After a flat tire spoiled his return to racing at the World Triathlon Cup Lisbon race a few weeks ago, Canada’s Tyler Mislawchuk was finally able to show his fitness today, running away from the rest of the field to take the World Triathlon Cup Huatulco.
The 26-year-old Canadian was amongst the front group coming out of the water – leading the way was Russia’s Igor Polyanskiy, but the Canadian was just four seconds back in fifth and 56 athletes were within 30 seconds of the leader heading into T1.
Not all of that group managed to form the lead group on the bike, but it was most of them. By the end of the first lap on the bike there were 50 men riding together in a bunch that looked more like a bike-racing peloton than a bunch of triathletes. Little changed over the four-lap bike course, with 47 men hitting T2 together. Towards the end of the bike, though, Canada’s Matthew Sharpe blasted to the front with Mislawchuk on his wheel, ensuring the Canadian would be in a perfect position heading into transition and to start the run.
Mislawchuk used that help to perfection and quickly ran to the front and then away from the rest of the field. He would never be challenged as he flew through a sub-15-minute 5 km effort to take the win. Behind the Tokyo Test Event champ, though, there was lots of action for the final few spots on the podium.
After the first of two laps on the run, Spain’s David Castro Fajardo, America’s Kevin McDowell and Brazil’s Manoel Messias and Miguel Hidalgo were battling for the final two spots on the podium. After Mislawchuk crossed the line in 53:09 it was the two Brazilians who would win the race for second and third, with Messias (53:21) getting to the line ahead of Hidalgo (53:23). Mexico’s David Nunez would take fourth (53:25), Castro Fajardo fifth (53:27) and McDowell sixth (53:29).
