Kristian Blummenfelt won his first WTS victory and took the 2019 Grand Final individual race, but Vincent Luis of France parlayed a 5th place Grand Final finish to win the prestigious WTS World Championship points chase on a bright sunny day in Lausanne.

Blummenfelt overcame a 9 seconds deficit after the swim, led the bike leg by one second, then charged out first on the run, running away from three-time WTS champion and super runner Mario Mola with a race-best 30:46 10k run to finish in 1:50:46 with a 17 seconds margin of victory over Mola and 32 seconds over 3rd place finisher Fernando Alarza of Spain.

Overshadowing Blummenfelt’s breakthrough, Vincent Luis of France only had to finish 5th or better – if points runner-up Mario Mola won the day - to guarantee a WTS World Championship gold for the season long points title. Midway through the concluding run leg, Luis looked to be a cinch as he was running relaxed side by side with Mola for 2nd position behind Blummenfelt. But at that moment, Luis started to fall back and looked to be weakening. Sure enough, Luis let Fernando Alarza of Spain and Gustav Iden of Norway through and took possession of 5th place.

Giving him a greater cushion, Blummenfelt was holding off Mola so Luis only needed to finish 6th. Offering further comfort, Javier Gomez of Spain and Casper Stornes of Norway trailed Luis by 30 seconds with a mile to go.

Calling upon his adrenaline fueled last stores of energy, Luis surrendered just 10 seconds to Gomez and 16 seconds to Stornes in the final mile. He finished with a 6th-best 31:52 run split that gave him a 21 seconds margin over Gomez and 27 seconds over Stornes.

When all the points were counted, Luis’ 5095 points topped season runner-up Mola’s 156, 3rd place Gomez by 562, 4th place Alarza by 700 and 5th place Marten Van Riel of Belgium by 1,436 points.

While his quest to win three Grand Finals in a row fell short, Luis won the 2019 points chase with a consistent WTS excellence – 5th at Abu Dhabi, 4th at Bermuda, 1st at Yokohama, 6th at Leeds, 2nd at Hamburg, and 5th places at Edmonton and Lausanne.

After the race, Luis seemed spent as he sat down. “Quite tired right now,” he told Triathlon Live. “I can’t believe it. This 10k seemed really long for me."

Luis said he was jazzed by the Swiss crowd which contained a large portion of his countrymen and -women. “A lot of French were here. My parents were here. I really pushed really deep for them, And I feel happy for my good friend (fellow WTS triathlete, the late Laurent Vidal) I was thinking of his life at the end.”

Luis looked back at the end of the run when his strength was ebbing and the pressure was on. “I really tried to stay with Mario for as long as I could. I had to stay calm. With two laps to go I got dropped. I just let the other guys come back (Alarza and Iden) because then I just needed to finish 6th. And I knew that would be good enough.”

WTS Grand Final
Lausanne, Switzerland
August 31, 2019
S 1.5 k / B 40k / R 10k

Results

Elite Men

1. Kristin Blummenfelt (NOR) 1:50:46 S 18:12 T1 00:39 B 1:00:46 T2 00:26 R 30:46
2. Mario Mola (ESP) 1:51:03 S 18:23 T1 00:38 B 1:00:36 T2 00:26 R 31:01
3. Fernando Alarza (ESP) 1:51:18 S 18:30 T1 00:37 B 1:00:31 T2 00:24 R 31:17
4. Gustav Iden (NOR) 1:51:34 S 18:28 T1 00:38 B 1:00:32 Tt2 00:25 R 31:32
5. Vincent Luis (FRA) 1:51:53 S 18:06 T1 00:39 B 1:00:L53 T2 00:25 R 31:52
6. Javier Gomez (ESP) 1:52:14 S 18:12 T1 00:41 B 1:00:44 T2 00:26 R 32:12
7. Casper Stornes (NOR) 1:52:20 S 18:24 T1 00:43 B 1:00:32 T2 00:26 R 32:19
8. Jonny Brownlee (GBR) 1:52:32 S 18:13 T1 00:37 B 1:00:49 T2 00:30 R 32:25
9. Marten Van Riel (BEL) 1:52:32 S 18:13 T1 00:40 B B 1:00:49 T2 00:29 R 32:47
10. Alois Knabl (AUT) 1:52:53 S 18:06 T1 00:41 B 1:00:50 T2 00:27 R 32:50
11 Morgan Pearson (USA) 1:52:56 S 18:18 T1 00:37 B 1:00:44 T2 00:28 R 32:52
30. Eli Hemming (USA) 1:55:47 S 18:34 T1 00:37 B 1:02:38 T2 00:25 R 33:35
DNF Kevin McDowell (USA) S 18:14 T1 00:37 B 1:02:58 T2 00:27

2019 WTS Series Men's Final Rankings

1. Vincent Luis (FRA) 5095
2. Mario Mola (ESP) 4939 3 titles
3. Javier Gomez (ESP) 4533 at age 36
4. Fernando Alarza (ESP) 4395
5. Marten Van Riel (BEL) 3659
6. Jacob Birtwhistle (AUS) 3255
7. Henri Schoeman (RSA) 3148
8. Léo Bergere (FRA) 3042
9. Gustav Iden (NOR) 3028
10. Kristian Blummenfelt (NOR) 2892