable yes. There was no way these brothers were going to let anyone back into the race for gold and silver, and a one-two finish was soon assured but how would it fall? In the end it was Alistair again who made his famous dominating move with about 2km to go, and from then on the race was his.
Behind the Brownless the race was on for third between Great Britain’s Adam Bowden and Tom Bishop, and Alarza. Both Brits were looking strong and for a brief time there was hope Britain could make it a clean sweep on the podium, but with 4km to go Alarza made a decisive move and broke away for bronze, leaving Bowden and Bishop to take a fantastic fourth and fifth respectively.
A historic day for British triathlon with Great Britain taking four out of the top five places.
“It was really special,” Alistair told BBC Sport. “You can never expect to win a race and know what is going to happen.
“The last few hundred metres leading up to Millennium Square was amazing. I will remember this experience for the rest of my career.
“We were riding really hard on the bikes. For the first three laps of the circuit, we were probably riding as hard as we ever have. That took it out of us on the run.”
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Jonny said: “It was a hard way to do that race, to be the two of us from the end of the swim. If I want to beat Alistair, that is not the way to do it. I basically turned it into a long-distance hard man’s race and he is a bit harder than me.”
Brothers go 1-2! @AliBrownleetri and @jonny_brownlee earn gold and silver in front of their hometown crowd! #WTSLeeds pic.twitter.com/RUgApOjxDC
— TriathlonLIVE (@triathlonlive) June 11, 2017
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There are few more divisive issues in triathlon, but it’s time for ‘team orders’ – or ‘team delivery’ (as British Triathlon prefers to term it) – to be jettisoned. Why? Because while the role of the pilot (formerly domestique) may on occasion prove helpful, it’s more often ineffective, confusing and even detrimental to performance.
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The latest high profile example is the ITU World Series race in Leeds last Sunday, an event that could well be the biggest showcase for triathlon in this country until Tokyo 2020. The women raced first and as Jess Learmonth led the swim the excitement mounted. Given her results this season (a win, two seconds, and eighth in the World Series race in Japan), the Leeds local is Team GB’s form triathlete.
She emerged first from the water in Roundhay Park, powered clear up the hill on the bike… and then – after passing a British Triathlon official – all but stopped so abruptly that not even the commentators noticed. The reason she’d dropped behind the front pack was to offer assistance to team-mate Non Stanford. But it was folly.
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Stanford, the 2013 world champion and fourth in the Rio Olympics, was 58secs behind out from the swim, and despite Learmonth’s best efforts on the bike lost another 1:39mins to the leaders coming into T2. The race was done.
The irony here is two-fold. Firstly, we’d been here before. Last year in Leeds, Learmonth and fellow wonder-swimmer Lucy Hall were clear with Flora Duffy on the bike, but dithered, unsure over a team directive to help team GB’s faster runners in the chase group, and the fast-running American Gwen Jorgensen took full advantage.
Secondly, Learmonth, ran not only better than Stanford this year, but a full minute faster than Italy’s third-place finisher, Alice Betto. She still achieved a career-high World Series finish of sixth, but had she just put her head down and gone for it, she’d likely have been on the podium.
In mitigation, British Triathlon concede that Stanford has been unwell but gambled she’d pull through with the home crowd support. Conversely, Learmonth had not run for three weeks with a knee niggle, and is still a relative novice as despite being 29 years old, she only competed in her first triathlon five years ago.
The reality is that the team delivery instructions, discussed with the performance staff and senior British triathletes, ultimately befuddled Learmonth’s thinking on the course, and when a BTF steward told her her time split she made the wrong call.
Team delivery has worked in the past for Team GB. It worked to help Gordon Benson win the European Games in 2015 and India Lee in last year’s European championship. But those races played out in front of tiny audiences. Leeds had four hours of BBC coverage and tens of thousands watching in Leeds city centre so the real shame is not just a missed opportunity for Learmonth but that the sport was robbed of a barnstorming showcase for our British women.
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For that Sunday evening entertainment, it was, once again, over to the Brownlees.
There are few more divisive issues in triathlon, but it’s time for ‘team orders’ – or ‘team delivery’ (as British Triathlon prefers to term it) – to be jettisoned. Why? Because while the role of the pilot (formerly domestique) may on occasion prove helpful, it’s more often ineffective, confusing and even detrimental to performance.
Advertisement
The latest high profile example is the ITU World Series race in Leeds last Sunday, an event that could well be the biggest showcase for triathlon in this country until Tokyo 2020. The women raced first and as Jess Learmonth led the swim the excitement mounted. Given her results this season (a win, two seconds, and eighth in the World Series race in Japan), the Leeds local is Team GB’s form triathlete.
