Brit Beth Potter takes her second world series win in Montreal

Beth Potter came back from a less-than-ideal swim to take gold at World Triathlon Championship Series (WTCS) Montreal for her second win of the season.

With a series win apiece, all eyes were on Brits Georgia Taylor-Brown, Potter and Sophie Coldwell at the start to see if they could put a gap between themselves and the next best athletes in the rankings.

Coming into the race, it was actually America’s Taylor Spivey who held the number one bib, and she was accompanied on the start line by countrywomen Taylor Knibb, who recently joined Trek’s pro cycle team and had to serve a 10sec penalty in T1 from a previous event, and Katie Zaferes.

Conditions were warm (24C) but wet, with rain falling right from the start.

Being a sprint-distance race the athletes first had a one-lap 750m swim, followed by a six-lap 20.16km bike course and a two-lap 5km run.

What happened in the swim?

As is often the case at WTCS races, Brazil’s Vittoria Lopes launched into the lead from the off, and was followed by Lena Meißner of Germany.

Very quickly the top 10 ended up single-file, with the sweeping angles meaning less of a battle around the buoys for those nearer the front.

Lopes was first out of the water, with Meißner, Knibb, Rappaport, Brit Kate Waugh, Taylor-Brown and Coldwell all in close company. Potter, meanwhile, came out of the swim some 34secs down in 34th.

From the swim exit it was a 400m run into T1. It allowed Knibb the chance to push on and make up time ahead of her 10sec penalty, which ensured she was able to exit T1 with the lead group.

What happened on the bike?

A group of around 20 athletes quickly emerged together, with Coldwell, Waugh, Taylor-Brown, Zaferes, Spivey and Rappaport all present.

The roads were slick due to the rain, causing one fall on the bike further back.

Just six seconds back the chase group followed, including Potter.

Knibb made a move on lap two, pushing away from the rest of the pack – all apart from her compatriot, Rappaport. Could they get away?

By the end of lap two the gap had stretched to 10secs and, to make matters worse for that first chase group, the second pack of athletes had also caught up.

By the end of lap four that gap hadn’t increased. In fact, it had come down into single figures.

The front two arrived into T2 with a 13sec gap to the first athlete in the chase group, with Rappaport getting the jump on her fellow American to emerge first.

Knibb wasn’t far behind, while a huge stream of athletes following on.

What happened on the run?

Zsanett Bragmayer (HUN) had a rapid start to the run, quickly bridging the gap to Knibb, with half a dozen other athletes joining. Also there was Potter, France’s Leonie Periault, Taylor-Brown, Zaferes and Jeanne Lehair (LUX).

As Knibb was swallowed up by that group, the gap to Rappaport started to drop.

Just before the end of the first of two run laps Lehair, Potter and Periault had caught Rapport, with the best of the rest seemingly unable to keep up with the pace.

That lead four dropped to a three over the first half of the second lap, with Lehair dropping back slightly, while the remaining three frontrunners continued to jostle for the lead.

As the finish line approached, there was nothing between them. Who was going to make their move first?

Rappaport gradually started to fade as Potter looked to take the initiative. Periault tried to go with her but just didn’t have the legs, leaving Potter to take her second win of the series in a time of 58:10.

Periault followed across the line in second, Rappaport in third, Lehair in fourth, Zaferes in fifth, Knibb in sixth and Taylor-Brown in seventh.

Previous series leader Spivey came through in ninth, while Coldwell and Waugh crossed the line in 12th and 15th, respectively.

Top image credit: Michael Steele/Getty Images