We were all on the edge of our seat to see how Brownlee was going to perform in his first race since the series Grand Finale in September last year. Al had got himself a pesky stress fracture in his femur, but I don’t think anyone could tell as we watched him run shoulder to shoulder with Courtney Atkinson down to the last 400m where he pulled away to take his 5th win in the series since it’s inception last year. Courtney finished 2nd with Olympic bronze medallist Sven Riederer surging away from Javier Gomez to take 3rd. Javier who is also returning to fitness after injury had to settle for 4th. Portugal's Joao Silva and Olympic Gold medallist Jan Frodeno were in the mix through most of the bike until they missed the breakaway by 11 athletes that would develop a 90-sec lead heading onto the run. Silva ran the fastest run split of the day of 30.57 with Frodeno clocking the next best time of 31.08, but they had to settle for 6th (Frodeno) and 7th (Silva).
In the womens race Nicola Spirig showed that taking time out to finish her law degree has not dented her ability, taking the win after running away from French athlete Emmie Charayron who was last years U19 World Champion. Great Britains Helen Jenkins took 3rd place.
For the full race reviews check out www.triathlon.org
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