Team Germany win the Paris Olympics Mixed Relay Test Event

Another day in Paris and another duathlon! This time for the final race of the four-day test events, the mixed team relay.

The new course would see the first athlete for each team complete a 900m run, 5.8km bike and a 1.8km run; athletes 2, 3 and 4 would do a 1.35km run, 5.8km bike and a 1.8km run.

Sadly this meant the crowd was denied the much-loved run-and-dive shots at the handovers, but it didn’t seem to diminish their enthusiasm as they lined the tight-city route from start to finish.

What happened on the first leg?

Barclay Izzard was first up for Team GB, alongside the likes of Dorian Coninx (FRA), Henri Schoeman (RSA), Taylor Reid (NZ), Tim Hellwig (GER). For the first run and bike, the entire pack minus Mexico raced together, before the final run started to thin the field out

First to handover was Brazil (Miguel Hidalgo), then France, Hungary, Belgium, Canada, Germany and GB.

What happened on the second leg?

Cassandre Beugrand was next in line to take on the second leg for France. Unsurprisingly she made made light work of her home-city course.

By the bike leg, GB’s Kate Waugh was up and with Beaugrand, as was Germany’s Lisa Tertsch, Hungary’s Zsanett Kuttor-Bragmayer, Brazil’s Djenyfer Arnold and Belgium’s Jolien Vermeylen with a 20sec lead over the chasers, which included the USA’s Taylor Spivey.

The final run and Beaugrand was back in business, pulling out a 13sec lead over Germany by the handover. Next came Belgium, GB, Brazil, Hungary, New Zealand, Denmark, Spain and Australia.

What happened on the third leg?

Next up for France was Léo Bergere ahead of Jelle Geens (BEL), Germany’s Jonas Schomburg (GER) and Alex Yee (GBR), the Brit almost 30secs down at T1. Next came Spain’s Antonio Serrat Seoane.

Those top five cycled solo for the entirety of the bike, as Bergere pulled out a 24sec gap over the 5.8km course by T2.

Onto the final 1.8km run and Yee set about reducing a near 45sec deficit to France before his handover to Beth Potter.

At the end of lap one, Bergere was 13secs ahead of Belgium, 29secs ahead of Germany and 41secs over Portugal’s Vasco Vilaça, who had run his way up alongside Yee.

What happened on the final leg?

Geens brought Belgium up top within 8secs of France for the handover, as Emma Lombardi took on the anchor leg for France in the lead.

Yee had got the gap down to 36secs for Potter as she swiftly moved up to the chase group of five that also housed Germany’s Laura Lindemann.

By T1, it was France, Belgium’s Claire Michel 10secs behind and then Potter at 27secs back alongside Portugal, Germany and Hungary.

As the women came into T2, Lombardi had a 10sec lead over Belgium, with the chase group of four, which included Potter, an extra 7secs back. Was that too much to recover over the final 1.8km run?

We got the answer quickly enough. Lindemann and Potter soon passed Michel to take the two podium spots and set about their task to try and catch the Frenchwoman leading the race, with both women looking strong.

They soon passed the leader, with a sprint finish needed to determine the winner.

Rounding the final corner Lindemann made her move, attempting to sprint away. Potter did well to stay on her shoulder but just couldn’t take the lead as the German crossed the line first.

Potter brought it home in second for GB, while Michel passed Lombardi for the final podium spot late on.

Quotes from Team Germany

“It was a hard race, we had to chase to get to Emma [Lombardi],” said Germany’s Lindemann at the line, “so I tried to have a good first run and then push up. On the final run I just tried to finish as best I could, so I’m super happy with the weekend.”

Quotes from Team GB

“Duathlon’s flipping hard,” admitted Yee at the line. “Yeah, it’s pretty savage,” added Waugh.

“You’ve just got to learn to be adaptable to different situations,” continued Yee, “and I think we all did that very well. I think we should all be proud of the way we raced today.”

“It’s been incredible for me,” said Izzard. “To even get a start and perform the way I did, it’s been amazing.”

“It’s been ace,” said Yee. “And we’ll take what we’ve learnt into next year.”

Alex now leads the WTCS heading into the final event in Pontevedra next month.

“Yeah, I’ve done it before and messed it up,” said Yee. “I never take anything for granted, so third time lucky hopefully.”

Over to Beth…

“I just ran pretty hard up the hill and tried to get in with the group, but there was a bit of a shock when I got on the bike ’cause I was stuck in the highest gear for the whole way.

“And I’d said to the others let’s work together to try and catch the French but I was the one who couldn’t pull through, so a bit shady of me!

“I just tried to be smart and carry as much speed as I could around corners as possible. and then I got a bit flustered in T2 cause I was too busy looking at where Emma, then I was just all in on the last two laps.”

And can you sum up your weekend, Beth?

“Dreamy.”

Top 10 Mixed Team Relay results

1. Germany, 1:12:18

2. Great Britain, 1:12:19

3. Belgium, 1:12:36

4. France, 1:12:40

5. Portugal, 1:12:41

6. Netherlands, 1:13:00

7. Italy, 1:13:01

8. Hungary, 1:13:02

9. United States, 1:13:05

10. Norway, 1:13:13

Top image credit: Wagner Araujo/World Triathlon