Thrilling the French crowds with a victory on home soil, France’s Cedric Fleureton took home the gold in today’s Lorient BG Triathlon World Cup.  Fleureton’s winning time of 1 hour 49 minutes 53 seconds was the result of a well-executed game plan by the French team which rendered two French medals.  In second was 2008 Olympian Tony Moulai, 68 seconds back.  Coming back from over two and half minutes down was another Olympian, Ivan Rana of Spain, only another nine seconds down.

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This was Fleureton’s first podium in a world cup since his victory in Cancun in 2004, his only other win.  Moulai’s second place finish was a new career best.

Out of the water 2007 junior world champion Aurelien Raphael of France emerged first followed by teammate Frederic Belaubre.  Despite being a wetsuit swim there was a number of small groups who emerged from Ter Lake and it was obvious right from the start that many athletes were not going to let up during the bike. 

Multiple attacks took place over the first two of eight laps, led mostly by French athletes but it was not until the third lap that the French duo of Fleureton and Sylvain Sudrie finally got away.  Right behind them was another small group containing another pair of Frenchmen, Moulai and Vidal with Clarke Ellice of New Zealand in tow.  The large chase group with many of the pre-race favourites could not work together, losing over two and a half minutes by the second transition leaving Fleureton and Moulai to easily cruise to the top two spots.

As in the women’s race the battle for third saw the most movement.  First, one Frenchman, Sudrie, held the position and then another Frenchman in Vidal looked to have a French sweep wrapped up until the closing metres when Rana and then Steffen Justus of Germany passed him, both with sub-30 minute runs on an accurately measured course of 9.96 kilometres.  Vidal finished fifth.

Lorient BG Triathlon World Cup
Elite Men - Official Results
1.5km swim, 40km bike, 10km run
Gold – Cedric Fleureton (FRA) 1:49:53
Silver – Tony Moulai (FRA) 1:51:01
Bronze – Ivan Rana (ESP) 1:51:10
4 – Steffen Justus (GER) 1:51:18
5 – Laurent Vidal (FRA) 1:51:24
6 – Oliver Freeman (GBR) 1:51:30
7 – Clarke Ellice (NZL) 1:51:54
8 – Dmitry Polyansky (RUS) 1:51:58
9 – Nils Frommhold (GER) 1:51:59
10 – Jonathan Zipf (GER) 1:51:59
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