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“I am delighted with that,” said Brownlee afterwards. “I just said to myself with a couple of minutes to go, no-one can push harder than me so, if they’re going to beat me, they’re going to have to go really deep.”



It was to be Germany’s Justus Nieschlag and Mark Devay of Hungary first out of the water, however Brownlee was hot on their heels and the trio were joined by Ryan Bailie (AUS), and Sylvain Fridelance (SUI). A lead group of twelve riders then formed, and carved out a 12-second advantage by lap three.

Brownlee left T2 in first place and ran stride for stride with Germany’s Justus Nieschlag and Kevin Mcdowell of the USA for the first 4km. He continually pushed the pace until Mcdowell was dropped and Nieschlag had to settle for second, one second adrift of the winner.

“He (Justus) was there on the swim, pushed it on the bike and is a real all round triathlete,” said Brownlee. “It was great to see, but I am delighted to be back and in the sharp end of a race. As for what’s next, I am still sitting on the fence. I have European Championships in two weeks and Leeds the week after that. I’ll see where that leaves me in three weeks’ time.”

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 In the women’s race compatriot Sophie Coldwell delivered an incredible performance in Cagliari also take the gold medal, ensuring two golds for Great Britain.  Beth Potter was the fastest on two feet by some margin; sprinting home to take 6th place and second Brit. Jodie Stimpson finished 7th and Kate Waugh was 25th.

2. British selection goes from tough to tougher: The women’s race might have played out as a precursor for the harshest of British Triathlon selection decisions for the Olympics. Jess Learmonth always leads the swim, pushes the pace on the bike, and is currently tied for second place in the series rankings. But it may not be enough. The more her cycling improves, the greater the chance of the front group staying away from the rest of the field – and that includes the faster running Brits. Had the chasing bike pack containing Georgia Taylor-Brown and Non Stanford caught the leaders in Yokohama, the chances of a GB medal would have increased. But before Learmonth fans cry foul and worry unduly, if and when Duffy and potentially even Nicola Spirig return, the race dynamics will change once more. Before selection is determined, there are plenty of twists and turns to come.

3. Dicing with the dismount line: Quite why pro triathletes cut the bike dismount so fine is almost as unfathomable as how technical officials could make an accurate penalty call amidst a flurry of legs and spokes careering down the blue carpet. Given any advantage would be negligible, there seems to be an unwritten code that no-one will actually be penalised for transgressing, except, as Jonny Brownlee, ala London 2012, will recall (then with the mount line), ‘rules is sometimes rules’. So, with next year’s Olympics in mind, perhaps all triathletes should give themselves a little grace as to where they plonk their feet.

4. The joy of a home hero: Yuko Takahashi may not be the highest profile triathlete in the world, but when it comes to racing in Japan, she tops the bill – and that will be multiplied 10-fold next year. The Asian champion has been in the sport for over a decade, is still improving, and in Yokohama went one better than her previous best of fifth place in last year’s Bermuda WTS. It brought smiles all round. Home heroes bring a vital ingredient to the WTS. Bermuda was all the poorer for local ace Flora Duffy’s absence in the last round and Leeds won’t be the same unless a Brownlee or two shows up.

5. Lose the wetsuit, concede the race: Yokohama is a long-standing host on the World Series and many of its past races have seen the field come together to form one main bike pack for a less-than-enthralling roll around the city’s streets. It didn’t happen in either race this time, and a major factor was the non-wetsuit swim. Without the neoprene, weaker swimmers are exposed, the race fragments, and among the big names to drop out of contention early here were men’s world champion Mario Mola and women’s 2018 Grand Final winner Ashleigh Gentle.

