Tim Don burst home in amazing style to grab his third world cup win of the year sending him shooting to the top of the world cup rankings.
Go to the corner Brook event page for full results and photos.
Britain’s Richard Stannard took an early lead during the swim section of the 8th staging of the Corner Brook ITU Triathlon World Cup. Stephen Poulat of France clung to Stannard’s heels until the final lap when he passed him to snatch the swim prime.
Poulat continued to lead up the steep hill to the swim to bike transition with Estonia’s Marco Albert close behind. Tim Don of Britain, New Zealand team-mates Torrenzo Bozzone and Nathan Richmond, along with Joe Umphenour, Matthew Seymour and Brian Fleischmann from the USA and Frank Bignet of France were also close behind the leader.
The group at the front was unable to get organized into an effective working team until Frank Bignet broke from the pack at the end of the 2nd lap to capture the 1st bike prime. Once at the front he continued to push the pace through the 3rd lap of the bike and at half-way he had made a serious break from the others.
Marco Albert was not willing to let Bignet ride away easily and he caught up to Bignet at the start of the 4th lap when the two settled down to serious pedaling. Meanwhile the second chase group that included Brent McMahon of Canada were making up some time on the leaders and were within 50 seconds of merging.
Albert and Bignet continued to eat up the hills on the tough Corner Brook course, and whilst putting on a great show for the crowd as they went after the 2nd bike prime at the end of the 5th lap. At the same time, the 2nd chase pack caught the big pack behind Bignet and Albert, to form one chase pack of over 20 athletes.
The dilemma for Albert and Bignet was that there were at least 8 athletes in the chase group who were capable of running a 31 minute 10km such as Tim Don, Torrenzo Bozzone and Seth Wealing of the USA.
By the bike to run transition, Bignet and Albert had a 1:20 minute lead, and exited transition like two scared rabbits.
Torrenzo Bozzone was the first from the chase pack onto the run in the hunt for the leaders. Brian Fleichmann, Brent McMahon, Tim Don, Sean Beckall, Seth Wealing and Matthew Seymour were out next in hot pursuit.
Franck Bignet dropped Marco Albert early on the first lap and appeared to be running well, but it was not long before Tim Don and Victor Plata appeared on the horizon and started to move in on the leaders.
The duo caught the leaders on the 2nd lap of the 4 lap 10km run and settled into a real seesaw battle for the top prize, as first Albert and then Bignet dropped back in the field.
Plata continued to press Don for the lead through the 3rd and 4th lap until with just over a kilometer to go Don picked up the pace and romped home to his 3rd World Cup title this season, and the second victory of the day for the Brits.
Victor Plata took the silver medal – his best World Cup finish.
In a thrilling sprint with Samuel Pierrecloud of France for the last step on the podium, Bruno Pais of Portugal proved that his country heroine, multiple World Cup Champion Vanessa Fernandes is not the only one to gather accolades. Pais narrowly missed selection to the Athens Olympic Games last year and has served notice that it will be different come time for selection to Beijing 2008.
Mark Fretta of the USA had a great run to round out the top 5.
As the cheers faded from the thousands who lined the course, and everyone started to reassemble for the post-race celebration at Marble Mountain Ski Lodge, thought drifted ahead to next year when the Local Organising Committee will add the World Duathlon Championships to its list of events in their TriFest week, and an additional 1500 athletes. It should be the place to be in July ’06, thanks to the exuberant organizing committee led by Denise May, Janice Ryan and Allen Vansen.