After Lena Meißner won the women’s race at the inaugural Samarkand World Cup, a cluster of men ran out of T2 with a maiden win of their own dangling before them.
The most recent World Cup winner in the field, David Cantero del Campo, had been consigned to the chase pack and was over 2 minutes behind. While the Spanish athlete’s running prowess still made him a threat, it seemed almost certain that the gold medal would go to one of the eight men in the breakaway. However, given the relative paucity of world level medals in the lead group, what came next would be a step into the unknown.
Márk Dévay had led the swim in a time of 17:45. Having won a maiden World Cup medal in Karlovy Vary last season, the Hungarian athlete was one of the few men at the head of the race to have stepped upon a World Cup podium. Aiden Longcroft-Harris emerged only a second later but then a gap of 21 seconds opened up to the next man, James Edgar. Early on in the bike, the front pack of eight would form around Dévay and Longcroft-Harris.
Jonas Schomburg, a World Cup medallist in Karlovy Vary last year and in Chengdu earlier this season, joined the leaders. He had gained an early lead over his compatriot Lasse Nygaard Priester and sought to put a final nail in the coffin of Priester’s Olympic hopes. Making up the rest of the breakaway were a fairly young quartet.
Yanis Seguin, who raced well at the French Grand Prix earlier in the month, was joined by Simon Westermann and Chase McQueen. Intriguingly, Connor Bentley, the World U23 champion in 2022, was also present. Last year, Bentley won back to back European Cups and made his WTCS debut but injury scuppered the rest of his season. On his day, the British athlete had proven he could win races. As yet, however, he had never delivered in a World Cup event.
The 40km bike served only to extend the leaders’ advantage and so it came to the run. Bentley, Westermann and Seguin were fast through T1 while Schomburg quickly moved to the front in the opening hundred metres. Longcroft-Harris and Edgar were the first to pay for their exertions on the bike after Schomburg and Dévay in particular had drilled the legs of the pack.
That left six men to fight out the victory.
Further behind, Cantero had started the run and began to rip through the field. Before the race he had been identified as the fastest runner at the event and he was clearly intent upon proving it. He passed Edgar and Longcroft-Harris and could taste the top-5. Although he had plenty of time to make up, a medal was still on the table.
As the heat rose, the pace at the front told. Westermann finally cracked under the pressure while Dévay likewise began to slip back. Having been in the same position in Chengdu only a few weeks earlier, Schomburg looked the most settled. Yet Bentley also seemed poised.
Bentley is a hard athlete to figure out and Samarkand displayed that perfectly. His swim is not an obvious point of strength yet he was fourth out of the water. The bike looked like it took plenty out of him at times yet he stuck with to the wheels ahead and pulled his turns; a weaker rider would have been dropped well before T2. And then he was right at the front of run. It harked back to his victory at the World U23 Championships when he simply floated with the leaders, looking like a dangerous athlete while simultaneously not being the one to watch. It is probably an age thing as we simply haven’t seen Bentley in such positions often enough.
In the exact same manner as his World U23 title, though, Bentley picked the perfect moment to attack and stretched clear of his rivals. No one could respond and he therefore took a first World Cup win by 12 seconds. Therein may be the key to the British athlete. He does virtually everything in the race well while never being flashy enough to warrant attention. What separates him is that he has an instinct for winning races. It is no coincidence that he currently has a hit rate of over 25% when it comes to wins from international starts.
While Bentley took the gold, the race behind was hitting fever pitch. Cantero passed McQueen and could see Seguin and Schomburg but the duo had already started their charge for home. In the end, Seguin was able to out-sprint his older rival and Schomburg settled for bronze. He will nonetheless be happy at making it mathematically impossible for Priester to overhaul him in the German race to Paris.
Cantero settled for 4th place. His 10km split of 30:19 was the fastest in the field by 46 seconds and around 2 minutes quicker than the medallists. McQueen then held on for 5th place.
View the full results here.
