Taylor Knibb Delivers Supreme Swim, Bike & Run In Lake Las Vegas To Complete First Hat Trick Of T100 Wins | PTO
LAKE LAS VEGAS, Nevada (October 20, 2024) — American superstar Taylor Knibb won the Lake Las Vegas T100 Triathlon to live up to her pre-race billing as an overwhelming favourite and complete the first-ever hattrick of T100 race wins – following her successes in San Francisco and Ibiza earlier this season – and surge to the top of the T100 standings.
She now needs to finish first or second in next month’s Dubai T100 Triathlon World Championship Final (16-17 November) to become the inaugural T100 women’s World Champion.
Asked about her levels of confidence after the win, Knibb said:
“Oh, I’m not sure. But I’ll spin the answer and say that all three of us on the podium today could have raced somewhere else. But we choose to race here. At this point in the season I’m just trying to enjoy myself and enjoy the process, enjoy the journey and this is what I’m choosing to do.”
And the opportunity to win a first-ever T100 World Championship crown?
“It’s just one step at a time. I’m just grateful for today and to have another race.”
Breaking down her performance, she said: “I would kill to have that swim start every single time. I have a team of people here. My swim specialist and my movement specialist and they are each taking credit for that start. So they both have to come to every race now. On the bike I loved how broken up it was.”
Then, turning to ask second-placed Julie Derron what the run course was like, the Swiss star loudly agreed with Knibb, saying: ‘I’ll agree with you, it was savage.”
Knibb had earlier described the challenging Lake Las Vegas run course, which had steep inclines and declines and the belied the beautiful golf club setting as ‘savage’. It has both positive and negative connotations she said. “I have respect for savage. Good luck to the men!”
Third placed Flora Duffy from Bermuda was pleased to make her first T100 podium having talked all week about it being important for her to be battling at the front of the race.
“I’m really, really happy to be on the podium,” she said. “It was a super hard day out there. It was really tough. Taylor took off like a bullet in that swim. I thought ‘gosh’ I’m back in a short course race. But then I gathered myself and found some good feet to sit on. The bike is the biggest area I need to improve. Getting stronger and more comfortable on the TT bike and this course is certainly better for me today [than Ibiza].”
“I frustratingly got a penalty. I think I need to control my technical abilities. Go through the corners a little slower I suppose. I guess it’s just one of those things. You go into the corners fast. You come out of it and you’re in the red and try to back off and the ref thinks you’re doing something that you shouldn’t be doing. So it’s a learning experience.”
Fourth placed Brit Lucy Byram recorded her best T100 finish.
“I’m really happy finishing fourth,” said Byram. “Which is my best result of the season so far. I unfortunately got a penalty. I think it was up the hill for me. Paula [Findlay] came round and I didn’t drop back quick enough, even though we were going up an 8% hill. But, yeah, I just need to learn to drop back quicker I guess.”
How the Race Unfolded
Taylor Knibb had led out the swim on a serene Lake Las Vegas, that was significantly calmer than it had been during the week. The weather was also significantly cooler too with the air temperature 16.4 degrees celsius. She was followed by compatriot Taylor Spivey and Bermuda’s Flora Duffy, who had celebrated her own national day yesterday in her homeland with a chocolate brownie and strawberries delivery to her hotel room. Following them was Haley Chura in fourth. This front group gapping the rest of the field by 36 seconds on the first lap.
Haley Chura moved to the front on the second lap and was first out of the water in 24:46 followed by Taylor Spivey, Flora Duffy and Taylor Knibb and with a lead of 1:09 on the second group of De Vet, Derron, Curran, Findlay, Byram and Iemmolo.
Onto the bike course first was Flora Duffy, her intent to push the pace clear, but it wasn’t long before Taylor Knibb was pushing past and into the lead at the 6km mark.
As Taylor powered off to set the fastest bike time of the day in 1:58:09, there was plenty of drama and excitement behind, including three drafting penalties – Lucy Byram, Flora Duffy and Canada’s Paula Findlay; two retirements – Britain’s Emma Pallant-Browne and Australia ‘s Grace Thek and another high profile puncture for Germany’s Anne Haug.
