Debuts
When it comes to the debuts at WTCS Montreal, there is one obvious place to start.
Maria Carolina Velasquez Soto was the standout among the new faces as she recorded a 10th place finish. By way of comparison, in 2021 and 2022 only three women were able to hit a top-10 at their first race in the WTCS. They were Lucy Charles-Barclay (5th, Leeds 2021), Kate Waugh (9th, Hamburg 2021) and Emma Lombardi (4th, Yokohama 2022).
Velasquez is therefore a part of a very select group in recent WTCS history.
It is also fair to say that her breakout has been coming. At the end of last season, she won her first World Cup medal in Viña del Mar. Moreover she has since left a trail of destruction in her wake at the Americas Cup level, taking four straight wins. With form on her side, it will be fascinating to see how she progresses at the top level.
Costanza Arpinelli was the next best performer of the debutants. The young Italian athlete had a difficult start to the race and lost a fair amount of time in the water. Her swim split of 9:39 was ultimately 51 seconds behind the leader. Nevertheless, she rallied across the bike and run to just miss breaking into the top-30.
A 6th place at last year’s World U23 Championships pointed to Arpinelli’s potential and already this year she impressed on her way to a 15th place at the New Plymouth World Cup. Still eligible for the U23 ranks, she will be a name to remember for this year’s championships in Pontevedra (should she choose to race).
In contrast to Arpinelli, Brea Roderick had a better day in the swim and spent most of her day in the chase group behind the Knibb-Rappaport breakaway. Her efforts in the swim and bike told a little as she lost several places in the run and was overtaken by Arpinelli late in the race. There were still plenty of positives for her to take away from her race.
Two years younger than Arpinelli, Roderick will likely be at the World U23 Championships this year, especially after finished 2nd at the Oceania U23 Championships (and 6th overall). To go with that, she finished 11th at the New Plymouth World Cup and so has been at a similar level to Arpinelli this year. Going forward, it will be intriguing to see which of the pair break into the top-30 of a WTCS race first.
Karolina Helga Horváth was actually 1 second ahead of Roderick in the swim however she was ultimately dropped from the chase pack on the bike. Like Hannah Newman, she had a challenging debut.
Both, though, can take heart from the fact that it is rare for a WTCS debut to go swimmingly. One only has to look at the example of Jawad Abdelmoula last year to see how quickly an athlete can adapt and rise through the rankings. Abdelmoula finished 37th at his debut in Leeds. Two races later, he was a bronze medallist in Hamburg.
As a result, while Newman and Horváth struggled in Montreal, they have plenty of time to find their feet.
It was a similar story among the men’s debutants as Jorge Alarcon Familiar and Junjie Fan snuck into the top-50 .
Alarcon Familiar had won bronze medals at the African Cup in Troutbeck and the Americas Cup in Ixtapa earlier in the year and so was in decent form. To date, though, he does not have a lot of World Cup experience and so is still feeling his way into the top level of the sport. With further experience, he has the potential to become a much more prominent player at WTCS races.
Fan also arrived in Montreal on the back of a recent Continental Cup medal: a silver at the Asia Cup in Lianyungang. With a run split of 16:22, he showed that he will likely be able to figure higher in the standings at some point. However, his cycling proved to be a weak spot. If he is to contend at WTCS races, the bike will be a point to address. As an U23 athlete, though, Fan has time on his side to make such improvements.
Personal Bests
As the leaders entered the final lap of the run at WTCS Montreal, it seemed as if Jeanne Lehair was about to stun the field and surge towards a magnificent win. The Luxembourg athlete enjoyed a fantastic race and, even though her tilt at the win ultimately subsided, she came aawy with a super result.
After a personal best of 5th at WTCS Cagliari, Jeanne Lehair went one better in Montreal. When you factor in her recent win at the European Championships in Madrid, it quickly becomes clear that Lehair is enjoying the best form of her career so far. With her running looking as strong as it has this season, it can only be a matter of time before she puts herself onto a WTCS podium for the first time.
