At the Tangier World Cup, the women’s sea swim had provided several bumps. The waves, however, paled to the surf that followed in the men’s race.
With several athletes being dragged left and right, others were left in the invidious position of thrashing at the water only to be carried backwards at points. Jamie Riddle coped best with the conditions and opened an early 9 second lead out of the water after looking for those behind using the waves to carry him to the end.
A trio of Angel Sanchez Carreras, Valetin Morlec and Ricardo Batista followed and then another 4 second gap appeared until Jonas Schomburg exited.
After claiming the bronze medal at WTCS Pontevedra, Pierre Le Corre arrived in Tangier as the pre-race favourite. He faced a 19 second deficit upon leaving the swim.
A mechanical on the first lap of the bike put paid to any ambitious Riddle solo attempt. He was fortunately able to overcome it quickly enough to slot into the main group.
Sanchez and Batista took up the lead of the race but a crash for the young Portuguese athlete sucked the momentum out of the move. Sanchez was then caught by the chase as a large group of over twenty men came together. With the power of Le Corre, Schomburg and Vetle Bergsvik Thorn in the group, the pace remained high and there were precious few windows to launch an attack off the front.
Schomburg took his shot at breaking clear, as did Panagiotis Bitados, yet the moves did not quite stick.
Casper Stornes, a WTCS race winner back in 2018, and Mitch Kolkman, the World U23 bronze medallist in Ponteveda, were also on hand to add some robust turns.
With so many men pulling their weight on the bike, the race inevitably came down to the run. Although Le Corre, had shown his speed over and over hitherto, not least when he won WTCS Sunderland, he faced several challengers.
David Cantero del Campo had won the Valencia World Cup in September and was well-placed. Louis Vitiello had logged multiple superb run splits over 5km in the French Grand Prix while Thorn had shown his abilities with rapid runs in the Bundesliga.
Neither Cantero nor Thorn enjoyed good positions into T2 and were a little crowded. By contrast, Schomburg, Le Corre and Vitiello were at the front and flew through.
Cantero, however, took on the opening stretch of the run like a man possessed. He charged ahead of Schomburg and Vitiello as if the finish line was in sight and soon drew alongside Le Corre. The wizened Frenchman gave Cantero a little glance as he drew alongside and slotted in behind, allowing the young Spaniard to set the tempo.
Thorn headed up a chase pack behind, with Harry Leleu, Morlec and Vitiello sniffing after the lead. Cantero and Le Corre, though, continued to gain time.
In the windy conditions, which had led to so much difficulty in the swim, the second half of the 5km may have felt a little longer than usual as the athletes were buffeted. Yet Le Corre remained smooth.
He had meted out his effort to perfection and, the second he sensed his moment had come, he struck.
He pulled clear of Cantero to no response and pulled away. From there, it was a matter of course that he finished the job and crossed the line first. In doing so, Le Corre added a World Cup gold to his litany of 2023 medals, checking another challenge off his list.
Cantero made it home 13 seconds later to seal another World Cup medal. In only his first year out of the Junior ranks, he has already proven himself more than a handful to some of the fastest runners in the sport lately.
Rounding out the podium was Thorn. Finishing only 10 seconds behind Cantero, the Norwegian athlete took the bronze medal to add another slice of success to an impressive season.
Leleu held off his French challengers to seal 4th place while Vitiello out-sprinted Morlec to take 5th.
You can view the full results here.
