Jonathan Brownlee rode in a bike breakaway to a 23-seconds lead on Mario Mola and then held off the Spaniard on the run to win the WTS Gold Coast men’s title.

Brownlee’s 29:49 run split brought him to the finish in 1:46:53. While Brownlee gave back 5 seconds on the run to Mola’s race-best 29:44 10k split, that still left the 2012 Olympic bronze medalist with an 18 seconds margin of victory over Mola. Last year’s WTS Champion Javier Gomez remained in the mix until the end, but his 29:54 run left him in 3rd place, 10 seconds behind his countryman Mola. Fellow Spaniard Vicente Hernandez ran 29:55 to finish 4th, 5 seconds back of Gomez.

Brownlee’s victory was his second straight WTS win in a row as he won WTS Auckland by 15 seconds over Gomez on March 29. It was also Brownlee’s 10th career WTS win and his first back-to-back WTS victories since taking Yokohama and Madrid in 2013.

“At the start of the season, I had an awful race,” Brownlee told ITU media. “It was a little bit of a shock really because I got a lot wrong [Brownlee was 5th at Abu Dhabi WTS] so I knew I didn’t want to make those mistakes again. Today it started really well, had a great swim, had to get around a few people to get on Richard Varga’s feet and then we had a gap. I saw four of us and knew I just had to ride aggressive and on tempo. On my run I knew we could be steady and get them behind me by 30 [seconds] and then it was going to take a great run to catch me, but luckily they didn’t.”

Mola won the WTS season opener at the sprint distance event in Abu Dhabi.

Brownlee led the swim in 17:36, followed by Richard Varga of Slovakia in equal time, then Dmitry and Igor Polyanskiy 1 and 2 seconds later. The quartet had an 11 seconds gap on Javier Gomez, Americans Tommy Zaferes and Ben Kanute, and Pierre Le Corre of France – and that gap became the foundation of a bike breakaway that played a critical role in Brownlee’s win.

For the first 25 kilometers of the bike leg, Brownlee, Varga and the Polyanskiys worked well together and forged a 45 seconds gap on a pack of 20 chasers that included Gomez, Richard Murray, Mola and Hernandez. Riding toward the 30 kilometer mark, Igor Polyanskiy’s front wheel buckled and he crashed. At that point, the three remaining members of the breakaway lost critical horsepower and the chasers gradually crept closer. At the end of the 40-kilometer bike leg, Dmitry Polyanskiy and Varga’s legs were dead from their kamikaze bike breakaway and were doomed to fade from contention on the run. Brownlee hit T2 first with a 23 seconds lead on the fast feet of Mario Mola, Javier Gomez and Richard Murray and the race was on.

After the first 2.5 k run lap, Brownlee held serve and maintained a 26 seconds lead on Mola, Murray, Le Corre, Gomez and Hernandez. After 7.5k, Mola was hanging on 26 seconds arrears, while Murray, Hernandez and Gomez were virtually tied at 31 seconds down.

With 1.25k to go, Brownlee maintained his 27 seconds lead on Mola, who had 7 seconds on Gomez, 8 seconds on Hernandez and 15 seconds on Murray. Mola closed 9 seconds on Brownlee in the final kilometer, but the damage was done.

WTS Gold Coast
Gold Coast, Australia
April 11, 2015
S 1.5k / B 43.2k / R 10k

Results

Elite Men

1. Jonathan Brownlee (GBR) 1:46:53
2. Mario Mola (ESP) 1:47:11
3. Javier Gomez (ESP) 1:47:21
4. Vicente Hernandez (ESP) 1:47:26
5. Richard Murray (RSA) 1:47:45
6. Pierre Le Corre (FRA) 1:47:55
7. Fernando Alarza (ESP) 1:48:18
8. Joao Pereira (POR) 1:48:19
9. Ryan Bailie (AUS) 1:48:23
10. Courtney Atkinson (AUS) 1:48:30
22. Jarrod Shoemaker (USA) 1:49:36
25. Kevin McDowell (USA) 1:49:52
31. Ben Kanute (USA) 1:50:32
41. Sean Jefferson (USA) 1:52:14
DNF Tommy Zaferes (USA), Alan Webb (USA)