All eyes were on Oceanside as top athletes went head to head. Not as strong as a field as first thought with Jan Frodeno and Lionel Sanders dropping out, but there were still big names on the start list.
Swim – Bergère goes solo
Due to water temperature the swim course was changed to be all in the harbour and a deep water start. Léo Bergère broke away in the early stages of the swim and went on the lead out by 30 seconds. The chase pack was 7 strong and included Ben Kanute, Jason West and Matt McElroy. Defending champion Jackson Laundry came out 1:37 back and Sam Long was 2:29 back from the leader.
Bergère had a slower transition as he opted to put on socks and a camel back down the front of his tri suit. Kanute had the second fastest transition of the day and was able to close the gap to Bergère, with the pair exiting T1 together.
Sam Long had the fastest transition of the day and reduced his deficit to the leaders by 32 seconds, down to 1:57.
Bike – Long and Laundry hit the front
Kanute hit the front of the bike and started driving the pace. Through 20km only Bergère and West were able to hang with him, athletes such as Eric Lagerstrom and McElroy were not able to make the break. Sam Long and Jackson Laundry were making there way through the field and closed the gap to 1:13.
Over the next 20km Long and Laundry took a further 40 seconds out of the leaders. George Goodwin, Justin Riele and Matt McElroy all jumped on the back of Long and Laundry to break away from the rest of the field. Around 45km the leaders took a wrong turn and reportedly lost around 30 seconds. This catapulted Long to the front of the race and he started laying down the power, dropping Goodwin, West, Riele and McElroy.
Over the final 30km the front three of Long, Bergère and Laundry continued to drive the pace and proceeded to drop Kanute and put time into Jason West. George Goodwin rallied and closed down a 40 second gap to come into T2 with the leaders.
Run – West chasing
Bergère and Long had the fastest transition of the day at 1:31 and Long had a slight advantage exiting T2. This lead didn’t last for long as Bergère hit the front and started to set the pace. Long tried to stick with Bergère but gradually started to fall back.
West came out of T2 with a 3:11 deficit and over the opening 3.5km he was matching pace with Bergère but outrunning the rest of the field. Bergère looked comfortable at the front as Long dropped back. Through 10km West had moved into 4th, reducing his deficit to 2:09.
Long continued to drop off the pace with West running through to 2nd and Laundry moving into 3rd by 15km. With 6k remaining West only trailed by 1:22 and was moving faster than Bergère. Despite Bergère still looking comfortable he was losing chunks of time to West. West took a further 38 seconds over the next 2.7km and closed the gap to 9 seconds with 1km to go. Bergère glanced back and was able to pick up the pace to hold off West to take the win.
Results
A strong all round performance from Bergère, swimming solo, riding with the best and then running the second fastest time of the day to take the win. Will we see him at the 70.3 world champs in August or some of the PTO races?
- Léo Bergère – 3:45:25
- Jason West – 3:45:37
- Jackson Laundry – 3:47:38
- Ben Kanute – 3:49:38
- George Goodwin – 3:50:35
Triathlon Insights 
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