The magnificent beach of Cagliari was
the perfect scenario for Georgia Taylor-Brown (GBR) to show once more her
impressive form and claim the first edition of the World Triathlon Championship
Series Cagliari. Almost as impressive was the performance of Emma Lombardi
(FRA), stepping on her first ever WTCS podium when she is only 20 years old,
and Taylor Knibb (USA) who managed to lead a bike breakaway that paved the way
for the athletes on the front even though she was almost a minute behind the
leaders out of the water.
It had been a while since the
athletes could enjoy a beach start on the WTCS circuit, but Cagliari delivered
one for the books. The temperature was just perfect for the start of the
women’s race, with the water slightly above 22 degrees and the sun shining. No
wind, sand banks and great conditions for practicing a bit of dolphin dives to
kick off the race. Cassandre Beaugrand was the one mastering how to navigate
the waves, while other great swimmers struggled a bit until they got it going.
By the time the athletes hit the
beach for the second lap, it was indeed Beaugrand leading, but with a massive
group of athletes right at her feet, some of them trying to dolphin diving to
get out of the water, some trying to run while they were still in the water.
The swim was rough and demanding,
just what Sophie Coldwell, Summer Rappaport, Taylor Spivey, Georgia
Taylor-Brown, Vittoria Lopes or Maya Kingma love, and indeed they were all
along with Cassandra the first ones getting into T1.
One of the medal contenders, Taylor
Knibb, did not found herself on the position she wanted to by the end of the
swim, almost a minute behind the leaders, but it only took her a lap to fix
that situation.
With a massive lead group navigating
the flat and fast bike course comfortably, it only took Knibb two of the ten
laps to catch them. But she did not stop there. The second she contacted the
lead group, she just pushed and pushed until she got up front.
An unfortunate bike crash of Claire
Michel (BEL) ended up with part of the group being cut, and Knibb, Julie Derron
(SUI), Taylor Spivey (USA), Emma Lombardi, Georgia Taylor-Brown, Sophie
Coldwell (GBR) or Miriam Casillas Garcia (ESP) moved up front to lead a group
of 11 women that lap by lap kept increasing the difference with the chasers.
Behind them, great runners like Beth
Potter, Cassandre Beaugrand, Summer Rappaport or Laura Lindemann were caught
behind the crash and saw their hopes fading lap after lap, with the difference
with the leaders increasing by 20 secs per lap.
By the time they all finished the ten
laps, the group of 11 leaders had over one minute and a half over the chasers,
and Georgia, Emma Lombardi and Taylor Knibb. The three of them left the second
transition together, and together they pushed for the first three laps of the
10km flat run along the seaside in Cagliari. Only Miriam Casillas looked like
she was able to follow them at the beginning, with Coldwell, Spivey, Kirsten
Kasper (USA) and Kate Waugh (GBR) trying to stay in contact. Behind them,
Beaugrand was flying to try to bridge the one minute and a half gap she had
with the leaders when she got off her bike.
With less than 2 km to go, the first
one of the leading trio to give up to Georgia’s speed was Knibb, her legs
paying the effort done on the bike. Lombardi stayed in touch with the Brit for
a little longer, but with over une folimeter to get to the blue carpet, Georgia
did her final move to make it to the finish line by herself, not even looking
back.
The victory in Cagliari is the third
of the season for Taylor-Brown, who has collected podiums on every race she has
started this season. It was not as easy as it looked on tv for Taylor-Brown,
though. “The swim was long, the bike was long, the run was very long. It was a
bit of a shock to the system for most of us, to be honest. I just tried to run
my own race in the end and tried to stay in contact with the bike group. Taylor
(Knibb) made it really hard but that worked in our favour because we got a
really good gap on the bike”, she said.
“I forgot how hard she (Taylor Knibb)
rides. It’s good, she really gets the group going and we’re all really trying
to hold onto her wheel. Just attacked out of corners and everyone was trying so
hard to get back on and everyone wanted to push to the front but we all stayed
safe.”
“I like to try and get a group away
(on the run) so I know I’ve got a bit of a buffer. Then just speaking to the
girls first two laps, let’s work together, this could be the podium, that’s all
it takes, a little bit of motivation with a small group.”
Extremely pleased with her silver
medal was the current U23 World Champion, Emma Lombardi. At only 20 years of
age, and after missing the podium for just a heartbeat in WTCS Yokohama earlier
in the season, she managed to get her first Series podium in her career,
holding on to Georgia for most part of the 10k.
“It’s amazing. I am very happy. After
the first two laps of the bike I saw her (Taylor Knibb) coming to the front
immediately and I thought ok, the race is starting now. She really pushed the
bike with Julie Derron so it was a really hard race.” The Frenchwoman didn’t
miss that wheel and managed not only to stay with them for the bike course, but
also to stay with the leading trio for the whole duration of the run. “I am really enjoying racing against the best
in the world, it’s just fantastic.”
After her third place today, Knibb
was extremely happy with her performance, returning to the podium spots after a
season that has not been easy for her, and an injury that kept her out of the
races since WTCS Yokohama. “Any day you get on the WTCS podium it’s a pretty
good day, these don’t come very frequently. I am just grateful to be back on
the start line and race well. It was an honour to run with these two for the
first two laps,” she explained.
Talking about her impressive bike
performance today, she said: “I just build into it and move up and move up and
that was the game the whole day. It was definitely nicer to be at the front so
I could dictate which lines I was taking through the corners. It is what it is
and you play the cards you get on the day and you make the most of it.”
Fourth place was for Spivey, who
outsprinted her training partner Casillas in the blue carpet, while Kasper
finished in the 6th place. Sophie Coldwell grabbed the 7th place, with
Beaugrand crossing the finish line in 8th place with the fastest run split of
the day, almost half a minute faster than Taylor-Brown.
The series leader is still
Taylor-Brown, who now has a slightly bigger gap with Flora Duffy. “It’s all
going to come down to the Grand Final but I’ve got three wins now and a second
so that’s all I’ve got, all I could do. It will come down to Abu Dhabi now,”
said Taylor-Brown.
ABOUT WORLD TRIATHLON
World Triathlon is the international
governing body for the Olympic and Paralympic sport of triathlon and all
related multisport disciplines around the world, including duathlon, aquathlon,
cross triathlon and winter triathlon. Triathlon made its Olympic debut in
Sydney 2000, with a third medal event, the Mixed Team Relay, added to the
programme at Tokyo 2020, while para triathlon was first added to the Paralympic
programme at Rio 2016. World Triathlon is proudly committed to the development
of the sport worldwide, with inclusion, equality, sustainability and
transparency at our core as we seek to help triathletes at all levels of the
sport to be extraordinary.
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