It was a race won early and then late.
As the men dove into the water at the Chengdu World Cup, several narratives surrounded the field. Would Jonas Schomburg manage to trump his compatriot Lasse Nygaard Priester in the German race to Paris? Would Tayler Reid make right the penalty that had cost him a medal at the Wollongong World Cup a week prior? Would Márk Dévay assert his credentials in an increasingly-tight Hungarian Olympic battle?
The answer was yes to the three above questions however no one quite had a second to stop and acknowledge it in a rapid opening to the swim. Dévay led the way, as is his standard practice, and entered the second of the two laps with Reid and Schomburg on his feet. Dévay would hold onto his lead through to T1, claiming the fastest split just as he did at his last World Cup in Hong Kong. Reid and Schomburg were only men to stick within 5 seconds of him into T1 while Max Stapley was the next man out, 6 seconds back of the leader.
Over the course of the first bike lap, a pack of six men came together at the front of the race. Schomburg, Reid, Dévay, Stapley, Kyotaro Yoshikawa and Valentin Morlec settled into the lead and before the lap was over claimed a 45 second advantage. Early on, then, the race was all but won for the select few.
After good swim and transition, World U23 Championships medallist Mitch Kolkman was unlucky to miss out on the lead group. The gap stabilised over the next lap but thereafter slowly grew to a minute and beyond. By the time the sixth and final lap came around, the chasers appeared demoralised and threw in the towel as they lost another 20 seconds, taking their total deficit to over 90 seconds.
While they were in an ideal position vis-à-vis their respective Olympic ambitions, Schomburg and Dévay also found themselves in same scenario as that of the Karlovy Vary World Cup a little over six months earlier. That day, both had claimed their first ever World Cup medals and a second now beckoned.
Schomburg, being Schomburg, flew through T2 and led the group onto the run. Yoshikawa slipped back early on but the remaining members of the breakaway group held firm. Over the course of the first lap, Morlec also lost contact with the leaders as Schomburg, Dévay, Reid and Stapley entered the second lap together.
From there, there was no real movement but late in third lap Stapley took over. Scenting a maiden World Cup win, the Brit hammered round the final lap and managed to hold off his rivals. The breakaway pack may have won the race early on but Stapley was the one with the presence of mind to claim the all important win at the end. His final margin of victory was only 7 seconds but it was more than enough to savour his moment in the sun.
Schomburg followed in 2nd place as he struck what may prove a definitive blow in the German Olympic race while Reid claimed the medal he was deprived of a week earlier in 3rd. Although he missed out on a second World Cup medal, Dévay nonetheless could be satisfied with advancing his own Olympic credentials in 4th place. Morlec was then the next man home as the entire top-5 came from the breakaway.
You can view the full results here.
