McMahon, Jorgensen in Hungary
Canada's Brent McMahon jumped out of a break to win the Tiszaujvaros World Cup in Hungary. A bit earlier in the day, American Gwen Jorgensen earned her first World Cup win, for a North American sweep.
The men
Igor Polyanskiy was first out of the water in Tiszaujvaros, but he had several athletes right on his heels.
After a quick transition a group of seven established up front and in that group were Polyansky (RUS), Aaron Harris (GBR), Andrey Bryukhankov (RUS), Abrahm Louw (NAM), Florin Salvisberg (SUI), Brent McMahon (CAN) and Akos Vanek (HUN). Behind them was a large chasing pack of about 50 athletes, but they were unable to catch them again. With each lap of the bike segment the break got further up the road and their advantage grew to almost 1:20 by the time they reached T2.
Harris took charge on the run with Vanek in second position an McMahon in third. Harris got away from Vanek and for quite a while it seemed like another Brit was going to step to the top of the podium. But a late charge by McMahon propelled the Canadian into the lead and gave him the win. Harris held on to second place and Vanek delighted the Hungarian crowd with his third place finish.
"All season I've been struggling with the start of my run and really building the back half, I went no harder this time but I still knew I had the back half to go," said McMahon. "So at 5k I was like 'let's do this, let’s get into second place.' I picked the pace up and dropped the other guys on my shoulder and move into second place and then I was biding my time until first place."
The women
Japan's Akane Tsuchihashi and Brit Kerry Lang led the women's field out of the water and quickly set off on their bikes with several other Pros. London WCS second place finisher Gwen Jorgensen had an average swim and missed the front group.
As the race progressed the front group got a bigger and bigger advantage and by the time they reached the second transition their lead was almost 40 seconds.
Annamaria Mazzetti set the pace during the run but a hard charging Jorgensen slowly reeled in all other competitors. With less than 1k to go Jorgensen moved past Mazzetti and established a small gap to comfortably take the win. So just one week after her surprising runner-up spot at the Dextro Energy WCS race in London, Jorgensen moved up to the very top of the podium and her first World Cup title.
"I think I was the first one that didn’t make that front pack, we were all trying to work to get up there, but we had a lot of strong cyclists in that first group and we just weren’t able to bridge up," said Jorgensen. "I knew we were losing time and there’s just so many talented girls out there, I was just trying to give it my best."
Tiszaujvaros ITU World Cup
Tiszaujvaros, Hungary / August 14, 2011
1.5k swim / 40k bike / 10k run
Top men
1. Brent McMahon (CAN) 1:48:16
2. Aaron Harris (GBR) 1:48:22
3. Akos Vanek (HUN) 1:48:43
4. Igor Polyanskiy (RUS) 1:49:03
5. Crisanto Grajales (MEX) 1:49:20
6. Jose Miguel Perez (ESP) 1:49:26
7. Adam Bowden (GBR) 1:49:35
8. Richard Murray (RSA) 1:49:39
9. Matthew Sharp (GBR) 1:49:42
10. Rostyslav Pevtsov (UKR) 1:49:48
Top women
1. Gwen Jorgensen (USA) 1:59:54
2. Annamaria Mazzetti (ITA) 2:00:02
3. Irina Abysova (RUS) 2:00:18
4. Felicity Sheedy-Ryan (AUS) 2:00:37
5. Agnieszka Jerzyk (POL) 2:00:50
6. Mariya Shorets (RUS) 2:00:55
7. Zsofia Kovacs (HUN) 2:01:00
8. Katrien Verstuyft (BEL) 2:01:16
9. Tamsyn Moana-Veale (AUS) 2:01:18
10. Lois Rosindale (GBR) 2:01:25
