As predicted, Lucy Charles-Barclay was soon at the front in the water, Taylor Knibb the only athlete to stick on her feet. With the rest of the field strung out behind them, the Brit and American came out of the water for the mid-way Australian exit with a lead of 31 seconds to a group including Holly Lawrence, Ashleigh Gentle, Flora Duffy, Paula Findlay and Lisa Norden.
By the end of the swim, that lead had only increased, with Charles-Barclay and Knibb leaving the water in 27:01 (1:21/100m) one minute ahead of the chasers. Charles-Barclay stole a march of around 15 seconds on Knibb through T1 while the chase pack was led onto the seven-lap bike course by Holly Lawrence, 1:05 after Knibb.
At around 8km into the 80km course, Knibb surged past Charles-Barclay and began to put time into everyone on the course. During lap two, Charles-Barclay, who had already lost her race nutrition bottle from the rear of her bike, had a brief stop to address an issue with her electronic shifting, which had apparently overheated under the Texan sun.
By halfway through the bike, Knibb’s buffer was 1:51 to Charles-Barclay. In turn, the Brit had a 1:12 gap to the four chasers who’d detached themselves from the rest: Holly Lawrence, Paula Findlay, Flora Duffy and Lisa Norden, some 3:03 off the leader.
By the start of the final lap, Knibb’s lead was up to 3:04, Charles-Barclay holding steady at 2:08 ahead of the chase pack and losing a more time – now 5:13 behind Knibb. Meanwhile PTO Canadian Open winner Ashleigh Gentle was leading the second chase group, 6:19 from the front and 1:06 from the podium contenders ahead.
Showing no sign of weakness, Knibb pushed on to T2 and after a controlled transition, started the 18km, five-lap run with a lead of 3:42 to Lucy Charles-Barclay. 2:25 later (6:07 behind Knibb), Findlay, Duffy, Lawrence and Norden began the run shoulder to shoulder. However, it wasn’t long before Duffy, the double Commonwealth Champion upped the pace to take a clear third place on the course.
Ashleigh Gentle, eighth off the bike and 6:52 off the lead, stormed onto the final leg, quickly establishing herself as the fastest runner on the course. Soon, Duffy faltered while the Australian seemed unphased by the heat overtaking within the first 5km.
From there, Gentle continued to hunt her prey, overcoming her deficit to Lucy Charles-Barclay by 10km. Initially, it seemed the Aussie would run out of road to catch Knibb, but the American was reduced to a walk over a couple of short sections as the conditions took their toll.
Making the pass just before the 16km mark, Gentle had 2km of running to soak up the fact she would be taking a second consecutive PTO Open victory worth another $100,000. She crossed the line in 3:37:17 after a 1:04:59 run, which was four minutes faster than any other woman.
Knibb held on for second and $70,000 with a 3:38:32 finish while Lucy Charles-Barclay completed the podium in 3:40:31 to earn $50,000.
Holly Lawrence paced herself perfectly to stay in the hunt for big money, coming fourth in 3:43:37 to claim $40,000. Lisa Norden’s 3:44:49 finish was worth $35,000, the Swede pipping Olympic Champion Flora Duffy to round out the top five.
REMAINING PLACES AND PRIZE MONEY
6th – Flora Duffy – $30,000
7th – Jocelyn McCauley – $25,000
8th – Rebecca Clarke – $20,000
9th – Kat Matthews – $18,000
10th – Paula Findlay – $16,000
11th – Ellie Salthouse – $14,000
12th – Lottie Wilms – $13,000
13th – Rach McBride – $12,000
14th – Jackie Hering – $11,000
15th – Sara Perez Sala – $10,000
16th – Tamara Jewett – $9,000
17th – Mollie Hebda – $8,000
18th – Lesley Smith – $7,000
19th – Ruth Astle – $6,000
20th – Lottie Lucas – $5,000
All other athletes – $2,000