6. More glee for Yee: Britain’s Alex Yee, originally from London and now training in Leeds, produced another step up in performance to be the sole triathlete to run under 30mins for the 10km split (29:58). While he officially needed a top three finish to achieve the first part of the Olympic selection criteria, the 21-year-old, who finished fifth, must already be inked in for Tokyo, particularly with the Brownlees’ injury challenges and no other medal contenders emerging. Yee is not infallible, but after the curtain-raiser in Abu Dhabi we stated he could win a WTS race this season and his Yokohama performance further solidifies that view.

7. The first pedal strokes determine the race: As Britain’s Tom Bishop, Non Stanford and Georgia Taylor-Brown will attest, the frenetic moments heading out of T1 and on to the bike course define the narrative of the race. All three Brits were cut adrift by fine margins, and with it went their chances. It felt particularly tough on Bishop, who swam within 19sec of the lead, yet unable to latch on to the front was left time-trialling solo for several kilometres trying to bridge the gap.

8. You don’t out-kick sprint king Luis: After his fourth place in Bermuda last time out, we concluded that despite being the series leader, Vincent Luis was still an enigma when it comes to the highest level. What wasn’t acknowledged – and that he’s proved time and again – is that to beat the Frenchman, he needs distancing before the blue carpet. Otherwise, as shown in Yokohama, when it comes to a sprint finish, there is no-one better.

9. And we’re left seeing Stars… and Stripes again: It was the fourth occasion the USA women have achieved a podium clean sweep – the others being in London (2015), Gold Coast (2015) and Edmonton (2016)– and Katie Zafares has been there every time. There are also currently 10 Americans in the ITU world’s top 100 rankings, proving great testament to the collegiate recruitment system led by 2004 Olympian Barb Lindquist. Just as with the Brits, US triathletes with medal-winning potential are going to miss out on Tokyo. Just imagine the fun if 2016 Olympic champion Gwen Jorgensen fancied a return too?*

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10. ITU is racing ahead with its coverage: No apologies for the plug because the broadcasting has gone up another level this season thanks to the introduction of a new platform on triathlonlive.tv. As well as full coverage of the men’s and women’s races in Yokohama, the paratriathlon was also shown live (Britain’s Jade Jones-Hall took gold in the wheelchair division). But your annual $26.99 subscription doesn’t stop there. The weekend’s World Cup race in Cagliari, where Alistair Brownlee and Sophie Coldwell triumphed, was also broadcast live, and, if you fancy a trip down memory lane or some extra footage to watch when on the trainer, there are years of archived races to get stuck into.

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*Despite Jorgensen having chosen a slightly trickier alternative career path, there is no indication of this happening.

The Challenge Cup is an online competition based on the actual bike circuits of four Challenge Family events. Ride all four events and come top of the overall classification to win a free entry to the final European race of the 2019 calendar, the Challenge Mallorca!

Gain a Competitive Edge

As well as being able to train safely from home on the real courses for each event, thanks to the Bkool Cycling Simulator, triathletes and all Bkool Premium members have a chance to compete in the Challenge Cup.

“If you’re training for a Challenge event, Bkool is a great way to hone your competitive edge and train on the actual race courses,” explains Javier Cepedano, Bkool’s Director of Marketing.

The Cup events will take place on the following dates:

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Thursday May 30 – Garmin Challenge Herning

Thursday June 6 – SKODA Challenge Geraardsbergen

Thursday June 20 – Challenge Kaiserwinkl-Walchsee

Thursday June 27 – DATEV Challenge Roth

Each event will have 6 possible sessions to join online, covering all timezone possibilities:
11am (GMT+2) – 5pm (GMT+2) – 7pm (GMT+2) – 9pm (GMT+2) – 2am (GMT+2) – 5am (GMT+2)

Ride With The Pros

The Challenge Cup will also be ridden by some of the stars of the Challenge Family series, with triathletes such as Laura Siddalland Frederic Funkjoining in the fun.