She emerged first from the water in Roundhay Park, powered clear up the hill on the bike… and then – after passing a British Triathlon official – all but stopped so abruptly that not even the commentators noticed. The reason she’d dropped behind the front pack was to offer assistance to team-mate Non Stanford. But it was folly.
Stanford, the 2013 world champion and fourth in the Rio Olympics, was 58secs behind out from the swim, and despite Learmonth’s best efforts on the bike lost another 1:39mins to the leaders coming into T2. The race was done.
The irony here is two-fold. Firstly, we’d been here before. Last year in Leeds, Learmonth and fellow wonder-swimmer Lucy Hall were clear with Flora Duffy on the bike, but dithered, unsure over a team directive to help team GB’s faster runners in the chase group, and the fast-running American Gwen Jorgensen took full advantage.
Secondly, Learmonth, ran not only better than Stanford this year, but a full minute faster than Italy’s third-place finisher, Alice Betto. She still achieved a career-high World Series finish of sixth, but had she just put her head down and gone for it, she’d likely have been on the podium.
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In mitigation, British Triathlon concede that Stanford has been unwell but gambled she’d pull through with the home crowd support. Conversely, Learmonth had not run for three weeks with a knee niggle, and is still a relative novice as despite being 29 years old, she only competed in her first triathlon five years ago.
The reality is that the team delivery instructions, discussed with the performance staff and senior British triathletes, ultimately befuddled Learmonth’s thinking on the course, and when a BTF steward told her her time split she made the wrong call.
Team delivery has worked in the past for Team GB. It worked to help Gordon Benson win the European Games in 2015 and India Lee in last year’s European championship. But those races played out in front of tiny audiences. Leeds had four hours of BBC coverage and tens of thousands watching in Leeds city centre so the real shame is not just a missed opportunity for Learmonth but that the sport was robbed of a barnstorming showcase for our British women.
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For that Sunday evening entertainment, it was, once again, over to the Brownlees.
Team 220 Triathlon are on the Isles of Scilly this weekend, where yesterday the full distance ÖtillÖ race took place in scorching conditions.
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This is the second running of the British version of the Swedish race series, which this year saw saw 200 participants in teams of two compete, with athletes attending from 17 different countries. This year’s course was slightly modified from last year and took out one shallow section of swimming early in the race (which had seen many competitors wading), replacing it with an additional swim leg from the beautiful island of Tresco.
This meant competitors raced a total of a little over 37km, with almost 30km of running around the Cornish coastal trails and 8km of swimming across bays and between islands, with water temperatures ranging from 12-14 degrees C. What was very different was the air temperatures this year though – the swimrunners faced searing heat and direct sun, with almost no breeze.
Records smashed
Many of the top athletes loved the conditions though, with the warm runs providing a strong contrast to the chill of the swims. There’s a lot of swimming in ÖtillÖ and the longest two swims in yesterday’s race were 2km at the start and 2.5km at the end of the race, meaning it was important to make smart kit choices.
The first team, Stefano Prestinoni and Fredrik Axegård (SWE), crossed the line in 04:42:08, smashing the course record from last year’s race in over 20 minutes. Other fast times were set too, with a mixed team, Diane Sadik (SUI) and Henrik Wahlberg (SWE), finishing second overall, only 13 minutes after the leaders with the time 4:55:55!
The winning women’s team, reigning world champion Annika Ericsson and Elisabet Pärsdotter Westman (SWE), finished 5:28:58 and 12th overall.
Stefano Prestinoni from the winning team Swimshop.se said after the finish line: “It was an amazing race. We struggled quite hard as the temperatures were changing so much from air to water. The air was hot and the water was cold. But the swimming was fantastic – the water was so calm it was like swimming in the pool!”
Today sees the Sprint race take place, where over 30 teams of two (including 220‘s Editor Helen Webster) will take on a course of almost 15km, with nine runs and eight swims. You can follow the race live from 11am today at www.otilloswimrun.com/live.
There will be a full five-page report from the ÖtillÖ Swimrun Isles of Scilly weekend in issue 341 of 220 Triathlon, on sale 19th July.
Interested in trying swimrun for the first time? Read our guide here: What Is Swimrun?
Want to find out more about kit for swimrun? Read our Essential Guide to Swimrun Kit
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Here are some stunning photos from the event
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Team 220 Triathlon are on the Isles of Scilly this weekend, where yesterday the full distance ÖtillÖ race took place in scorching conditions.
Advertisement
This is the second running of the British version of the Swedish race series, which this year saw saw 200 participants in teams of two compete, with athletes attending from 17 different countries. This year’s course was slightly modified from last year and took out one shallow section of swimming early in the race (which had seen many competitors wading), replacing it with an additional swim leg from the beautiful island of Tresco.
