Brit domination in London
After a superb victory by Helen Jenkins yesterday, Alistair Brownlee took a dominant win at the Dextro Energy ITU WCS London event after a brave bike breakaway. Alexander Bryukhankov from Russia finished second to prevent another Brownlee top two spot sweep, and the younger Brownlee finished third.
67 men were at the start In London's Hyde Park with a seemingly picture perfect sky above them. Aurelien Raphael and Kris Gemmell were the early leaders during the swim and managed to stay there to the first turnaround. At that point Jan Frodeno moved into the lead with James Elvery right next to him. With about 400 meters to go Javier Gomez moved towards the front and by the time they hit the pontoon Frodeno and Gomez exited the water side by side followed by Elvery. Chris McCormack got out of the water almost a minute down and pulled out of the race soon after.
Three distinctive groups were initially rolling through the streets of London, but just as these packs merged Alistair Brownlee and James Elvery started to break away. They were soon after joined by Alexander Bryukhankov and a bit later Ivan Rana bridged up to them. There were a few more attempts by individuals in the pack to get away, but they were not successful. Halfway through the bike segment the lead of the front four had grown to about 30 seconds, assisted to some degree by the falling rain, but also because of some looking around action in the chase pack. Ivan Vasiliev made another attempt late and got away from the field, but with 2 laps to go the Russian was sitting pretty much in No Man's Land between the leaders and the field who were now looking at a 45 second gap. Vasiliev lost more time to the leaders and that penultimate lap and so did the field. With one lap to go the advantage over the main bunch had grown to a minute and now the rain really started to come down. Stuart Hayes also made a late charge but he and Vasiliev got reeled in by the field and by the time the min bunch reached transition, the lead four were 1:10 ahead.
Alistair Brownlee set the pace up front and quickly dropped his breakaway companions, and a bit further back his younger brother Jonathan together with Javier Gomez led the chasers who quickly dwindled to a handful of athletes. For a while it looked like David Hauss would be up there too, but the younger Brownlee and Gomez dropped him too and soon after went past Elvery into fourth and fifth respectively. The 2 chasers soon caught Rana and were now in pursuit of the front two. Bryukhankov looked to be in trouble as he started the final 5k of the run, but still had about a minute on the chasing duo. A bit further back, a race within the race was happening, as the battle for Olympic qualification spots was quite intense with several French and German athletes battling for positions within the top ten. Alistair Brownlee though was in complete control up front and cruised to a comfortable win. Bryukhankov held on to second place and Jonathan Brownlee took the final podium spot and thus ensured that both Brownlee brothers had an Olympic spot.
"It stayed at 10 or 15 seconds for a couple of laps and then it just went 30, 45, 60, I couldn't quite believe it to be honest," said Alistair Brownlee when asked about the breakaway. "I knew that we, Jonny and I, were in danger of being attacked on the bike and I think to be honest me being away served its purpose better than anything."
Neither the US nor the Canadian male athletes had a great day in London and will now have to find other ways to earn that coveted Olympic ticket.
Dextro Energy ITU WCS London
London, UK / August 7, 2011
Top men
1. Alistair Brownlee (GBR) 1:50:09 *
2. Alexander Bryukhankov (RUS) 1:50:34 *
3. Jonathan Brownlee (GBR) 1:51:04 *
4. Javier Gomez (ESP) 1:51:16 *
5. Steffen Justus (GER) 1:51:25 *
6. Laurent Vidal (FRA) 1:51:27*
7. David Hauss (FRA) 1:51:32*
8. Brad Kahlefeldt 1:51:40 (AUS)
9. Sven Riederer (SUI) 1:51:41*
10. Vincent Luis (FRA) 1:51:41
11. Jan Frodeno (GER) 1:51:42 *
19. Kyle Jones (CAN) 1:52:10
23. Simon Whitfield (CAN) 1:52:23
25. Manuel Huerta (USA) 1:52:30
42. Matt Chrabot (USA) 1:52:30
Hunter Kemper (USA), Jarrod Shoemaker (USA) DNF
* It appears these athletes have fulfilled the requirements from their respective countries to go to the 2012 Olympics
