The heat was cranking up and his rivals were thinning out over the closing stages of the 10km run to the medals in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on Saturday afternoon, as Britain’s Connor Bentley found a pace that was just too hot for his rivals to stay with.
The 2022 U23 World Champion put together a career-best race to top a World Cup podium for the first time, pulling clear of Yanis Seguin and Jonas Schomburg in second and third over the final lap of four.
Devay and Longcroft Harris for the swim win
The front three swimmers of Mark Devay, Chase McQueen and Canada’s Aiden Longcroft-Harris managed to put some time over the chasers by the end of lap one, but the American would lose a little ground over the second loop, Simon Westermann digging in to keep himself firmly in the front-pack hunt, Ireland’s James Edgar also flying early on.
Eight take control of bike
Bentley was right there, too, so it was a well-set bunch that merged early on the bike, Yanis Seguin and Jonas Schomburg completing the eight hard-riding leaders.
Seth Rider and Sylvain Fridelance were 28 seconds back along with Tyler Smith and Panagiotis Bitados then a huge chase group settled but never organised, the gap to the front slipping with every passing lap.
At the 20km mark the lead was 80 seconds, by the bell it had gone out to two minutes, Emil Holm, Gaspar Riveros and Shachar Sagiv battling to keep in check, Harry Leleu off the back after coming off and riding solo for the second half of the bike.
The chase gets going
It was Bentley-Westermann-Seguin with the three fastest transitions and out first, Schomburg losing a couple of places but soon hauling his way back up. Australia’s Oscar Dart was first into the chase, soon joined by David Cantero del Campo, as they set about reeling in Longcroft Harris and Edgar, the first to drift from the leaders.
Westermann was next to be dropped, Devay yo-yo’d but hung on, Cantero absolutely flying further back and suddenly within 30 seconds of the leaders.
That was as close as he could get, though, as up ahead Connor Bentley was able to find one last almighty surge to finally break his rivals and find daylight. Seguin and Schomburg locked into a huge sprint as Bentley hoovered up the blue carpet for his first World Cup gold, Seguin narrowly edging the silver, Schomburg back on the podium in third.
Results here.