How To Enter

To participate, and be in for a chance to win a free entry to Challenge Mallorca plus a tonne of Challenge Family merchandise during each event, all you have to do is download the Bkool Cycling Simulator and sign up to Bkool for the first event Thursday May 30:

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Click here to join Bkool premium.bkool.com

Coming into today’s race, America’s Zaferes was the woman to beat, having won the first three rounds of the series and with her sights set on matching Flora Duffy’s record of four consecutive WTS wins in a season. 

The GB team also had a strong line-up with six of the world’s best athletes on the start line – Vicky Holland, Learmonth, Taylor-Brown, Non Stanford, Jodie Stimpson and Sophie Coldwell. Despite a sub-par start to the year – 8thin Abu Dhabi and 15thin Bermuda – the reigning world champ Holland was back on home soil and in a race she won last year. 

No surprise out of the 1.5km swim as Learmonth led the pack with Coldwell, Zaferes and America’s Spivey on her feet. Although 11secs back into T1, Taylor-Brown also comfortably made the front group. But out of transition, it was Coldwell and Zaferes who formed the first group as they took to Leeds’ streets on the 12km journey into the city centre.  

Learmonth, Taylor-Brown, Spivey, Cassandre Beaugrand (FRA) and Lopes (BRA) were just behind in the chase group, while Holland, Stanford and Stimson were 30secs down in the third group, 

After 8km the two groups had joined to make seven, before dropping Beaugrand on lap two to leave six chasing for the podium. Over the next 20km, the lead group stretched its lead to 1:40secs by the bell lap.

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Out of T2, it was the series leader who took the helm of the 10km run. But Taylor-Brown wasn’t ready to let her go, looking comfortable on the American’s shoulder. Meanwhile the battle for bronze was between Coldwell and Learmonth, with Spivey hanging on for fifth. 

Taylor-Brown, who going into the fourth round had a 9thand two 5ths to her name to see her in fourth place in the series overall, pulled ahead with 8km to go. After the first lap, the gap was 5secs. By lap 2 that had more than doubled to 13secs. 

At halfway on the run, Learmonth, nearly 1min behind her teammate Taylor-Brown, made her move for third, leaving Coldwell in the clutches of Spivey who took her on lap three of four. Next up, Learmonth. 

Keeping Zaferes at bay, Taylor-Brown crossed the line after 1:55:46 to take her first World Tri Series win in her young career. Zaferes crossed for second some 11secs behind to retain the title lead, before Learmonth ran through 1:25mins later for bronze. 

Spivey took fourth, Stanford, who clocked the second fastest run with a 34:41, fifth, Holland seventh, Coldwell ninth and Stimpson 15th.

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For post-race video interviews with the women’s podium see our Instagram page. And click here for the full results list. 

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A post shared by 220 Triathlon (@220triathlon) on Jun 9, 2019 at 7:47am PDT

 
 
 

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A post shared by 220 Triathlon (@220triathlon) on Jun 9, 2019 at 7:50am PDT

While the Yorkshire weather was on the chilly side for the fourth round of the World Triathlon Series, the men’s Leeds’ event was always set to be a scorcher. For the first time since the Edmonton Worlds in 2014, the super seven – Alistair Brownlee, Jonny Brownlee, Vincent Luis, Henri Schoeman, Richard Murray, Javier Gomez and Mario Mola – were on the same start line. Gomez and Alistair, while having met on the 70.3 circuit in recent years, hadn’t raced an ITU event together since Leeds 2016. 

Commonwealth champ Schoeman made light work of the 1.5km swim to hit T1 first. But he was far from alone, with series leader Luis, both Brownlees and Gomez in his wake within a huge group of 20-plus athletes. 

GB’s Alex Yee, who has a second and fifth so far in 2019, was over 1min down out of the swim, leaving him trailing in the chase pack, alongside Murray and a sub-par reigning champ Mola. Tom Bishop, meanwhile, the fourth GB member, had had a solid swim to make the lead pack. 

On lap two, Jonny and 2019 Bermuda WTS winner David Coninx made a break, which lasted for about a lap before they were swallowed back into the lead group. The chase group, while large, was doing a great job of maintaining a 1min gap to the leaders. 

