WTS Cape Town: Vicky Holland claims spectacular victory

Vicky Holland had the race of her life in Cape Town today, claiming her first WTS title to continue her remarkable comeback from injury.

The race began in very chilly 11c waters, meaning the swim was reduced to one lap (750m). The cold waters had little effect on the pace and Katy Zaferes in particular, who led the pack out onto the bike in search of her first WTS title.

A group of four formed a front group onto the bike made up of Zaferes (USA), Pamella Oliveira (BRA), Flora Duffy (BER) and Brit Helen Jenkins. Oliveira was quickly dropped and left in no mans land, leaving the top three to try to pull away from the large chasing group, which included Olympic champion Nicola Spirig.

The three leaders were chased down with 26km of the bike to go, creating a very large peloton at the front of the race, with Jenkins still going strong and other British entrants Emma Pallant and Vicky Holland also making the front pack.

Remarkably there were no crashes on the tight and technical bike course despite there being 28 women in the front group – Gillian Sanders (RSA) suffered a mechanical but had already fallen behind the pace.

On the run, Olympic champion Spirig took the initiative and shot out into the lead, but most of the front group kept up and all the pre-race contenders were in contention. All three British women stayed at the front with Sarah True (USA) unable to keep up with the pace, surprisingly set by Vicky Holland who led past the 5km point.

10 women formed the front group heading into the final quarter of the run, made up of the three Brits, three Americans (Zaferes, Kirsten Kasper and Chelsea Burns) three Germans (Sophia Saller, Anne Haug and Rebecca Robisch) and Spirig.

In the most hotly-contested women’s WTS race of the season so far, Holland, Saller, Zaferes, Spirig and Jenkins broke away, but it was Holland who really started to stretch out and created a gap with 1km to go. The gap continued to widen, and Holland looked strong as she approached Green Point Stadium for a lap of the athletics track.

It turned out to be a victory lap for Holland, who had time to spare as she sprinted all the way to the line to finish in 1:49:51. Zaferes held on for 2^nd coming in on 1:49:53, and Nicola Spirig took 3rd place. Helen Jenkins had an impressive return from injury coming 7^th, and Emma Pallant came 10^th meaning all three British women made the top 10.

Holland was understandably emotional at the end of the race, and has no doubt created another welcome headache for British Triathlon’s Olympic selectors for Rio 2016:

“I’ve felt good in training recently and thought a podium finish might be possible if I executed everything perfectly, I really didn’t think I’d win it though!

“The game plan definitely wasn’t to take off with 1km to go, I’m sure my coach would’ve been tearing his hair out but it paid off on the day and I’m absolutely thrilled to come home first!”

(Images: Delly Carr / ITU Media)

Results: Elite Women

1. Vicky Holland (GBR) – 1:49:51
2. Katie Zaferes (USA) – 1:49:53
3. Nicola Spirig (SUI) – 1:49:56
4. Sophia Saller (GER) – 1:50:07
5. Rebecca Robisch (GER) – 1:50:09
6. Kirsten Kasper (USA) – 1:50:10
7. Helen Jenkins (GBR) – 1:50:16
8. Anne Haug (GER) – 1:50:21
9. Chelsea Burns (USA) – 1:50:24
10. Emma Pallant (GBR) – 1:50:34

Series Rankings 2015 after WTS Cape Town

1. Katie Zaferes (USA) – 2905pts
2. Gwen Jorgensen (USA) – 2400pts
3. Sarah True (USA) – 1947pts
4. Andrea Hewitt (NZL) – 1904pts
5. Lindsey Jerdonek (USA) – 1387pts

What did you think of the race? Let us know in the comments!

Jack Sexty Editor at road.cc

About

Former 220 staff writer Jack Sexty is now editor at Road.cc. Jack has raced everything up to Ironman distance, is a sub-2hr Olympic-distance athlete and has represented GB at the ITU World AG Champs on several occasions. He's also a regular kit tester on the pages of 220 and holds two world records for pogo jumping – Longest distance pogo stick jumping in 24 hours and Most consecutive jumps on a pogo stick.