Cathia Schär enjoyed a brilliant debut in the WTCS last year as she finished 14th place in Montreal. Since then, she has not quite been able to match such heights.
That all changed at the weekend.
Buoyed by a recent bronze medal in Madrid, Schär powered her way to a new WTCS PB of 12th. One part of her race that really stood out was how she attacked the chase pack on the bike late on. In one burst, she ate a couple of seconds out of the breakaway’s lead and forced the pack to scramble to get back onto her wheel.
It was a clear demonstration of her growing cycling strength. At her current rate, a WTCS top-10 will likely be around the corner.
One of the biggest improvements came from Noelia Juan. In breaking into the top-20 of a WTCS race for the first time, Juan has solidified her status as Spain’s second woman in the Olympic Qualification rankings.
Her swim was not her best but she threw down the joint-third fastest bike split of the field to ride up to the chase pack. She also narrowly missed dipping under the 17 minute barrier over the 5km as she split a 17:03.
After World Cup finishes of 12th in New Plymouth and 14th in Huatulco, Juan is evidently on the rise.
Tanja Stroschneider and Margot Garabedian also made minor improvements to their best finish. Garabedian only made her debut in Cagliari, where she was lapped out. This time, at her second WTCS appearance, she took a step forward as she earned her first finish.
If Garabedian’s former PB was rather recent, Stroschneider’s came much longer ago. Her previous best finish was a 37th place at WTCS Abu Dhabi in 2018. Since then, a nasty injury threatened to end her entire career however she battled back and made her return to the WTCS.
Earlier this year, she finished 55th in Abu Dhabi, 48th in Yokohama and suffered a DNF in Cagliari. In Montreal, though, things seemed to click into place and a best ever WTCS finish followed. Armed with her new PB, the question is how much higher can the Austrian go.
This will be last time Matthew Hauser will appear in a personal best post. After earning two silver medals in his young WTCS career, he broke through in a big way to take his first ever win. With the fastest swim and run splits of the field, Hauser’s triumph was comprehensive. Over the upcoming shorter events in Hamburg and Sunderland, he might just be the man to take down the other 2023 race winners, Alex Yee and Hayden Wilde.
After matching his best ever result in Abu Dhabi earlier this year, Manoel Messias moved up one place to win a first silver medal in the WTCS. Messias had perhaps the most perilous race of any athlete; at multiple stages it seemed he was out of contention yet each time he came cruising back to the front.
In the swim, he was 30 seconds back of Hauser and looked in early trouble. However he serenely made his way up to the lead pack on the bike. When Kenji Nener dropped a thunderous turn to split the front pack, Messias seemed to be among those that were dropped. The Brazilian simply kept cool and soon was back with the leaders.
And finally, a slower T2 and calmer start to the run had him outside the top-10. Was Messias in trouble? Once again, he proved that any worry was unwarranted as he sauntered up to the leaders. More than anyone else, Messias lived on the edge in Montreal. But it all worked out as he produced a fantastic sprint at the end to win silver.
Going forward, he will need to find that final bit of speed to put himself on the top of the podium. It is not beyond him and it could happen sooner rather than later.
Dylan McCullough played a big role in bringing the likes of Messias back to the front group after the split occurred on the bike. The New Zealand athlete was great on the bike and his efforts were rewarded with a first WTCS top-20.
After making his debut earlier this year, Jannik Schaufler also broke into the top-20 for the first time to deepen the German ranks. Similarly, Strada improved from 31st on debut in Cagliari to 28th in Montreal.
Itamar Eshed made the biggest improvement in terms of raw places as he finished 26th. With a previous best was 49th, his jump was among the most startling.
Two further young Italian athletes then rounded out the personal bests as Alessio Crociani and Nicola Azzano earned their first top-40 finishes.