Onto the run and the big question was how quickly Julie Derron could close the 5:20 gap to Knibb, having run four and a half minutes faster than her in Ibiza last month. Derron powered past Byram and was closing on the American – 20 seconds in the first 2km – but Knibb seemed perfectly suited to the rolling run course – having been a stand-out cross country runner as a junior – and more than held her own to win by 2:15 in an overall time of 3:37:03. The full, final results are here.
Sodaro Shines On Comms & Lake Las Vegas Course A Winner
On commentary Chelsea Sodaro made a very assured debut, but will be hoping to be back on the course for the final race in Dubai.
The other winner was the fabulous Lake Las Vegas course. All week the pros had been praising the venue, the Westin Lake Las Vegas hotel and the training facilities as well as the toughness of the challenge – in equal measure.
The local Mayor of Henderson, Michelle Romero, explained:
“Southern Nevada is the sports and entertainment capital of the world and this just adds to our repertoire of having great World Championship events here. There’s such a diversity of environment. It’s great weather. We’re very welcoming and so we just love having athlete events here and the people who live here also love it. So I think it’s great for the visiting athletes to feel so welcome and feel so safe. We’re one of the safest cities in the country and I think it’s a great combination.”
Asked if watching the world’s best female triathletes had inspired her, she tactfully responded: “Not in this lifetime, no!”
The 1,000 amateurs taking on a very similar T100 course tomorrow morning will be hoping for the same, cooler weather at the start of the race rather than the heat the pro women finished in. Otherwise they may think Mayor Romero has the right idea.
Wildcard Jelle Geens Runs Away With Lake Las Vegas T100 Triathlon After Belgian Duel In The Desert | PTO
LAKE LAS VEGAS, Nevada (October 20, 2024) — Belgian wildcard Jelle Geens claimed his first T100 victory at his first attempt in Lake Las Vegas, winning by just 38 seconds after a dramatic duel with compatriot and close friend Marten Van Riel.
Geens’ debut win came courtesy of a blistering run leg, where he averaged 3:13 minutes per km on a brutal run course around the stunning Reflection Bay Golf Course, which had 500 meters in elevation of savage inclines and steep descents.
Speaking after crossing the line, Geens, who also broke Van Riel’s unbeaten 6-race winning streak in middle distance triathlons dating back to November 2019, said:
“It sounds crazy, but a month ago I wasn’t sure if I could even start here, so now to win here, it’s a great honour – and it was a hard and tough battle with Marten. We said for years when we were still doing short course it would be cool to be on the podium together and it never happened in short course, but it’s happened now in our first battle over middle distance.”
“To be honest I felt really good on the run,” the 31-year-old continued. “Even when Marten came back I felt in control and felt I was going to go for it on the last lap. I kept trying to put pressure on the uphill because that’s where I’m strongest and I tried to get every lap better at the downhill but it really wasn’t easy for me. My knees are really hurting now. But I felt confident. I was still running a bit on fear during the downhill sections. But once I had a gap on the downhills, I started believing it.”
“It was very tough from the start to the end actually,” said Van Riel, also 31 and who has been racing Geens since they were teenagers in Belgum. “The course is brutal…but I was actually suffering on the bike already. I saw Jelle was yo-yoing with the group and then it was the same on the run. He’s lighter than me so on the uphills he had the advantage but on the downhills I tried to use the gravity to pull him back. But in the end I cracked, I didn’t have it. So I’m very happy it’s Jelle that takes away the [winning] streak.”
However, the second place still puts Van Riel in pole position at the top of the T100 standings to win the first T100 men’s World Championship crown in Dubai next month. Where a first, second or third place result will secure him the inaugural series title.
“That’s obviously very important. I was quite scared on the bike because I felt like midway on the bike my watts were very high and I was starting to suffer a little bit and I was thinking, oh, it’s better to finish high than completely burn myself and completely fade. It was definitely playing a little bit in my head. But I’m in a very good position going into Dubai so that’s obviously a nice cushion.”
Asked whether he would follow through on his pre-race promise to put his winnings – which are $16,000 USD for finishing second – on red in a casino later tonight, Geens was quick to answer for him:
“I’m keeping him to it. We’ve figured out how to get enough money out of everyone’s credit card, so it’s happening.”
