The Bahrain Victorious 13 stood on podiums over the Olympic distance at the European Cup Quarteira with Cassandre Beaugrand, Vincent Luis, and Georgia Taylor-Brown in their first races of the year, while Max Stapley kicked off his first year on the team by racing sprint distance at the inaugural World Triathlon Cup in Hong Kong.
After the World Triathlon Championship Series Abu Dhabi was cancelled two weeks ago due to adverse weather, Luis and Taylor-Brown joined defending champion Beaugrand on the Quarteira starting line for their first races since injury ruled them out of competition by mid-summer last year.
Beaugrand came out of the 1.5-kilometre swim in the top two, while Taylor-Brown was just five seconds in arrears. The two stayed close to the pointy end riding the 40-kilometre cycle leg in the lead pack, then showed their run prowess over the concluding 10 kilometres before a three-way sprint decided the podium. Lisa Tertsch came out on top, Beaugrand took silver, while Taylor-Brown held on for bronze.
In the men’s race, Luis emerged from the swim just 12 seconds back from the leader and rode in the front pack. He then took the lead early on the run. It took the day’s best run split – the only one under 30 minutes – from Hugo Milner to knock Luis off the top spot.
Over in Hong Kong, Stapley was 10th out of the 750-metre swim, clocked the 5th-fastest bike split over 20 kilometres, and ran 5 kilometres in 15:52 to finish 6th, just 38 seconds down from the winner.
This coming weekend, Taylor-Brown and Luis have set their sights on the World Triathlon Indoor Cup Lievin, the first time a World Cup will be contested over the indoor triathlon format.
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