In a race where preliminary rounds already took place yesterday and today the final round consisting of three heats – with ten ladies dropping out each heat – Georgia Taylor-Brown just won WTCS Montreal. All women counted as favorites made it to the final round, which really only made the last heat interesting to follow.
A little problem of the eliminator format used in Montreal, in which athletes complete ultra-short triathlons and there are dropouts every heat, is that the fastest athletes can usually take it easy during the first few rounds and therefore the tension in the race is lacking. This was happening for sure today in Montreal, as all favorites made it to the third and thus decisive heat. The ten women in the finals were the three Britons Georgia Taylor-Brown, Beth Potter and Sophie Coldwell, the Americans Summer Rappaport and Taylor Spivey, the Italian Verena Steinhauser, the French Cassandre Beaugrand, the Danish Alberte Kjaer Pedersen, Jeanne Lehair who competes for World Triathlon, and the Brazilian Djenyfer Arnold.
It was Rappaport who came out of the water first after 4:08 minutes and directly in her feet followed Beaugrand, Taylor-Brown, Potter, Spivey and Coldwell. The remaining ladies conceded slightly more seconds. Thanks to a quick transition, it was Taylor-Brown, Potter and Beaugrand who managed to take the lead on the bike, thus creating a leading group of three. And even though the bike was short, the three women managed to extend their lead to 17 seconds and thus started the run with a comfortable lead on their chasers.
While most fans may have been counting on Potter during the run, it was Taylor-Brown who set the pace right away and opened a gap on Potter and also Beaugrand. The British ran without a brake and went for the win to the max. And it worked, because the British top athlete did not give away her lead and ran relatively easily to victory in 24:04. Surprisingly, Potter also had to let Beaugrand – who was second (+0:03) – go before Potter completed the podium (+0:11).
