India Lee breaks for the win in Cagliari
It was a day of firsts in the women’s Cagliari ITU Triathlon World Cup race as the top two ladies to cross the finish line stood on their first-ever World Cup podiums. India Lee joined Great Britain’s illustrious history of winning triathletes when she executed an expertly-timed break on the bike to spin her way to gold.
Germany’s Lisa Sieburger secured second after fighting her way back into the race on a challenging bike course, while bronze went to Austria’s Lisa Perterer.
A sprint-distance race with a leg-crushing bike course that offered critical final Olympic qualifying points, pressure was high in Cagliari. To add to jittery nerves, strong winds and wet roads greeted the women as they set out in the morning on a tough and technical course.
Carolina Routier (ESP) took advantage of her strong swim skills to set the pace on the one-lap 750m choppy swim, exiting the water with a five-second lead over the Netherlands Maya Kingma. The pair scorched through the long first transition, with Vendula Frintova (CZE) on their heels 10 seconds behind them. Frintova was the start of a long train that saw the majority of the women’s field string out in a 20-second line.
By the end of the first turn up heartbreak hill, a group of 15 women had come together with the addition of Lisa Norden (SWE), Georgia Taylor-Brown (GBR), and Lee to the mix. On the third of four laps, Lee laid out a pace that nobody could match as she broke away from the group.
Teammate Taylor-Brown attempted to go with her, while the chase followed 25 seconds behind, but on the bell lap it was only Lee who managed to keep the chase at bay while Taylor-Brown fell back to the large pack.
From there, it was no stopping Lee, as she dropped off her bike and shot out to the run. Despite running a few extra meters on the back of the first lap, which saw her lead dwindle from from 42 seconds to 37, the mistake wasn’t enough to cause her the win.
While Sieburger was closing in behind her, there wasn’t enough room over the 5km, three-lap course to overtake Lee. With just three years’ triathlon experience to her name, Lee had time to high-five the crowd down the finish chute en route to the gold medal.
Despite a sluggish swim that, like Lee, required Sieburger to increase her workload early on the bike, the German athlete had enough in her legs to pump out the fastest run split of the day for second place. Solid on the swim and bike, Perterer took off after Sieburger with a run speed that saw her collect her second consecutive World Cup bronze medal of the year.
Blummenfelt blasts to first World Cup title
At the first-ever Italian World Cup, set on the scenic coastline of Cagliari, Kristian Blummenfelt (NOR) clocked his first World Cup win with a powerful effort on the bike and run. Behind him, France reigned supreme as Aurelien Raphael and Simon Viain secured the two final podium positions over a sprint-distance course.
Blummenfelt has been steadily climbing the rankings since announcing himself as an athlete to watch after going off the front of the bike with two men at the 2014 Edmonton Grand Final. While the break didn’t lead to a win there, Blummenfelt once again powered his way to the front of the pack on the bike on Sunday, which this time proved a victorious move in a race that was critical in Olympic qualification for the 65-man field.
Raphael, true to his signature strength, set the tone for the day with a blistering swim in rough water. Italy’s own Alessandro Fabian, along with Norway’s Jorgen Gundersen gunned out of the first transition, in hopes of a three-man breakaway. But the trio couldn’t muster up the speed fast enough to hold off a hungry field.
Blummenfelt blasted up the tough bike course, which saw the men climb 100 metres over just 2.5km on each of the four laps for a total of 18km. Tucked behind him were Marco Van Der Stel (NED) and Stefan Zachaeus (LUX), along with a string of men ready for the attack.
By midway through the bike, 10 men were riding together including Blummenfelt, Fabian, Viain, Raphael, Zachaeus, Gundersen, Gustav Iden (NOR), Tom Richard (FRA), David Castro Fajardo (ESP) and Tamas Toth (HUN).
The bell lap on the bike proved a pivotal tactical moment, as Blummenfelt led a six-man break including Zachaeus, Viain, Richard, and Raphael. From there, Blummenfelt kept his moment down the hill, off the bike, and onto the flat-three lap 5km run.
Raphael and Viain attempted to go with the Norwegian, but by the first lap he already had a 10-second lead that would eventual morph into a 20-second gap for the win. Raphael, in nearly a line to line lead performance on Sunday, charged through the final run lap for second, while Viain claimed his first World Cup podium with bronze.
Elite Men
1. Kristian Blummenfelt NOR 00:56:00
2. Aurelien Raphael FRA 00:56:20
3. Simon Viain FRA 00:56:44
4. Gustav Iden NOR 00:56:51
5. David Castro Fajardo ESP 00:56:59
6. Stefan Zachaeus LUX 00:57:02
7. Léo Bergere FRA 00:57:11
8. Tom Richard FRA 00:57:18
9. Antonio Serrat Seoane ESP 00:57:23
10. Shachar Sagiv ISR 00:57:27
Elite Women
1. India Lee GBR 01:03:52
2. Lisa Sieburger GER 01:04:19
3. Lisa Perterer AUT 01:04:22
4. Emmie Charayron FRA 01:04:27
5. Mariya Shorets RUS 01:04:30
6. Vendula Frintova CZE 01:05:05
7. Petra Kurikova CZE 01:05:11
8. Carolina Routier ESP 01:05:13
9. Cassandre Beaugrand FRA 01:05:14
10. Anneke Jenkins NZL 01:05:18