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Taylor Knibb dominates again at T100 Ibiza, Olympic silver medalist Julie Derron makes impressive debut

American star bikes clear of the field to net second T100 title of 2024, Derron overcomes one-minute drafting penalty to take second

Photo by: Kevin Mackinnon

Paris Olympians were the one’s to beat today at today’s T100 Ibiza race. As she did at T100 San Francisco earlier this year, American Taylor Knibb (pictured above on the bike at T100 San Francisco) rode away from the field and then hung on strong for a solid win, while Switzerland’s Julie Derron followed up her Olympic silver medal with an impressive runner-up finish, despite receiving a one-minute drafting penalty.

Taylor Knibb proves once again she’s in a class of her own with huge win at T100 San Francisco

Another Taylor leads the swim

American Taylor Spivey, another Paris Olympian, led a group of five out of the water, with Sara Perez Sala (a former Olympic swimmer and Paralympic guide to gold medalist Susana Rodriguez), Tokyo gold medalist Flora Duffy, Great Britain’s India Lee and Knibb just seconds back. The next group out of the water was about 1:20 behind that included Derron and T100 London winner Ashleigh Gentle (AUS), with Germany’s Anne Haug another 10 seconds behind.

Once on the bike things quickly became the Taylor Knibb show as the American national time trial champion pulled away from the rest of the field, eventually hitting T2 with a lead of over three minutes on Lee, over five minutes on Imogen Simmonds (SUI), almost six minutes on Canadian national time trial champion Paula Findlay and over nine minutes on pre-race favourites Gentle and Haug.

Like Alistair Brownlee in the men’s race, Derron had also received a one-minute drafting penalty, and hit T2 alongside Findlay.

Marten Van Riel takes T100 Ibiza as Alistair Brownlee given T100’s first draft penalty

Derron runs to second, Gentle to fourth

There was no touching Knibb on the run – despite giving up four minutes to the Swiss star through the 18 km final leg of the race, Knibb was never challenged as she ran a solid 1:04:47 to solidify the win in 3:30:03. Derron would storm through the day’s fastest run split (1:00:48) to finish second in 3:31:46, with Lee hanging tough to redeem her DNF in Nice last weekend for a solid third-place finish 3:35:17. Gentle would run her way to fourth (1:01:39/ 3:36:01), with Findlay rounding out the top five (3:37:12), just ahead of Haug (3:37:28).