Georgia Taylor-Brown’s Excellent Marbella Adventure (and the Fast Specialized Shiv TT She’s Riding at It)

November 7, 2025

Photos: Kevin Mackinnon

After putting herself in the record books as Great Britain’s most successful Olympic triathlete in Paris last year (silver and gold in Tokyo, bronze in Paris), Georgia Taylor-Brown was ready for some time off to recharge before making another Olympic run leading up to the Los Angeles Games in 2028. Her version of “a year off,” though, looks a little different to what the rest of us might embark on.

She didn’t start her triathlon season until July when she raced at WTCS Hamburg, and followed that up with Supertri Toronto.

“I’m not prioritizing anything,” Taylor-Brown said in an interview before the Toronto as she ran through the list of races she’d done by then – two road bike races, two cross country running races and two gravel events in addition to the race in Hamburg. “From Tokyo (where she took the silver medal) to Paris was so intense physically that I knew I was going to need some time off if I wanted to continue on to LA. I took this year out – I didn’t know what I wanted to do.”

Taylor-Brown would take second in Toronto.

The rest of the year has, amongst others, included a couple of T100 races (London, where she finished 12th and French Riviera, where she was ninth) and a runner-up finish at the 2025 British Gravel Championship. And now she’s lining up at the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship.

“It is a strange year off that I’m having,” she says. “It was just odd because at the end of last year I knew that I wanted this year off, but I didn’t know how that was gonna look, so I was sort of going with it day by day, week by week. And if I don’t want to race I don’t have to race, if I want to race then I will, and then I ended up signing up to loads of races … I can just do whatever — which has been really nice to have no pressure.”

That easy-going attitude has more than a few people picking Taylor-Brown as one to watch this weekend, but what could possibly create the most interesting dynamic in the race is that she’s racing with fellow Olympic mixed-relay gold medalist Jess Learmonth. Learmonth, an excellent swimmer, will likely compete with Lucy Charles-Barclay at the front of the swim pack, and don’t be surprised to see Taylor-Brown in that mix, too.

Taylor-Brown admits that her racing style has always been one-dimensional, and this “off year” has allowed her to return to her roots.

“I just needed this year to just do it for why I started in the first place when I was a little kid,” she says. “I just love to go hard and see what happens, and that’s all I want to do … If it’s good, then great. If it’s
not good, then so be it. I’m still like just a little kid and I just love racing.”

Which is why Taylor-Brown could definitely make an impact on the race tomorrow – if she can help fuel a British breakaway early in the race with that go-for-broke attitude, it could put pressure on the rest of the field as they take on the steep climb through Ojén.

The big question will be whether or not Taylor-Brown’s time-trial riding has developed enough for her to remain in the mix coming off the bike. Based on our photos below, her bike won’t be the limiting factor.

If she had success tomorrow would we see her change her plans and possibly look to a long-distance racing career rather than another Olympics? According to Taylor-Brown, that’s not even remotely in the cards. Despite that silver medal from Tokyo, she’s got unfinished business on that front.

“For me it’s always been about the Olympics from a young age,” she says. “That’s why I got into sport. That’s why I do what I do. For me it’s just been about the Olympics – it only ever has been about that … I wouldn’t go into LA if I said, oh, I just want a medal. That’s not how I want to race it. Nobody remembers second, so I only want to win.”