Beth Potter takes Gold as Vincent Luis makes it 4 Wins in a Row
It was another fantastic World Cup with a stellar line up of world-class athletes in the iconic Spanish coastal city of Valencia, but the result in the men’s race was to be a familiar one. Vincent Luis has been imperious since the return to racing in Hamburg in September and though Britain’s Alistair Brownlee – who showed he can still mix it with the best – pushed Luis hard on Saturday afternoon, it was a fourth gold for the Frenchman with the Brit taking Silver. Completing the podium, in third place earning the bronze was Jelle Green of Belgium.
The swimming segment finished with the favourites ahead with the quarter made up of Frenchmen Vicent Luis and Peirre Le Corre, Brit Alistair Brownlee and South African Henri Schoeman managing to open a gap on the cycle leg. Schoeman dropped back on the second lap but the remaining trio worked well together. The second pack of about fifteen consisting the Norwegians Kristian Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden worked hard and managed to reduce the disadvantage to 20 seconds coming into in T-2. The leading trio set off at a blistering pace in the first kilometre of the run with Le Corre being dropped finding the pace too hard to hold leaving Green of Belgium to come through like a steam-train. Whilst the Belgian ran the fastest leg of the 5k in 14:27 there as too much of a gap to catch the leading duo of Luis and Brownlee who were going head-to-head. Brownlee tried in the final meters to attack Luis a couple of times but the World Champion stopped him by using his power to accelerate to the finish line in a time of 50:22 with Brownlee only 3 seconds behind in a time of 50:25.
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If there was ever a time for Alistair Brownlee to let the British selectors know they were wrong to omit the Double Olympic Gold Medalist from the provisional British triathlon team for the Tokyo Olympics this was it. Mike Cavendish, the team leader of GB Triathlon said prior to this race that Alistair Brownlee remained in contention for a place in the team saying “A fully fit and firing Alistair Brownlee will undoubtedly be on our radar when we get to making final selections next year.” Well, the radar will be echoing loud and clear as Double Olympic Gold Medalist was within a whisker of beating the World Champion and favourite for the Gold at the Olympics, Vincent Luis.
Beth Potter (GB) came into this weekend in great form having finished runner up to Flora Duffy (BER) in Sardinia, looking to challenge for the top spot. And Beth did not disappoint taking here first World Cup win and gold ahead of double Olympic medalist Nicola Spirig of Switzerland and numerous other World Cup and WTS podium athletes
32 athletes lined up for the 2020 ITU Valencia World Cup, in the women’s field that was slightly weaker and more open compared to the men. The swimming segment was led by the Brazilian Arnold, with four seconds gap over the strong Portuguese contingent with the trio of Spain’s Perez Sala the Australian Van Coevorden and Britons Beth Potter entering transition only 8 seconds behind the leaders, with Olympian Nicola Spirig nowhere to be seen having had a bad swim. The leading group of cyclists tried to make a gap with little success on rain soak asphalt roads where precaution was the order of the day. By the end of the first lap of 5km, Spirig had managed to catch up with the leading group and led a large train of over 20 athletes for the 20km bike ride as the entered T2. And then it was all down to the run with Potter coming from the back of the bike to quickly lead a group of seven the included Spirig and rising German star Lisa Tersch. Potter’s style was so easy, every pace seemed to propel her forwards, but Spirig and Tersch dug deep to keep the Brit in their sights. But the final lap saw the run power of Potter settle the score and with a 16.45 – 5k, she smiled all the way down the blue carpet. After a consistent performance from beginning to end, Great Britains excellant runner Beth Potter took the victory and gold. A few seconds behind her the drama of a sprint finish for second and third place ended up with Spirig showing her class taking Sliver with Tersch taking bronze.