Last Sunday, Van Riel had gone to a casino with Australian fellow pro athlete Aaron Royle and turned $100 into $1,000 playing black jack.
Third was German Justus Nieschlag, also on his T100 debut.
How the Race Unfolded
South African flier Henry Schoeman led home the swim in Lake Las Vegas in warmer conditions than the women, with the water temperature up from 20.7 to 22.9 degrees Celsius and the air temperature up from a cooler 16.4 when the women started, to 21.1 degrees Celsius. In the front pack with him were Australian Aaron Royle, Marten Van Riel, Britain’s Alistair Brownlee, Justus Nieschlag and American Marc Dubrick; all 21 seconds ahead of Australia’s Josh Amberger and Max Neumann, Jelle Geens, France’s Mathis Margirier and Americans Matthew Mcelroy, Justin Riele and Jason West. Plus German Max Sperl. Flat last was American Sam Long, 5:40 back from the leaders.
After a slow transition, where he took extra time to put his socks on, it looked like Marten Van Riel had lost the first group, but he immediately powered back to second spot. To then set the early pace at the front with double Olympic champion Alistair Brownlee.
Then the drafting penalties – which had started this morning with three in the women’s race – continued, with Alistair Brownlee collecting his second one minute drafting penalty in two races. Clearly frustrated, he rode back with vengeance to re-establish himself, settling in the third group just over two minutes back from Van Riel and Margirier. But it looked like it had lit a match too far as he later DNF-ed on the run. Then it was Pieter Heemeryck’s turn to collect a 30-second penalty for not putting his goggles and hat in the swim box. Before Max Neumann also got a one minute drafting penalty.
Jason West was probably the surprise package on the bike leg. Having been nursing an injury since London which has meant more bike training, it seemed to be suiting him as he tucked in behind Brownlee in the third group.
On the fourth lap Van Riel made his move from second place, upping his heart rate percentage to 90% and powering past Mathis Margirier to set the pace. Meanwhile, starting from the very back after the swim, American Sam Long started to move through the field on the penultimate bike lap.
Marten Van Riel was quickly out of T2 to get away from Margirier and Geens. But it wasn’t long before Geens was up to and past him. His legs bouncing and stride popping. Especially uphill.
Geens and Van Riel played cat and mouse on the run. With Van Riel determinedly holding on up the climbs and then squeezing the gap down on the descents. But the efforts to catch back up took their toll and the heart rate percentages told the story, with Geens averaging high 70 percents to Van Riel who was consistently pushing over 90% and reaching 99% as he gave one final effort on the last lap to bridge the gap.
Explore all the twists and turns of the race on the T100 Triathlon Live Data Dashboard as well as the final positions at t100triathlon.com/live/. It’s packed with lots of useful statistics and extra information on the races. Including the addition of athletes’ gearing setups and a ‘Race Facts’ tabs showing all the pivotal moments in the race, such as lead changes, fastest discipline times, penalty information and more.
Fans can also stay abreast of how the action will affect the T100 Standings as the race unfolds via the ‘Virtual Standings’ tab. All this is on top of the live leaderboard, which shows key data such as splits to leader, groups, speeds, positions gained and Heart Rate effort.
The seventh and final race of this first T100 season will be the Dubai T100 Triathlon World Championship Final on 16-17 November where inaugural T100 World Champions will be crowned.
A reminder of how the T100 Triathlon World Tour works:
- Athletes score 35 points for first place to 1 pt for 20th place at each race
- The Dubai T100 Triathlon World Championship Final has increased points to up the ante (55 pts down to 4 pts)
- Each athlete’s best three T100 race scores plus the Final will count towards the inaugural women’s and men’s T100 World Champions
- $250,000 USD prize fund at each T100, totalling $1,750,000 across the seven races (1st place – $25,000k; 2nd – $16,000; 3rd – $12,000 at each race)
- The series winners following the Dubai T100 Triathlon World Championship Final will be crowned T100 Triathlon World Champion and collect $210,000 USD from an additional total prize pool of $2,000,000
- Between the athlete contracts, T100 race prize fund and T100 Triathlon World Tour pool, the series provides more than $7,000,000 in athlete compensation, and is distributed in a way that not only rewards the winners, but also recognises the significant achievement of racing at this level
