Welcome to the new order of T100 racing as Olympic medalists dominate T100 Lake Las Vegas

Yes, we’re fully aware that the previously top-ranked woman in the PTO World Rankings (Ashleigh Gentle) wasn’t there, and neither was British star Lucy Charles-Barclay. All that said, it’s hard to ignore the reality check the last two T100 World Tour events have provided. That reality includes two Paris Olympic medalists – American Taylor Knibb (pictured above on her way to silver in the mixed relay) and Switzerland’s Julie Derron (silver in the individual race in Paris) – dominating the rest of the field.

We are also open to any suggestions that the race really was dominated by Knibb, with Derron only running her way closer to the American by the finish. That’s very true, but the thing is that Derron kept Knibb very honest through the run, reducing a lead that was six minutes at the start of the 18 km run to just over two minutes by the finish.

Add to all that mix the appearance of Tokyo Olympic gold medalist Flora Duffy on the final step of the podium and you start to see the potential for an interesting future of T100 racing – if Duffy and Derron can master the art of time-trial bike riding and reduce the gap to Knibb into T2, things could get very interesting.

Alright, enough contemplation about the future of the sport, what happened today?

As was expected, American Haley Chura led the women out of the water in 24:46. Behind her were the Olympic contingent of Taylor Spivey (USA), Duffy and Knibb. The next group out was just over 1:15 down and included Derron, Canadian Paula Findlay and Brit Lucy Byram.

Knibb wasted no time in blasting to the front of the race, quickly pulling away from the rest of the field. By the halfway point of the bike the American was 3:21 up on Duffy, 3:32 ahead of Derron and 4:30 in front of Findlay. Duffy would have to serve a one-minute penalty before the end of the bike, which saw Knibb arrive 4:55 ahead of Byram and 5:19 up on Derron. Duffy started the run 7:33 down, with Findlay at 8:43 back from the lead.

Once out on the run Knibb maintained a solid pace, losing just 12 seconds to Derron through the first lap, and keeping the gap to a shade under four minutes through the halfway point. In the end Knibb would post a 1:10:41 split to take the win in 3:37:03, with Derron using the day’s fastest run (1:07:50) to take second in 3:39:17. Duffy rounded out the podium (1:10:14/ 3:44:04), with Byram (3:45:27) taking fourth and Spivey (3:47:57) taking fifth. Findlay (3:48:52) would finish sixth, German Ironman world champion Laura Philipp (3:49:59) took seventh and Canadian Tamara Jewett used the day’s second fastest run (1:08:26) to work her way to eighth.

You can see the full results from today’s race here.