Nicola Spirig had the best kick at the end and stormed to the win at the 2012 ITU Madrid World Triathlon Series event. Aileen Morrison finished second and Barbara Riveros Diaz third.
Relatively warm temperatures made this a non wetsuit swim in Casa de Campo lake and Brit Abbie Thorrington led the 65 Elite women out of the water into transition - with the field surprisingly quite spread out.
Leaving the swim-bike transition a group of 20 established a small advantage, but it didn't take very long for that bunch to swell to 29 athletes. In that group were Barbara Riveros Diaz, Svenja Bazlen, Rachel Klamer, Daniela Ryf, Emma Jackson and Andrea Hewitt and their lead over the next group of 12 athletes was over a minute, but in the last few laps the front group slowed down and with a few kilometers to go the chasing group led by a very hard working Anne Haug had caught up.
Riveros Diaz was first out of transition, but Nicola Spirig moved to the front of the race to set the pace and although almost 40 women had left that bike-run transition together, the front group had now shrunk to 7 athletes with the rest spread out along the hot run course. Bazlen and Vicky Holland, and Tomoko Sakimoto dropped out of that group and eventually so did Klamer, but Aileen Morrison had rolled through the field and got to the front just when it really mattered. With 2.5k to go only Riveros Diaz, Spirig, Anne Haug and Morrison were left in the front and it was clear that the medals would come from that foursome. But in the end none of the other three could match the final sprint of Spirig and the Swiss Pro took the win in 2:06:35. Morrison finished second and Riveros Diaz rounded out the podium.
"It was an amazing race for me. I had lots of support from the Spanish people and I felt good on the run and it was an amazing race," said Spirig. "It’s all going really well, my training’s been going really well too so I’m very happy at the moment."
Anne Haug held on to fourth place and with Bazlen finishing just outside the top ten, it appears these two Germans had secured the second and third Olympic spots for Germany.
The saga of the Australian Olympic team selection continued in Madrid with none of the Aussies finishing in the top twenty. Top placed Australian Pros were Natalie Von Coevorden in 27th followed by Felicity Abraham in 28th, and that will not really help the selectors.
ITU Madrid WTS
Madrid, Spain / May 26, 2012
1.5k swim / 40k bike / 10k run
Top women
1. Nicola Spirig (SUI) 2:06:35
2. Aileen Morrison (IRL) 2:06:38
3. Barbara Riveros Diaz (CHI) 2:06:40
4. Anne Haug (GER) 2:06:43
5. Rachel Klamer (NED) 2:07:05
6. Ainhoa Murua (ESP) 2:07:18
7. Vicky Holland (GBR) 2:07:20
8. Alexandra Razarenova (RUS) 2:07:32
9. Andrea Hewitt (NZL) 2:07:38
10. Liz Blatchford (GBR) 2:07:43