With two laps to go, it was Alistair Brownlee’s turn to go off the front, taking Ireland’s Russell White with him to pull out a 10 sec gap with two laps to go, but again they were swallowed up before the end of the 40km bike. 

And so it came down to a 10km run. Germany’s Jonas Schomberg sprinted clear to create a gap to the large chase group led by Henri Schoeman. But Alistair, who had raced just one week ago to win the European Champs, could be seen struggling to hold on, slowly dropping down the pack. 

With three laps to go, a group of 15, which held Schoeman, Jonny, Bishop, Luis and Gomez, were still playing catch up to Schomberg who was 10secs down the road. But metre by metre, the experience of the chase group came to the fore, as Gomez stepped up to the front and swallowed up the German.

Halfway through the four-lap 10k, and it was Schoeman who led the group through transition for the start of lap three. The commonwealth champ, who finished second in Yokohama in May, proceeded to pull out a 3sec gap over Aussie Jacob Birtwhistle and Gomez. 

But he soon too had to relinquish the lead, as Birtwhistle, who while on many a relay-winning team had never won a WTS race in his long career, shot to the front to take the Leeds win in 1:45:45 ahead of the USA’s Matthew McElroy in second, Gomez in third and Schoeman in fourth. Luis took sixth, Bishop 13thand Yee in 15th.

Jonny eventually crossed the line in 35th, complaining of stomach pains, while brother Alistair finished in 44th, stumped by his lack of form. 

“When you say you can learn something from bad results it’s just an excuse for bad results!” said Alistair at the line. “But I’ve been feeling really confident about everything these last two weeks but I don’t feel very confident about anything right now.” 

Alistair’s next outing will be in Cork at the full Ironman in two weeks’ time. 

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For post-race video interviews with Birtwhistle, Gomez and Jonny head to our Instragram page, and for full results click here. 

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The run coach and former policeman began his 318-mile challenge, which involves a mammoth 36,000m of elevation gain (the equivalent of four times up and down Mount Everest), at 8am from Moot Hall, Keswick.

The current record is held by Steve Birkinshaw, who, in June 2014, did it in 6 days, 13 hours and 1 minute. Prior to that the record was held by another fell running legend, Joss Naylor, who clocked a time of 7 days 1 hour and 25 minutes in 1987.

Paul will follow a similar route to Steve, who spent months mapping out what he believed to be the quickest, continuous on-foot route over the 214 peaks that featured in Alfred Wainwright’s iconic seven-volume pictorial guide to the Lakeland fells.

The Windermere-based 36-year-old said: “I’m under no illusions as to how tough this challenge will be. I fully expect it to test me to the absolute maximum and probably beyond what I can imagine. I will run what I can, but obviously there is going to be a lot of fast-hiking and, as time goes on, slower hiking involved.

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“I’m lucky to have a fantastic support team and be part of a fell running community that has really got behind me. Being supported by inov-8 – a brand that produce the perfect kit for a challenge like this – means that’s also one less factor I need to worry about.”

The Ambleside Athletics Club member will eat on the move and sleep in a van at road crossings. He will be supported throughout by family and friends, with groups of runners taking it in turns to pace and navigate him over different sections of the route.

Current Wainwrights record-holder Steve was amongst those who ran this morning’s first section with Paul. He said: “My advice to Paul was to focus on small, achievable goals; be that getting up the next climb or pushing on through to the next rest stop. If you think too far ahead it becomes too daunting.”

Donations to Mind UK and in supper of Paul’s challenge and in memory of triathlete Chris Stirling can be made via the Justgiving page.

Follow Paul’s progress throughout via the live map and on inov-8’s facebook, instagram and twitter pages.

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Paul is an ambassador for running & fast-hike brand inov-8. To learn more about their innovative products and graphene-grip footwear visit www.inov-8.com

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