Belgium had a great day of firsts at the 2018 ITU Antwerp World Cup, with Jelle Geens claiming his first-ever victory of an ITU race on his home soil, much to the delight of the thousands of spectators who enjoyed a day of triathlon at its very best. Accompanying Geens atop the podium were New Zealand’s Tayler Reid and Canada’s Tyler Mislawchuk. In the women’s race, it was yet another victory for an American very familiar with the top of the World Cup podium, Summer Cook, who claimed a sixth win of her career. Finishing behind in second and third were Britain’s Beth Potter and Italy’s Verena Steinhauser.
Men’s Review
The local hero, Marten Van Riel, was one of the favourites going into the race, and he gave the thousands of spectators lining up in Antwerp plenty to cheer as he was first out of the water. The Belgian, who put in a splendid performance last week at WTS Leeds to finish in 5th place, was planning on leading from the front and he delivered early on.
Behind him were Jonas Schomburg (GER), one of the best swimmers in the field, and Tyler Mislawchuk (CAN), and it was those three who looked to escape from the chasing group from the first stages of the bike course, but they were quickly snared by a large pack, forming a train that would stay together for the 22km of the bike.
As the men sought to line up and try to avoid problems with the corners working in turns, some looked for opportunities to escape but with no luck. First, it was Tyler Mislawchuk, then a couple of kilometres later the Norwegian Casper Stornes made his move. Matthew Sharpe (CAN), Tayler Reid (NZL) and Uxio Abuin Ares (ESP) also had their chances, but nobody was able to burst clear.
That meant a large train of cyclists arrived together into the second transition, and with everything to be decided over the 5km run, another Belgian, Jelle Geens, decided it was time to gamble, pulling away to head a small group of ten athletes including Van Riel, Mislawchuk, Reid, Sharpe and Connor Doherty (IRL).
By the final lap, just five athletes were left fighting for the podium positions and it all came down to one of the longest sprint finishes ever, with Jeens giving all he had for the final push. Urged on by the local fans, the Belgian managed to stay a metre ahead of Reid and cross the finish line in first, claiming his first ever World Cup victory in the process. “I really feel amazing”, he said after his win. “In the sprint I thought I didn’t have anything left, but when I was a…
https://www.triathlon.org/news/article/jelle_geens_and_summer_cook_claim_the_first_ever_titles_in_antwerp_world_cu