Kiwis Off the Pace in Hot Madrid

Conditions were hot and racing was fierce at the latest round of the Dextro Energy ITU Triathlon World Champs Series in Madrid overnight, with New Zealanders James Elvery and Ben Pattle finishing down the order as Alistair Brownlee (GBR) stamped his class on the 2010 season with a stunning victory in his first appearance after 7 months out with injury.

Elvery exited the water in 20th place, 24 seconds behind the leaders. But the Aucklander was unable to stay with the early pace through transition and onto the 40km bike, missing the first two groups and from that moment was always struggling to finish in the top twenty of a world class field on a hot Madrid day.

Similarly Ben Pattle struggled to exit the water close enough to the power brokers of the sport and found himself in the final group on the bike, steadily losing time to the leaders and any chance of a good points scoring finish, eventually withdrawing from the race.

As expected it was the big Russian Dmitry Polyansky who lead the field throughout the swim, taking with him a quality lead group of eight on to the bike, including Brownlee, Javier Gomez (ESP) and Frederic Belaubre (FRA). Despite their best intentions however, they were soon caught by a chase group of 23 riders forming one large fast moving group at the head of the field.

Meanwhile Elvery continued to work hard in a small but focused group of riders that included former World Cup winner Daniel Unger (GER), but weight of numbers paid as they lost time each lap to eventually trail by over 3 minutes as the triathletes headed out on the 10km run while Pattle withdrew before donning the running shoes.

The final two laps on the bike saw plenty of action though with a small breakaway with Jamie Huggett (AUS), Matt Chrabot (USA) and Peter Croes (BEL) taking advantage of the tough hill to grab a vital second lead. In the process they dragged a slightly bigger group across to them, one that included 2009 World Champion Alistair Brownlee, 2008 World Champion Javier Gomez and fleet footed Aussie Courtney Atkinson.

Surprisingly or perhaps because of the 34 degree heat, the main chase group allowed this star studded breakaway to move 1 minute 27 seconds clear and in doing so waved goodbye to their chances of victory.

Up front it was Courtney Atkinson and Alistair Brownlee who quickly took control of the race, with local favourite Javier Gomez and Sven Riederer (SWI) trying to hang on to the typically quick run start from both.

Atkinson and Brownlee ran step for step, toe to toe for the entire distance, until the young Englishman found an extra gear that belied his time out of the sport with injury to remind the world of his incredible talent, winning by 10 seconds from Atkinson while Riederer ran superbly for third ahead of a tiring Gomez.

Elvery bravely battled home in the tough conditions to finish in 52nd place.

Dextro Energy ITU Triathlon World Champs Series
Madrid, Spain
Elite Men
1. Alistair Brownlee GBR 1:52:41
2. Courtney Atkinson AUS 1:52:51
3. Sven Riederer SUI 1:53:08
4. Javier Gomez ESP 1:53:18
5. Stefan Justus GER 1:53:40
Plus NZers
52 James Elvery Auckland 2:01:25
Ben Pattle Auckland DNF