Whenever I watch racing now, I always find myself asking what would I say to each of the athletes at the conclusion of the race? This was so true in watching the first elite racing over the Olympic distance in Leeds on 5^th June.

A few races caught my eye: firstly, it was hugely exciting to see para-Tri raced over the same course on the same weekend, for first time. There were some outstanding performances and some wonderful British achievements.

The race that I simply could not take my eyes off was the women’s race. The field was completely stacked with talent: with Flora Duffy (2016 & 2017 ITU World Series Champion)  looking to race for the first time coming back from her 2018 foot injury, up-and-coming British talent of Sophie Coldwell and Beth Potter on top of the proven Jess Learmonth, and Lucy Charles-Barclay announcing just a week before that she would try the Olympic distance (vs her usual specialism of Ironman and 70.3). Plus so much at stake for the Tokyo Olympics – including Taylor Spivey and Katie Zaferes (2019 ITU World Series Champion) racing head-to-head for selection for the Team USA slot. The 2019 and 2018 winners on this course, Brits Georgia Taylor-Brown and Vicky Holland have already punched their ticket for Tokyo, so had chosen to sit out this race.

The Leeds course is a lake swim – and with the water 19.2 degC, wetsuits were mandatory. It goes up a sharp hill straight out of T1, so athletes need to get their feet into the shoes straight away when mounting. Then it is a narrow, tight, hilly course which requires great bike-handling skills and for those not one of the first wheels in the group, a lot of chasing back into the bunch as the riders get strung out around corners. It is a bike course that rewards hard graft, and with the right athletes working together lends itself to breakaways – especially if they can transition fast and attack the first hill.

The swim was massively fast – with Lucy Charles-Barclay showing her former elite swimming background to stretch the field out right from the start. She entered T1 first, with Kingma, Learmonth and Coldwell all close by.

However, the super-slick skills in short-distance racing showed as Charles-Barclay lost 15 secs to the other three, and they immediately put a gap into the race. Likewise, Spivey had a very poor T1 even though she was well up on Zaferes. This is a great example of how ‘Technique’ and ‘Technique under Pressure’ are different skills and things that we need to work with athletes on over and over.

On the bike, the class of Flora Duffy’s bike handling and strength on the bike was majestic. She was on her own in 7^th, with two groups of three ahead of her working well within their groups. But with a combination of beautiful lines and strength that showcased her mountain-biking and cyclocross heritage she joined the second group and then led the athletes in working together, even with Lucy Charles-Barclay’s noticeably weaker bike-handling and cornering skills in comparison to the others. In our coaching sessions, cornering and technical sessions on the bike can sometimes seem less important than strength and endurance sessions – but this race was being won and lost on this area of ‘Technique’ and ‘Technique under Fatigue’.

The front breakaway group of Kingma, Learmonth and Coldwell were communicating so well and riding with power and skill. This actually increased the gap to the second group in the later laps – some achievement, given the greater number of athletes in the second group, as well as Duffy’s attacking riding. Coming into the last half lap, we saw Learmonth physically preparing for the run ahead, stretching her lower back and hips, plus getting hydration and nutrition in ready for the effort. I am sure she was also visualising the flow of a smooth transition and settling into her run rhythm.

In T2, we once again saw Spivey make mistakes in transition – missing the box with her helmet and with her running shoes the opposite side of the bike, then having to run around the bike to sort it out before she could exit transition having lost more time. From an outsider’s point of view, she still had a huge gap to Zaferes, and could focus on getting to the best top 5 position possible, but the pressure was clearly in her mind. As a coach, I would have loved to unpack after the race what the source of the pressure was and how she could have managed it for a better outcome.

On the run, the first group of three were initially shoulder-to-shoulder and battling it out brilliantly. After a short time the superior strength of Learmonth and Kingma started to show and they pulled ahead of Coldwell. This would not necessarily be the way that the run form-book suggested, so I would want to unpack with Coldwell the psychological elements here.

On the final downhill Kingma made her move. She said in her post-race interview that she has made her mind up in previous laps that this would be the spot where she looked to pull away, and she executed it brilliantly to then hold that lead up the final uphill section to take her first-ever win.

Learmonth came in just 11 secs back, following a brilliantly executed race that should be a great confidence-builder for Tokyo. Coldwell took the bronze with a gap of just 59 secs from the winner – a brilliant first podium. She had really put every part of the race together to deliver this result against a top-class field.

Farther back, Lucy Charles-Barclay showed almost super-human strength to pull ahead of Spivey. With all of the extra work that she had put in on the bike leg, she must have felt absolutely rinsed. This first result with so many technical opportunities for her to speed up surely tells us that she is a very realistic contender for the Paris 2024 Olympics (when she will be 30 years old). Yet another brilliant British talent, and with Beth Potter coming in 7^th, the female triathlon future looks very rosy (and very competitive!)

Finally, one had the sense that the course was just a touch too short for Duffy, who was improving vs the field with every lap. But she was moving very well, with no limp, and I would think that she classes that as a great preparation race for Tokyo.

1st – Maya Kingma (NED) – 1:54:26
2nd – Jessica Learmonth (GBR) – 1:54:37
3rd – Sophie Coldwell (GBR) – 1:55:25
4th – Flora Duffy (BER) – 1:55:25
5th – Lucy Charles-Barclay (GBR) – 1:56:50
6th – Taylor Spivey (USA) – 1:57:00
7th – Beth Potter (GBR) – 1:57:20
8th – Cassandre Beaugrand (FRA) – 1:57:30
9th – Laura Lindemann (GER) – 1:58:10
10th – Carolyn Hayes (IRL) – 1:58:16