This meant competitors raced a total of a little over 37km, with almost 30km of running around the Cornish coastal trails and 8km of swimming across bays and between islands, with water temperatures ranging from 12-14 degrees C. What was very different was the air temperatures this year though – the swimrunners faced searing heat and direct sun, with almost no breeze.
Records smashed
Many of the top athletes loved the conditions though, with the warm runs providing a strong contrast to the chill of the swims. There’s a lot of swimming in ÖtillÖ and the longest two swims in yesterday’s race were 2km at the start and 2.5km at the end of the race, meaning it was important to make smart kit choices.
The first team, Stefano Prestinoni and Fredrik Axegård (SWE), crossed the line in 04:42:08, smashing the course record from last year’s race in over 20 minutes. Other fast times were set too, with a mixed team, Diane Sadik (SUI) and Henrik Wahlberg (SWE), finishing second overall, only 13 minutes after the leaders with the time 4:55:55!
The winning women’s team, reigning world champion Annika Ericsson and Elisabet Pärsdotter Westman (SWE), finished 5:28:58 and 12th overall.
Stefano Prestinoni from the winning team Swimshop.se said after the finish line: “It was an amazing race. We struggled quite hard as the temperatures were changing so much from air to water. The air was hot and the water was cold. But the swimming was fantastic – the water was so calm it was like swimming in the pool!”
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Today sees the Sprint race take place, where over 30 teams of two (including 220‘s Editor Helen Webster) will take on a course of almost 15km, with nine runs and eight swims. You can follow the race live from 11am today at www.otilloswimrun.com/live.
There will be a full five-page report from the ÖtillÖ Swimrun Isles of Scilly weekend in issue 341 of 220 Triathlon, on sale 19th July.
Interested in trying swimrun for the first time? Read our guide here: What Is Swimrun?
Want to find out more about kit for swimrun? Read our Essential Guide to Swimrun Kit
Advertisement
Here are some stunning photos from the event
The 1989 Tour de France is arguably the greatest Tour de France ever. It saw American rider Greg LeMond overturn a 50-second deficit to France’s Laurent Fignon on the final stage on the Champs Élysées to snatch the title by a mere eight seconds.
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After three weeks and more than 2,000 miles in the saddle, these few seconds remain the smallest margin of victory in the race’s 100+ year history.
But, as dramatic as that Sunday afternoon on the streets of Paris was, the race wasn’t just about that one time-trial. During the previous fortnight, the leader’s yellow jersey had swapped back and forth between LeMond and Fignon in a titanic struggle for supremacy, a battle with more twists and turns than the maziest Alpine mountain pass. At no point during the entire three weeks were LeMond and Fignon separated by more than 53 seconds.
In Three Weeks, Eight Seconds, 220 Triathlon contributor Nige Tassell brings one of cycling’s most astonishing stories to life, examining that extraordinary race in all its multi-faceted glory with fresh interviews and new perspectives and laying bare that towering heights of adrenaline, agony, excitement, torment and triumph that it produced.
Three Weeks, Eight Seconds is out now from Polaris Publishing, priced £14.99.
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NIGE TASSELL writes about sport and music, and his work has appeared in the pages of 220 Triathlon, the Guardian, Sunday Times, Esquire, FourFourTwo, Q and The Word. He’s also the author of The Bottom Corner: A Season With The Dreamers Of Non-League Football.
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The 1989 Tour de France is arguably the greatest Tour de France ever. It saw American rider Greg LeMond overturn a 50-second deficit to France’s Laurent Fignon on the final stage on the Champs Élysées to snatch the title by a mere eight seconds.
Advertisement
After three weeks and more than 2,000 miles in the saddle, these few seconds remain the smallest margin of victory in the race’s 100+ year history.
But, as dramatic as that Sunday afternoon on the streets of Paris was, the race wasn’t just about that one time-trial. During the previous fortnight, the leader’s yellow jersey had swapped back and forth between LeMond and Fignon in a titanic struggle for supremacy, a battle with more twists and turns than the maziest Alpine mountain pass. At no point during the entire three weeks were LeMond and Fignon separated by more than 53 seconds.
In Three Weeks, Eight Seconds, 220 Triathlon contributor Nige Tassell brings one of cycling’s most astonishing stories to life, examining that extraordinary race in all its multi-faceted glory with fresh interviews and new perspectives and laying bare that towering heights of adrenaline, agony, excitement, torment and triumph that it produced.
Three Weeks, Eight Seconds is out now from Polaris Publishing, priced £14.99.
Click Here: liverpool mens jersey
Advertisement
NIGE TASSELL writes about sport and music, and his work has appeared in the pages of 220 Triathlon, the Guardian, Sunday Times, Esquire, FourFourTwo, Q and The Word. He’s also the author of The Bottom Corner: A Season With The Dreamers Of Non-League Football.
