Yesterday we took a look into the ten best swim performances in elite triathlon this year. Today it is the turn of the cyclists.
When surveying the top efforts on the bike this year, we will apply a similar range of considerations to those used with the swims. For example, an athlete’s performance at a specific race cannot be listed in multiple places. As such, any displays listed among the top swims cannot be repeated in the top bikes. The Bianca Seregni rule likewise still applies; an athlete cannot appear twice within the same list.
Given the draft-legal nature of the sport, it is hard to always pinpoint who the strongest riders are in a pack. We are therefore employing an additional rule that the cycling performance had to have been done by at most two people. Efforts in packs or breakaways of more than two people are not considered. It therefore disqualifies the four-man breakaway at the men’s World Junior Championships in Hamburg, although their effort was nonetheless worthy of a shout out.
Finally, this is also a highly subjective list. There is no single metric for what makes a great performance. On balance, gaining time may be better than making up time, but it is hard to say. The context around the performance and the flair shown on the bike (style points always count) also matter.
Without further ado, then, and in no particular order, let’s dive into the top ten bike performances of 2023.
Taylor Knibb and Summer Rappaport – WTCS Montreal
The duality of man has a long history in philosophy (and for gen Z readers it also became a meme). At WTCS Montreal, we were shown something akin to the duality of triathlete.
Before the race had fully settled in the early stages of the bike, Taylor Knibb and Summer Rappaport launched an attack and stayed clear for the full 20km, gaining a lead of around 15 seconds into T2. Both, in their own way, represented the duality of triathlete.
Knibb shouldered the majority of the work and for much of the ride appeared determined to take on the chase pack behind single-handedly. A vaunted cyclist, she had a substantial history of similar breakaways and her aggressive riding was no surprise. Still, on what was considered a fairly flat and bland course, Knibb’s effort enlivened what could have otherwise been a procession.
Rappaport was the other side of the coin. Sometimes criticised for her cycling (namely due to its unfavourable comparison to her superb swimming and running), Rappaport was the only athlete that could live with Knibb’s initial break. Thereafter, she hung on for dear life.
The two athletes therefore encapsulated the fundamental nature of the bike in triathlon simultaneously; they refused to be caught and refused to be dropped. That Rappaport held on to win a medal, her first on the WTCS level in over 18 months, added the icing to the cake.
Maria Carolina Velasquez Soto – Chinchiná Americas Cup
Velasquez’s performance on the bike at the Chinchiná Americas Cup had a bit of everything.
She arrived on a run of successive wins and was a clear favourite to claim another gold. However, Liberty Ricca of America unleashed a brilliant swim to gain 30 seconds over the Colombian favourite (separately Ricca’s swim almost made the top ten of the year). Velasquez did not panic, though.
First, she attacked the group around her and began her chase, bringing Hiraku Fukuoka and Raquel Solis Guerrero with her. The trio passed Juri Ide, who rode alone between Ricca and the pack. Then they overtook Ricca herself. While Velasquez had thus turned the race in her favour, the real move was yet to come.
Instead of staying in her pack of three, she attacked again and put a minute into Solis and Fukuoka. Over 20km, it was a brutal performance in which she turned a moment of concern into a display of overwhelming dominance. Unsurprisingly, she ended the day with yet another Americas Cup gold medal around her shoulders.
Morgan Pearson – Karlovy Vary World Cup
Eagles screeching. The Star-Spangled Banner blaring. Asking himself what a kilometre is. These may have been just some of the things running through Morgan Pearson’s mind on the bike at the Karlovy Vary World Cup.
A great swim had put Pearson in the original front pack of eight men. Over the first half of the bike, a couple of men, including Simon Henseleit and Tjebbe Kaindl, had ridden their way to the lead group. On paper, though, Pearson was comfortably the fastest runner. His attack on the sixth lap at the race was thus among either the most brilliant or ill-thought of the season. Given he won the race, it was probably the former.
Pearson blew the lead pack away as he generated a lead of half a minute into T2. From there, he dropped the fourth quickest run split of the day to seal his win. Factoring in the high fives and generally relaxed vibe of his final lap, he could have possibly run faster still, making his breakaway all the more unnecessary.
It is for being so out of pocket and extra that his bike performance was one of the best of the year. The gap gained and general explosiveness of it was one thing. Yet the utter bombast to it and the dunking on his rivals made it one of the best displays of his career so far. It was racing, ‘Murica style.
Hayden Wilde – WTCS Hamburg
In contrast to Pearson’s performance, Wilde’s effort on the bike was not just necessary; it may have been the difference between changing the course of (triathlon) history and not.
At WTCS Hamburg, Wilde launched a spectacular last minute solo attack on the bike. Whereas many of the other rides here took place over 20km or even more, Wilde’s attack barely lasted half a kilometre (or around 0.35 miles for Pearson). Coupled with a lightning T2 thereafter, that short attack transformed the final round.
Wilde suddenly found himself away with around 5 seconds to defend over 1.75km (around a mile, Morgan). Alex Yee and Vasco Vilaca charged after him, out-splitting the New Zealander on the run, but Wilde just about held on to the line before his legs gave out.
The crucial detail to Wilde’s performance was that it handed him his first ever WTCS victory over Yee, earning him an invaluable mental boost on the path to the Paris Olympics. That he would correct his losing streak to the Brit at some point was not in doubt. Yet it still had to happen.
