American superstar Taylor Knibb won the Lake Las Vegas T100 Triathlon to live up to her pre-race billing as an overwhelming favourite and complete the first-ever hattrick of T100 race wins – following her successes in San Francisco and Ibiza earlier this season – and surge to the top of the T100standings.
She now needs to finish first or second in next month’s Dubai T100 Triathlon World Championship Final (16-17 November) to become the inaugural T100 women’s World Champion.
Asked about her levels of confidence after the win, Knibb said:
“Oh, I’m not sure. But I’ll spin the answer and say that all three of us on the podium today could have raced somewhere else. But we choose to race here. At this point in the season I’m just trying to enjoy myself and enjoy the process, enjoy the journey and this is what I’m choosing to do.”
And the opportunity to win a first-ever T100 World Championship crown?
“It’s just one step at a time. I’m just grateful for today and to have another race.”
Breaking down her performance, she said: “I would kill to have that swim start every single time. I have a team of people here. My swim specialist and my movement specialist and they are each taking credit for that start. So they both have to come to every race now. On the bike I loved how broken up it was.”
Then, turning to ask second-placed Julie Derron what the run course was like, the Swiss star loudly agreed with Knibb, saying: ‘I’ll agree with you, it was savage.”
Knibb had earlier described the challenging Lake Las Vegas run course, which had steep inclines and declines and the belied the beautiful golf club setting as ‘savage’. It has both positive and negative connotations she said. “I have respect for savage. Good luck to the men!”
Third placed Flora Duffy from Bermuda was pleased to make her first T100 podium having talked all week about it being important for her to be battling at the front of the race.
“I’m really, really happy to be on the podium,” she said. “It was a super hard day out there. It was really tough. Taylor took off like a bullet in that swim. I thought ‘gosh’ I’m back in a short course race. But then I gathered myself and found some good feet to sit on. The bike is the biggest area I need to improve. Getting stronger and more comfortable on the TT bike and this course is certainly better for me today [than Ibiza].”
“I frustratingly got a penalty. I think I need to control my technical abilities. Go through the corners a little slower I suppose. I guess it’s just one of those things. You go into the corners fast. You come out of it and you’re in the red and try to back off and the ref thinks you’re doing something that you shouldn’t be doing. So it’s a learning experience.”
Fourth placed Brit Lucy Byram recorded her best T100 finish.
“I’m really happy finishing fourth,” said Byram. “Which is my best result of the season so far. I unfortunately got a penalty. I think it was up the hill for me. Paula [Findlay] came round and I didn’t drop back quick enough, even though we were going up an 8% hill. But, yeah, I just need to learn to drop back quicker I guess.”
How the Race Unfolded
Taylor Knibb had led out the swim on a serene Lake Las Vegas, that was significantly calmer than it had been during the week. The weather was also significantly cooler too with the air temperature 16.4 degrees celsius. She was followed by compatriot Taylor Spivey and Bermuda’s Flora Duffy, who had celebrated her own national day yesterday in her homeland with a chocolate brownie and strawberries delivery to her hotel room. Following them was Haley Chura in fourth. This front group gapping the rest of the field by 36 seconds on the first lap.
Haley Chura moved to the front on the second lap and was first out of the water in 24:46 followed by Taylor Spivey, Flora Duffy and Taylor Knibb and with a lead of 1:09 on the second group of De Vet, Derron, Curran, Findlay, Byram and Iemmolo.
Onto the bike course first was Flora Duffy, her intent to push the pace clear, but it wasn’t long before Taylor Knibb was pushing past and into the lead at the 6km mark.
As Taylor powered off to set the fastest bike time of the day in 1:58:09, there was plenty of drama and excitement behind, including three drafting penalties – Lucy Byram, Flora Duffy and Canada’s Paula Findlay; two retirements – Britain’s Emma Pallant-Browne and Australia ‘s Grace Thek and another high profile puncture for Germany’s Anne Haug.
Onto the run and the big question was how quickly Julie Derron could close the 5:20 gap to Knibb, having run four and a half minutes faster than her in Ibiza last month. Derron powered past Byram and was closing on the American – 20 seconds in the first 2km – but Knibb seemed perfectly suited to the rolling run course – having been a stand-out cross country runner as a junior – and more than held her own to win by 2:15 in an overall time of 3:37:03. The full, final results are here.