Laundry pips two-time gold medalist Alistair Brownlee to take Super League e-Sports race

Great Britain and Australia dominated the team standings, but it was Canada’s Jackson Laundry that took the win in the second race of the Super League Triathlon eSports Series. Laundry beat two-time Olympic gold medalist Alistair Brownlee by 5/100ths of a second to take the win.

“During the race, you don’t even think about who has accomplished what,” Laundry said after the win on the two-loop, 28 km course of the UCI Worlds Harrogate Circuit on Zwift. “E-racing is a completely different beast than real life, so I didn’t let the resume of Alistair Brownlee get to me. I must say though, it is pretty darn cool to be racing with him and so many other Olympians.”

The Super League series has focused on team racing – yesterday’s race saw Great Britain take the team win with 27 points, one point ahead of Australia. The points were decided based on four KOM and intermediate sprint stages – the two top teams so dominated the sprints that only one other team accumulated any points – France managed 7 points.

Laundry might hail from Guelph, Ont., but he was competing for America in yesterday’s race.

“E-racing has been a really fun way to stay motivated, and shift my focus during the Covid-19 pandemic,” he said. “Team USA picked me up as a wildcard for the Super League E-series, and it has been a kind of funny feeling competing against team Canada. Canada is doing really well, and since we aren’t really in contention for the overall series podium, I’m cheering for Canada to take the win.”

While we’ve been seeing Laundry compete regularly on Zwift (he’s been a regular on the Zwift Pro Triathlon Series), he’s looking forward to being able to compete in a regular triathlon event soon – this weekend would have been his chance to try and defend the Ironman 70.3 Mont-Tremblant title he took last year.

“I am really hoping to get back to racing somewhat soon, but trying not to get my hopes up,” he said. “We may not even be permitted to cross the border into the USA, which is where races are most likely to happen soon. That would be frustrating, but it’s a possibility I have to be mentally prepared for. First chance I get, I will be getting across that border to race a 70.3, I’ll be ready.”

Laundry and Brownlee both finished the race with the same watts/kg (5.3), but the British gold medalist averaged 371 watts to Laundry’s 354.

In the overall series team standings Canada sits in third behind Australia and Great Britain – just three seconds separate the top three teams.

Here’s some of the power data from Thursday’s race:

Podium

Jackson Laundry
Position: 1
Time: 36:57
Average power: 354w
Normalised power: 370w
Watts per kg: 5.3
Ave heart rate: 165bpm

Alistair Brownlee
Position: 2
Time: 36:57
Average power: 371w
Normalised power: 397w
Watts per kg: 5.3
Ave heart rate: Unknown

Max Stapley
Position: 3
Time: 36:57
Average power: 364w
Normalised power: 380w
Watts per kg: 5.4
Ave heart rate: 179bpm

Selected others

David Mainwaring
Position: 4
Time: 36:58
Average power: 340w
Normalised power: 365w
Watts per kg: 5.0
Ave heart rate: 172bpm

Alex Yee
Position: 8
Time: 36:59
Average power: 315w
Normalised power: 327w
Watts per kg: 5.5
Ave heart rate: 172bpm

James Cunnama
Position: 9
Time: 36:59
Average power: 395w
Normalised power: 419w
Watts per kg: 5.1
Ave heart rate: 159bpm

Kristian Blummenfelt
Position: 18
Time: 37:36
Average power: 353w
Normalised power: 376w
Watts per kg: 4.9
Ave heart rate: 163bpm