There was lots of excitement heading into the US Open as the field represented one of the strongest middle distance fields ever assembled. The top contenders were made up of some of the best middle distance specialists, athletes stepping up from WTCS racing and athletes on the return from injury.
The course was flat and fast but the weather conditions posed a significant threat, with temperatures reaching 34 degrees.
Swim – Charles-Barclay leads out, Knibb is able to follow
Leading into the race there was one certainty; Lucy Charles-Barclay would be leading out the swim. The question remained if any of the other athletes would be able to jump on her feet and join her at the front. Charles-Barclay made a charge to get away from the field and had a 2 metre gap but Taylor Knibb was able close it down and follow the fastest feet in triathlon for the swim. Knibb was a bit of an unknown coming into Dallas, with this being her first race since May, and it was impressive to see her stick with Charles Barclay, a rare sight in long course triathlon.
Charles-Barclay and Knibb exited the water after 27 minutes and had established a 60 second gap over the 11 strong chase pack, which included Rebecca Clarke, Flora Duffy, Holly Lawrence, Ellie Salthouse, Ashliegh Gentle, Fenella Langridge, Lottie Wilms, Sarissa De Vris, Sara Perez Sala, Paula Findlay and Lisa Norden.
Tactical Note – Charles-Barclay chose not to wear a swim skin, whereas Taylor Knibb did. This may have given Knibb the small advantage she needed to follow Charles-Barclay in the swim. The payoff is Charles-Barclay gained 10 seconds through T1 as she didn’t need to take a swim skin off. Would she have been able to put more than 10 seconds into Knibb wearing a swim skin?
Bike – Knibb shows dominance on two wheels
Charles-Barclay got a jump on Knibb through transition and charged up the road with a 10 second lead. However this did not last for long as Knibb swiftly bridged up and then rode away from Charles-Barclay. It later emerged that Charles-Barclay was having issues with her gear shifting, having to pause by the side of the road for 15-20 seconds to replace a battery. Despite this she was still able to hold off the chase pack which had now been whittled down to four riders, Findlay, Lawarence, Duffy and Norden. Findlay and Lawrence appeared to share the workload between them on the bike, with Duffy and Norden sitting in. At points on the broadcast it looked like there was some drafting going on. There were definitely points where Duffy and Norden entered the draft zone of the rider in front and didn’t proceed to overtake, despite this no penalties were given out.
Knibb continued to speed away from the field and would go on to be the only athlete to break 2 hours for the 80k ride. Her split was 3:50 faster than Charles Barclay and 5 minutes over the chase pack. She has shown her dominance on the bike in short course races but this was another level of dominance, coming out of T2 she led by 3:42.
Charles-Barclay came out of T2 with a 2:24 lead over the chasers, with De Vris a further 10 seconds back and Ashleigh Gentle 40 seconds back from the main chase pack.
Equipment Check – Charles-Barclay had numerous issues with her rear bottle cage. She lost a bottle early in the bike and then was unable to get a replacement bottle into the cage. The rear cage was horizontal where you would normally see most pros try and have a more vertical angle. This generally makes it more secure, and easier to retrieve and return the bottle. In 2021 she ran a more vertical cage, lets see if she changes this for the world championships next month.
Run – Gentle runs through the field…again
Knibb looked strong heading out onto the run. The type and severity of her injury has been kept quiet, but following on from a sideline interview with her dad during the broadcast, it sounds like it was something that has kept her out of running. Despite this she was able to maintain the gap over Charles-Barclay and the main chase pack over the opening kilometres.
You could see immediately that Charles-Barclay was focusing on making up for the lost nutrition on the bike. She was grabbing multiple drinks at every aid station trying to refuel and cool down. Duffy, Findlay, Norden and Lawrence came through the first aid station together, all trying to deal the heat. Duffy was able to move away from that group, as the others looked to already be struggling. At this point it looked like it would be a Knibb, Charles-Barclay, Duffy podium.
After the first lap Knibb had maintained the gap to Charles-Barclay and Duffy. Gentle had moved through the field into 4th but had only taken 23 seconds out of the near 7 minute deficit she had coming off the bike. Gentle reduced that deficit to 5:11 after lap two and it was at this point we started to wonder if she could pull off an incredible come back. She passed Charles-Barclay on lap three with little response from the Brit, up ahead Knibb began to really struggle and had dropped to a walk coming up the grassy hill. Knibb was able to start running again but at a reduced pace. This opened the door for Gentle to take the lead on the last lap and win by over a minute.
Gentle’s run was in a different stratosphere, she was 4 minutes faster than the second fastest split and put over 6 minutes into all the athletes who finished in the top 10. Her ability to run off the bike in those conditions was extremely impressive. She outrun half of the mens field and was only 16 seconds behind her fiancee Josh Amberger.
Tactical Note – When overtaking, Gentle would take a moment to compose herself and then accelerate past her competitor moving to the other side of the road, rather than running straight past. This makes it harder for the athlete ahead to follow and will normally make the move stick.
Results
Gentle takes another PTO victory and remains unbeaten over the 100k distance. Knibb had enough of a buffer on Charles-Barclay to hold onto second place, with the Brit rounding out the podium.
Lawrence and Norden came back past Duffy to take 4th and 5th. A disappointing results for Kat Matthews which could be put down to Kona preparations. She was able to run into 9th place, but lost around 5 minutes to the lead chase pack across the swim and bike.
- Ashleigh Gentle – 3:37:17
- Taylor Knibb – 3:38:32
- Lucy Charles-Barclay – 3:40:31
- Holly Lawrence – 3:43:37
- Lisa Norden – 3:44:49
Full results available here.
Following this big win for Ashleigh Gentle we expect her to take another leap up the PTO rankings. She currently sits in 6th but with another superb result to add to her best 3 race average she could leapfrog Lucy Charles-Barclay and Kat Matthews into 4th. She would need to score more than 104.98 points to do this. Given she scored 107 and 110 points at the Collins Cup and Canadian Open respectively, it seems certain that she will get similar points award here.
Triathlon Insights 
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