There was talk of an Ironman record and potentially the overall Iron-distance world best falling at Ironman Austria today; however, it wasn’t to be for world champion Jan Frodeno, who still went sub-8hrs and was streaks ahead of the chasing group despite only having resumed full training two weeks ago due to a virus.
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Frodeno’s own Iron-distance world record stands at 7:35:39 set at Challenge Roth, and Tim Don’s record at an Iron-branded event is 7:40:23; and although Frodeno’s 7:57:20 was way wide of the mark, he cited his hampered preparations as a reason for re-evaluating goals for this race, saying in an interview with Triathlon World that even a course record (Marino Vanhoenacker’s 7:45:58 set in 2011) was “very unlikely”.
Men’s race
The race kicked off at 6:40am local time in the crystal clear waters of Klagenfurt lake, with Frodeno the marked man. Other prominent triathletes on the start line were Iván Raña (ESP), Antony Costes (FRA) Michael Weiss (AUT) and Eneko Llanos (ESP). No British male pros were competing.
Frodeno was first out of the water in a time of 46:29, which was to be expected but his 1:55 gap on fellow former ITU pro Raña made for an even more impressive split. The trailing pack emerged from the water 4mins back from Frodeno, with Tim Brydenback of Belgium leading Costes and Llanos out after 50mins of swimming.
On the bike Frodo continued to assert his dominance and extended the lead after every single checkpoint. The gap grew from 5mins at the 25km mark to a whopping 13min advantage by the end of the 180km bike leg, with the German pacing the two-lap course perfectly evenly for a split of 4:19:45.
Behind him, Raña suffered a mechanical early on in the bike and was sent way down the pecking order by the halfway point, with Llanos taking the second spot until Costes overtook at the 100km mark. The two continued to exchange places until the end of the bike leg, coming into T2 in an almost identical time with Llanos marginally in front. Michael Weiss made plenty of ground on the bike with a 4:27:53 clocking, while Paul Ruttmann of Austria who was briefly second was forced to pull out due to a mechanical.
On the run, it was more of the same with Frodeno continuing to extend his lead coming up to the half marathon point, where his lead grew to 17mins; however he began to show signs of fatigue in the second half of the marathon, and a predicted sub-7hrs 50mins clocking starting to edge closer back towards the 8hr mark.
Llanos cemented his place in second on the run, with Costes dropping back to fourth before fading horribly in the second half of the marathon and dropping out of the top 20 finishers.
Frodeno crossed the line in 7:57:20, recording a 2:46:09 marathon. Exhausted and in a heap on the floor after finishing, Frodeno told Ironman Live he was “really hurting” towards the end and only crowd energy pulled him through.
Llanos followed Frodeno home 15mins later in a time of 8:12:43, with Viktor Zyemtsev (UKR) third in 8:17:05, David Plese (SVN) fourth in 8:19:13 and Michael Weiss fifth in 8:22:42.
Women’s race
In the women’s pro race British interest was solely on the shoulders of Corinne Abraham, who with a 59:44 swim and out of the water in fifth had much catching up to do on leader Michelle Vesterby (DEN), nearly 6mins ahead with a 53:52 split.
It looked to be Vesterby’s day entirely, as she held pole position throughout the bike leg. A crash towards the end of the bike didn’t even look to be stopping her, and she came into T2 with a near 6min lead over the chasers. Behind her Abraham had made up huge ground on the bike with a 5:00:12 split, coming into T2 in second and 3mins up on third-placed Eva Wutti (AUT).
Wutti absolutely flew on the first half of the run, making up 2mins on Abraham and Vesterby in the first 5km. Abraham continued to run well (although not quite at Wutti’s pace) while Vesterby faded, and Wutti took the lead just before the halfway mark on the run course.
From here it was a case of how much Wutti could stretch the lead by and how much Vesterby would lose, and ultimately, she was also passed by Abraham at the 25km mark.
Wutti took the win in a time of 9:06:25 after a super-fast 2:57:43 marathon. This victory comes less than a year after giving birth to her first child.
Abraham finished second in 9:08:03, and Vesterby held on for a third-place finish, clocking 9:16:44.
View the full Ironman Austria 2017 results here
Elsewhere
Today also marked the inaugural Ironman 70.3 Edinburgh, where there was a sizeable British contingent. In the women’s race Emma Pallant took a comfortable victory in 4:23:17, and fellow Brit Lucy Gossage was right behind her in 4:26:32. Sarah True (USA) had another good result in a post-Olympic season of 70.3 racing with a 4:26:32 clocking. In the men’s race, former Iron-distance world record holder Andreas Raelert of Germany won in a time of 3:55:21, while the fastest British finisher was Elliot Smales in 4:04:35.
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View the full Ironman Edinburgh 70.3 results here
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