Paula Findlay takes the Women’s title at CHALLENGE-DAYTONA®
In what has no doubt been a challenging 2020 in terms of racing for all triathletes, not just professionals, it was finally the time for an assembly of the best women in the sport from both short course and long course racing to showcase their talents for triathlons biggest ever prize fund of $1.15 million at challenge Daytona. It was the women up first who were to fight it out for the PTO Championship title.
Women’s race review below:
Swim:
The conditions before the start of the race were ideal for the 47 athletes taking to the start line with calm water set before their eyes. As soon as the start gun was pulled, it was an incredibly fast start to the race as the women took to the 2km swim. It was no surprise to see former ITU athlete and 2012 Olympian Lucy Hall who also featured on ‘The TriNation Podcast‘ take the lead at the start comfortably. Her quick turnover showed everyone viewing a clinic in open water swimming.
By the end of lap 1 Hall had created a slight gap to a small group behind, but the field was already widely spread by this point. The athletes then headed up a ramp and took a quick right turn to begin lap 2.
As the athletes progressed in lap 2, gaps continued to appear all over and Ironman World Champion Anne Haug, one of the pre-race favourite was struggling at this point, being over 1 minute down. With swimming being her weakest discipline however, this was expected.
By the final stages of the swim Hall had a significant gap on most of the women, finishing the swim in 24 minute 15 seconds but USA’s Lauren Brandon was not far behind sitting 7 seconds back, with Nicola Sprig, Jodie Simpson and Holly Lawrence all came out of the water together 43 seconds behind. Haug was some way behind (1.38).
Bike:
All of the women were in and out of transition at warp speed and set off on the flat 80km bike course at Daytona race course, renowned for IndyCar racing.
There was a strong showing of Brits at the start with 6 in the top 10 on the first lap, including Fenella Langridge, Kimberley Morrison and another ‘TriNation Podcast’ guest Ruth Astle who sat in 6th place.
As things continued, Hall sat comfortably at the front with Canada’s Paula Findlay sitting in behind and slowly getting into her rhythm. Former 70.3 World Champion Lawrence, who is making her come back from a foot injury was powering through and was soon into 3rd place by lap 3. Moments later however, she was overtaken at speed much to her surprise by Sweden’s 2012 Olympic silver medalist Lisa Norden (Editors pre race top prediction). Norden’s biking prowess is no surprise as she has also taken part in the last two UCI Time Trial World Championships. She was quickly closing the gap to the leaders Hall and Findlay.
By lap 4 hall was still leading with Canada’s Findlay sitting just 15 secs behind. However going though lap 6 of 20 Findlay took the lead with Norden now sat just 5 seconds behind her.
Things remained much the same for the next few laps until Norden made her move on lap 11 picking up the pace to attempt to make a gap over Findlay who simply maintained her rhythm. A gap did emerge but Findlay stuck to her pace and over just a matter of 1 lap was able to real Norden back in, eventually just maintaining the legal gap behind her.
On lap 15 Haug was moving through the field going from 20th at the start of the bike to 9th but she had still lost time to the leaders and was now 2 minutes behind.
On Lap 16 Morrison decided to make the move on Hall to make her way into 3rd place. Both Brits where still looking strong with Morrison grinding away with and incredibly low cadence, which seemed to be working for her on this fast flat course.
Into the home stretch of the bike Norden did pick the pace up again to try and get a gap but Findlay countered this by gliding past Norden to show her that she was not done yet. Both athletes were well ahead of the rest of field by the end of the bike, however, there was still a long 18km run to go.
Morrison and Hall were 3rd and 4th into transition, with Brandon 5th, Haug 6th and Brazils Pamela Olivera surprisingly high up in 7th
Haug however, was given a 2 minute penalty for drafting clearly showing her frustrations in the penalty box. Once she had served her time, she sped out looking to make up lost time.
Run:
Findlay flew out of transition for the 18km run at a much faster pace than Norden and quickly open up over a 1 minute lead on the first lap alone.
By lap two unfortunately an underlying calve problem for Norden forced her to walk and essentially put her out of the race by that point.
Findlay continued to press on and by the end of the 2nd lap had over a 4 minute gap over 2nd place Phillip. Haug was pushing though at an incredible pace clearly runnning faster than anyone else in the feild and by lap 3 overtook her fellow German into 2nd place. However, she still remained over 4 minutes behind and the front of the race just seemed too far out of reach by this point. Was the drafting penalty going to be costly?
The two Brits sitting 4th and 5th, Landridge and Lawrence, were looking strong and holding their positions but continuing to lose time to the leaders step by step.
In the end it was to be for Canada’s Finlay who took the tape in an overall time of 3.24.55 followed by Haug in 2nd with fellow compatriot Phillip coming home in 3rd
Full results here
Overall:
It is sometimes forgotten that Paula Findlay is a former ITU World Champion from 10 years ago and was at the time destined for Olympic glory. However, she has had plenty of setbacks since then and has now made the transition to the longer distance. It seems she has found her former self…
