In a race where nothing was left to chance and where Rico Bogen did everything himself, the German just ran to a beautiful victory at the T100 San Francisco. Top favorite Hayden Wilde did not have his best day and ultimately finished third, while Bogen retained his title from last year.
After the swim – always a tricky discipline in San Francisco, not only because of the strong current but especially because athletes are given much more freedom in the route they take from the ferry where they start their race, toward the beach – it was Léo Bergere and Morgan Pearson who recorded the exact same time over 2 kilometers in the water: 17:42 minutes. They were followed by men like Jannik Schaufler, Henri Schoeman, Henry Rappo, Lasse Nygaard Priester, Rico Bogen, Jake Birtwhistle, and Jason West, all within sixteen seconds, while top favorite Hayden Wilde followed in tenth place, 44 seconds behind.
For the New Zealander, who by the way was sick in the week leading up to the T100 San Francisco, there was plenty of work to do, though he subsequently also struggled to get his wetsuit off in T1, causing him to lose even more time. Meanwhile, on the bike, it was Bogen who turned on his turbo and completely tore the lead group apart; only his compatriot Nygaard Priester could keep up in the first few kilometers. After about twenty kilometers, however, he also had to acknowledge that Bogen truly had the better biking legs, letting a gap form and subsequently watching Bogen ride away rather quickly.
The remaining sixty kilometers on the bike created a somewhat one-sided race dynamic, in which only one man dominated: Bogen saw his lead grow bigger and bigger. Halfway through the bike leg, Nygaard Priester was already 45 seconds behind, while Wilde – who was in third position and riding together with Birtwhistle and Kurt McDonald, but was also closely followed by men like Rappo, Schaufler, and Pearson – had by then already been put at a nearly two-and-a-half-minute deficit. In the kilometers that followed, Bogen only continued to extend his lead.
Nygaard Priester ultimately remained the closest, even though his deficit had grown to 2:24 minutes in T2. Yet, that was actually nothing compared to the large group that entered T2 behind them, because by the time Bogen was already well and truly on the run course, Wilde, Bergere, Rappo, McDonald, and Birtwhistle followed at a deficit of 5:39 minutes. One thing was certain: should Bogen have to sacrifice pace during the run – something that is not unfamiliar to him – he at least had a wide margin to lose.
For the first ten kilometers, Bogen seemed almost indestructible; despite being hunted from behind – first and foremost by Nygaard Priester of course, but also by Wilde who broke away solo in third position – he kept the pace high and let no one get significantly closer. After those ten kilometers, and thus with eight kilometers to go, the leader did start to find it seriously tough, the grimaces on his face grew larger, and his movements became less fluid. Meanwhile, Nygaard Priester chipped away more and more time from his deficit, until it was down to 1:20 minute with four kilometers to go. However, Nygaard Priester still had to serve a thirty-second time penalty, and that ensured that any chance of still running to victory completely vanished.
Bogen ultimately won the race in a time of 3:17:25, while Nygaard Priester finished second in 3:18:30. Wilde secured third place with a finishing time of 3:21:13.
