Portuguese Vasco Vilaca was so strong today that it soon became clear he would win the World Triathlon Cup Rome. Right at the start of the run he took off on his own and from then on his victory was not in danger either.
Italian Nicolo Strada came out of the water first – after 8:55 minutes – but saw that basically all the men came after him one by one. On the bike, a large lead group of over 20 men formed and behind that lead group, an equally large group emerged to chase as quickly as possible.
At the front, there were still some small attacks, including from Marten van Riel, Yanis Seguin and Stefan Zachäus, but no one managed to actually escape from the leading group. Meanwhile, the chasing group lost more time. In the end, this second group returned to T2 more than forty seconds behind. Shortly before, things had been hectic within the leading group for a while, as in a fast descent a number of athletes, including the strong-looking Van Riel, crashed and hit the tarmac.
During the run, Vilaca quickly took the lead, chased by Emil Holm, Simon Henseleit, Charles Paquet, Arnaud Mengal, Tom Richard, Yanis Seguin and Casper Stornes, among others. The field was torn apart considerably in the process
On the second and last lap, Vilaca really shifted to another gear and accelerated yet again in the final kilometers, quickly growing his lead and securing himself a nice victory. He claimed it after 53:39 minutes. Belgian Arnaud Mengal then sprinted to a stunning second place in 53:43 and German Simon Henseleit finished third in 53:45.