That small gap Wilde gained in Hamburg therefore removed a weight from his shoulders, whether conscious or not, and may have been the final psychological piece he needed on his path to becoming Olympic champion.
Tabea Huys – Bled European Junior Cup
It deserved so much more. Tabea Huys’ breakaway at the European Junior Cup in Bled almost stuck however Lea Houart denied her with a fantastic comeback over the 3.3km run.
A field-leading swim had gotten Huys off to an ideal start as she enjoyed a 4 second advantage. Once onto the bike, she then launched a massive solo attack. Having already represented Austria at the World Junior Road Cycling Championships (and would later race at the European Junior equivalent), Huys’ ability on the bike was not in question. Nonetheless, the way she opened a 40 second lead over rivals like Houart and Nora Romina Nádas, a European Junior Cup winner herself, was seriously impressive.
While the breakaway ultimately did not reap the gold medal, a silver was still a well-earned reward. Moreover, it served as a potent warning that Huys could be a force to be reckoned with on two wheels over the next few years.
Kenji Nener – Hangzhou Asian Games
The camera loved Nener at the Asian Games and it was not hard to see why. He turned the men’s race into a solo performance in which the rest of the field barely featured.
Nener led the swim, gaining a 2 second advantage over his closest rivals. Makoto Odakura had recently won a World Cup medal while Ayan Beisenbayev was racing on the back of a good season. However, Nener treated the field with an attack that was so emphatic it bordered on disrespectful.
Over the best part 40km over solo riding, Nener split 56:10. The next fastest man was Mingxu Li of China. He split 59:08. With over 3 minutes to play with in T2, then, the race was to intents and purposes finished. The sheer size of Nener’s advantage put it among the best breakaways of the year and even though his lead was cut to under a minute on the run he hung on to take the win the hard way.
No wonder the cameraman only had eyes for Nener that day.
Simon Westermann – Bundesliga Tübingen
At the fourth Bundesliga round of the year in Tübingen, Simon Westermann decided to turn a cliche into reality.
A confident performance had put him in the breakaway group of four men. Over the 20km, the pack grew to six and then ten. It was as the pack hit double digits that things went wrong for Westermann. Around a high-speed corner, the Swiss athlete fell off his bike.
As the adage goes, though, he got straight back onto his horse/bike. Although Westermann was back on two wheels in almost no time, the pack of nine had ridden ahead and gained a handy margin. Moreover, his fall came on the last lap, leaving precious little time for him to make up the ground.
Make it up he did, though.
With a massive effort, Westermann rode back to the front pack. From there, and perhaps fuelled by adrenaline, he went on to win the race.
Not many athletes can lay a claim to falling from their bike, getting dropped and then staging a comeback to still win gold, yet Westermann managed it. Those fraught final kilometres on the bike were some of the pluckiest of the whole season.
Vittoria Lopes – Santiago Pan American Games
A common theme in this list has been the success of stories of the breakaways and the medals that the athletes involved have won. However, a breakaway does not need to succeed for it to be glorious. Few instances epitomised that more than Vittoria Lopes’ effort at the Pan American Games.
Coming round every four years, the Games are a major regional competition that have plenty of local significance attached. Lopes rose to the occasion.
Known for her swimming, it was no surprise to see Lopes at the front of the race. Along with race winner Lizeth Rueda Santos, she gained 31 seconds over the field. Crucially, she then gained a gap over Rueda in T1 and did not look back.
Lopes rode the entire 40km solo, at one point pushing her lead to over a minute. By the end of the bike, a powerful chase pack had restricted her lead to 30 seconds and she was subsequently caught on the run. For a few laps, though, Lopes gave the field a major fright with her courageous breakway.
Chase McQueen launched a similar solo move on the final lap of the men’s race and earned a solid lead in very little time. His brilliant effort also nearly made the cut here. However, for riding the entire 40km alone at such an important race, Lopes edges it.
Jumpei Furuya and Kyotaro Yoshikawa – Taizhou Asia Cup
Our penultimate entry is another double act. At the Taizhou Asia Cup in May, Jumpei Furuya and Kyotaro Yoshikawa powered to a 1-2 finish, with Furuya claiming the gold medal on his birthday.
Their success was built almost entirely on the bike. In the water, they had stuck close to the leader, Zhao Tan of China. Yoshikawa nipped ahead of Tan in transition and then lit the torch paper on two wheels. Sensing the opportunity, Furuya jumped onto his wheel and the two were away.
Over the subsequent 40km, they put 3 minutes into Tan. Furuya split 53:02 to Yoshikawa’s 53:05; Tan could only muster a 56:04. There was therefore no real question as to who would claim the gold and silver medals once the pair arrived in T2.
Jessica Fullagar – French Grand Prix Fréjus
Jessica Fullagar is a machine on the bike. Her breakaways at the World U23 Championships in 2022 (which succeeded) and 2023 (which did not) have put the international scene on notice as to her capabilities. It was at the opening round of the French Grand Prix this year, though, that she really cut loose.
Lea Marchal had crushed the swim (she separately made the top swims of the year for her performance in Metz) and Fullagar had been a part of a group of three to catch the leader. From there, the Brit attacked and rode clear; by the time she made it to T2, she had a 45 second lead.
Although Fullagar would slip out of the medals on the run, she had nevertheless produced the best bike effort of the French Grand Prix season.
This list doesn’t quite feel right without Cathia Shar on it!