The magnificent beach of Cagliari, Sardinia was the perfect scenario for Georgia Taylor-Brown (GBR) to once again show her impressive form and claim gold in the first edition of the World Triathlon Championship Series Cagliari. Almost as impressive were the performances of Emma Lombardi (FRA), stepping onto her first ever WTCS podium at just 20 years old, and Taylor Knibb (USA) who managed to lead a bike break that paved the way for the athletes on the front even though she had been 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 down on the athletes. No wind, sand banks and great conditions for practicing some dolphin dives to kick off a memorable race. Cassandre Beaugrand was the one mastering how to navigate the waves, while some of the other great swimmers struggled a bit in the shallows and took their time to get going.
As 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 dive to shore, some trying to run while through the water.
The swim was rough and demanding, just what Sophie Coldwell, Summer Rappaport, Taylor Spivey, Georgia Taylor-Brown, Vittoria Lopes and Maya Kingma love, and indeed they were all along with Cassandra as the first getting into T1.
One of the pre-race medal contenders, Taylor Knibb, did not find herself where she would have hoped to be at the end of the swim almost a minute behind the leaders, but it only took her a single lap of the bike 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 made contact with the lead group, she just pushed and pushed until she hit the front.
An unfortunate bike crash for 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) and 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 and Laura Lindemann were caught behind the crash and saw their podium hopes fading lap after lap, with the difference with the leaders increasing by 20 secs per lap.
By the time they finished the ten laps, the group of 11 leaders had over a minute and a half over the chasers, and Georgia Taylor-Brown, Emma Lombardi and Taylor Knibb left the second transition together, and then pushed for the first three laps of the 10km flat run along the seafront 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 2km to go, the first of the leading trio to succumb to Georgia’s tempo was Knibb, her legs paying the price of the bike effort. Lombardi stayed in touch with the Brit for a little longer, but with just over a kilometre to the blue carpet, Georgia made her final move to hit the finish line all by herself, not even looking back.
Victory in Cagliari is the third of the season for Taylor-Brown, who has collected podiums in every race she has started this season. It was not as easy as it looked, 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. I 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 to 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.