The duel between Suunto Ambassadors Javier Gomez (ESP) and Jan Frodeno for the ITU Dextro Energy World Championship Series intensified as the duo finished second and third respectively at the Kitzbühel, Austria leg of the series on August 14.
The race was won by Great Britain’s Stuart Hayes who stunned the field after a gutsy breakaway on the bike, and managed to stay ahead of the chasing pack which included Gomez and Frodeno.
Gomez, who won the last two rounds of the WCS in Hamburg and London, wasn’t part of the five-man break, but the fleet-footed Spaniard was able to run his way up to second, despite having to serve 15-second penalty. Gomez finished 32 seconds back of Hayes, and had been penalized for not stowing his helmet properly in the second transition.
“I don’t know that anything would’ve changed if I didn’t have the penalty,” said Gomez, who like Frodeno, uses a Suunto t6c during training. “I don’t think I would’ve been able to catch Stuart today. He had a great race and I’m very happy for him.”
Sixty-five men dove into the Schwarzsee Lake to kick off round six of the seven-stop WCS and it was Russian super-swimmers Dmitry Polyansky and Alexander Brukhankov who led a long string of men into the first transition after the 1.5km swim.
On the six-lap, 43.8km bike course, a lead group of 47 men emerged, with most all of the main contenders safely tucked away in the big group. Hayes and four others broke away at the start of lap four, and quickly began to build a huge gap.
The group’s excellent teamwork paid huge dividends, and by the second transition, the gap had swelled to 1min 43 sec.
Hayes immediately pulled away out of transition and onto the 10km run, building a gap of 20 seconds on the rest of the lead bunch by the time he wrapped up the first of four run laps. Gomez, reigning world champ Alistair Brownlee (GBR) and current world number one Frodeno (GER) were chasing hard, rapidly reducing the time deficit.
As Hayes headed into the final lap, it was clear that the gap was too big to close, and the Brit had plenty of time to slow down and enjoy his first-ever WCS win. Hayes stopped the official Suunto timing clock in 1hr 52min 32sec.
“I knew a group would breakaway today,” Gomez said. “I tried to be part of a break early on, but it didn’t work out. That was too much time to give guys like Stuart—he’s too strong of a runner.”
“It was a very tough race today,” Frodeno said. “It was an honest bike course and that made the run especially tough. I take my hat off to Stuart—that was a great performance. I always enjoy seeing guys win with a breakaway on the bike like that.”
With his third-place finish, Frodeno remains the leader of the world rankings heading into the Series Grand Final in Budapest next month. The gap has narrowed to 231 points but Gomez will have to work hard if he is to overhaul the tall German in the standings.
In the women’s event, 21-year-old Paula Findlay (CAN) made it two-in-a-row, pulling away from Lisa Nordern (SWE) and Andrea Hewitt (NZL) in the final stages of the run. Suunto Ambassador Helen Jenkins (GBR) was fourth, while WCS leader Emma Moffatt was fifth.
The seventh and final round of the WCS takes place in Budapest, Hungary on September 8-12.