The greatest triathlete in ITU history wrote another page in his impeccable résumé with a bravura win at the Stockholm round of the World Triathlon Series Sunday. Alistair Brownlee added a record 15th World Triathlon Series (formerly known as the World Championship Series) victory, topping the runner-up, two-time ITU World Champion Javier Gomez of Spain, by 14 seconds and brother Jonathan, the defending WTS World Champion, who finished 3rd, by 33 seconds. Their finish order duplicated their 1-2-3 finish at the London Olympics a year ago.
Alistair was the straw that stirred the drink throughout the contest as he emerged from the swim 3rd, just 3 seconds behind Richard Varga of Slovakia, 2 seconds behind his brother Jonathan and, amidst a 12-man lead pack, 4 seconds ahead of Gomez. Then, displaying the power, speed and prowess he showed in a runaway win at the insanely steep bike climb at Kitzbühel, Alistair powered a pack of 10 to an immediate bike breakaway that quickly put 20 seconds on a futile chase group. By the 8th of 9 laps on the bike leg, the lead pack was winnowed down to 8 men and the gap to the first chase pack increased to 90 seconds.
At that point, the Olympic champion made a strategic move prompted by a wary respect for his brother’s sprinting capability. At Hamburg, Alistair ran with Jonathan to the final meters, whereupon the younger Brownlee jetted ahead to the victory. “That may have been the biggest mistake I ever made,” said Jonathan of his winning sprint at Hamburg, with the implication that he woke up the beast within his brother. Indeed, Alistair decided to eliminate the possibility of a Hamburg re-run and surged to a 23-seconds lead on the final lap of the bike. “That 20 seconds I got was absolutely critical,” said Alistair at the finish.
Sure enough, Alistair had plenty of gas left in the tank and ran 29:09, which was estimated by ITU commentator Barrie Shepley to be 200 meters short of the official 10k distance. Gomez, digging deep to maintain a chance of the WTS series victory at London, ran a race-best 29:02 split which ditched Jonathan with a lap to go and came within 16 seconds of Alistair with a lap and a half left. But on the final lap, Alistair stretched his margin over Gomez back to 22 seconds, giving him time to milk the crowd in the finish chute.
“I knew I had to do something on the bike,” said Alistair to ITU media. “I didn’t want it to come down to a straight run again.” Looking tapped out at the finish, the winner added, “I felt quite good on the 2nd and 3rd laps of the run, but on the last lap my legs felt dead.”
Gomez took the loss with his usual good attitude. “I came here to improve my worst result,” he said. (The four best WTS results count and Gomez’s 4th prior to Stockholm was 13th at Kitzbühel). “Alistair was very tactical on the bike, but I was happy to beat Jonny. All three of us have a chance to win at London, so it will be very exciting.”
The win vaulted Alistair Brownlee, who previously won WTS victories at San Diego and Kitzbühel, into the WTS points lead going into the series Grand Final in London in 3 weeks. Alistair leads with 3,140 points, followed by brother Jonathan, who won Yokohama, Madrid and Hamburg, with 3,085. Gomez, who won Auckland and took 2nd at Yokohama, Madrid and Stockholm, trails closely in 3rd with 3,020 points. With the three men so closely packed, the Grand Final should be a nail biter and the winner at London should prevail as the 2013 World Champion.
World Triathlon Series Stockholm
Stockholm , Sweden
August 25, 2013
S 1.5k / B 40k / R 10k
Elite Men
1. Alistair Brownlee (GBR) 1:43:13
2. Javier Gomez (ESP) 1:43:27
3. Jonathan Brownlee (GBR) 1:43:50
4. Aurelien Raphael (FRA) 1:45:14
5. Vincent Luis (FRA) 1:45:22
6. Richard Murray (RSA) 1:45:39
7. Richard Varga (SVK) 1:45:47
8. Laurent Vidal (FRA) 1:46:02
9. Pierre Le Corre (FRA) 1:46:10
10. David McNamee (GBR) 1:46:23
17. Gregory Billington (USA) 1:47:08
Current WTS Men's rankings
1. Alistair Brownlee 3140 points
2. Jonathan Brownlee 3085
3. Javier Gomez 3020
4. Mario Mola 2699
5. Richard Murray 2501
