The WTCS Final in Pontevedra came to life in ways few would have imagined going into the event. The men’s in particular confounded expectations and produced the most exhilarating contest of the season.
With minimal technical or topographical challenges on the course, the nature of the racing was almost entirely a product of the aggressive and smart moves by those at the front of the race. In this article, we will examine how the men’s and women’s races came together and unpack the details that made them so exciting.
Swim
Matthew Hauser put together a good swim to take the lead into T1. He was the only man to clock under 18 minutes and emerged with a 3 second advantage over Pierre Le Corre and Jonas Schomburg.
As has been the norm for the men’s field, the greatest concentration of athletes emerged around 30 seconds behind the leader. Crucially, though, there was a slight dip in density around the 15 second mark. This meant that a chase group formed behind the Hauser-lead front pack.
Those that emerged over 30 seconds behind were therefore put on the back foot as the athletes that swam between 15 and 30 seconds behind Hauser tried to close the gap.
The women’s swim distribution actually looks remarkably similar to the men’s race. The peak density is also at the 30 second mark and you can see the same dip at the 15 second mark.
The biggest differences came after the highest concentration of athletes had finished.
The women’s curve dropped more sharply than the men’s but then rose again, which did not happen in the men’s race. Furthermore, the women’s distribution had a longer tail than the men’s, indicating that the field was much more spread at the extremes.
Bike
Alex Yee and Hayden Wilde were two of the men caught out behind the 30 second peak density of athletes in the swim. Both lost over 45 seconds in the water and had to catch the chase group ahead.
The first lap of the bike is what made the difference between the fortunes of the two men. Whereas Wilde made the chase pack, Yee did not. Indeed, Wilde was the fastest man on the course during the first lap as he exhibited his power on two wheels.
Moreover, Wilde actually matched Coninx and Hellwig in the front pack throughout. However, the loss of 50 seconds in the swim proved too much to overcome.
Yee, meanwhile, never got going on the bike. You can see how, on the third lap, Max Stapley dropped back to help Yee in an example of good team work. Nevertheless, it is apparent how Yee was shut out of the race by the packs ahead.
The bubble plots demonstrate how the Wilde-led chase maintained the gap to the front group without ever quite catching them.
Once the pack of 11 men bridged to the lead 14 (these were the two groups separated as seen by the dip at 15 seconds in the swim time distribution), the chase group was out-numbered.
Unfortunately for Yee, his group went backwards throughout the race. Even with Stapley dropping back, the leaders turned a lead of around a minute into one that exceeded 2 minutes.
The most interesting aspect of the women’s bike was how similar the front and chase pack were for much of the race.
Beth Potter utilised a very fast first lap to get up into the lead group. On the third lap she was also one of the fastest women on the course. Her cycling is probably not as heralded as it should be and her performance in Pontevedra showed how she expertly navigated the second discipline to put herself at the front.
In the above group, Potter and Maya Kingma represent the lead pack while Julie Derron and Miriam Casillas Garcia stand in for the chasers. From lap 5 onwards, you can see how Derron and Casillas kicked into a new gear.
Having matched the leaders for most of the bike, they unleashed a series of monster laps to close the bike and shut down the leaders’ advantage.
The above graphic also shows how lap 6 went wrong for Gwen Jorgensen. It highlights how at the top level every single lap can have major consequences.
In the bike packs visualisation above, you can see how the chase group really ramped up the tempo over the second half. By the end of the course, they had almost entirely closed the gap.
They therefore enjoyed a lot more success than the equivalent men’s chase pack did.
Run
Even with a 15 second penalty on the first lap, Wilde was among the fastest runners. He flew through the opening 5km but ultimately paid for it a little on the final lap.
Lasse Nygaard Priester also went ballistic on the opening lap. He then backed off on the second lap but recovered as he adjusted his pacing.
One of the big takeaways from the run was how consistent Dorian Coninx was over the 10km. He did not start as the fastest runner but he ended the race as the quickest man on the circuit. It was his command of pacing that put him over the line first.
Bergere had gone with Coninx for almost the entirety of the run. The final lap was key, however, and at the last Bergere did not have the final surge left in him to match the eventual medallists.
Kate Waugh and Beth Potter were simply a class apart on the first two laps of the run. Emma Lombardi held on but as the race wore on the two Brits broke her down.
Potter then powered clear at the end of lap 3. From there, she was the fastest athlete on the course for the remainder of the race.
One thing to note, however, is that Lisa Tertsch was the fastest woman on the final lap in terms of moving speed. However, she served a 15 second penalty which added to her time. Even then, she nearly out-split Potter over the last 2.5km and ran as if she had rockets in her shoes.
While Tertsch motored round the final lap, Waugh’s earlier efforts came back to bite her. She nonetheless held on to take a brilliant silver medal but the drop in her pace shoes how much she suffered for her first WTCS podium. As she continues to develop, that finishing power will come along and she will become a big problem for the rest of the field.
The above run time distribution for the men follows the indication from the cheat sheets: lots of the athletes are able to run within 60 seconds of the fastest split, but that is a very important 60 seconds to give away.
The women’s run time concentration peaked a little further from the fastest split (Potter in 33:26). Rather than the greatest density of athletes arriving 60 seconds after the leader, the peak came 120 seconds after Potter.
