Gomez Runs Away With WTS Chicago Victory

Spain’s Javier Gomez extended his lead in the World Triathlon Series rankings with a victory in Chicago.

The men were greeted with steamy conditions, with temperatures hovering in the mid 90s at the 4 p.m. start of the race. American Ben Kanute, who grew up in the Chicago area, took advantage of the momentum of racing in front of a home crowd and came out of two-lap swim first at 18:59, with a string of 34 athletes following him onto the blue transition carpet.

A lead pack, including pre-race favorites Gomez and Mario Mola (ESP), developed out front and they worked to get away from other fast runners like Richard Murray (RSA). That lead group maintained a steady gap throughout much of the bike ride, but the chase pack managed to catch up before the end of the run. With a huge group coming into transition together, it became about posting a solid transition time to get key positioning to start the run. Though Murray and the rest of the chase pack were in the mix to start the run, the effort it took to bridge the gap on the bike proved to be too much and they dropped back.

Gomez, Mola and Portugal’s Joao Pereira established a gap early in the run. Pereira eventually fell off, making for another duel between the Spanish stars. Gomez made a break and ran a 31:21 10K on his way to the 1:47:21 victory. With Gomez down the road, Mola started to fade and Pereira ran his way into the silver spot, finishing in 1:47:29. Mola held on for third at 1:47:40.

ITU World Triathlon Series – Chicago
Chicago, Ill. – June 29, 2014
1.5K swim, 40K bike, 10K run

Men
1. Javier Gomez (ESP) 1:47:21
2. Joao Pereira (POR) 1:47:29
3. Mario Mola (ESP) 1:47:40
4. Dmitry Polyansky (RUS) 1:48:00
5. Fernando Alarza (ESP) 1:48:05
6. Alessandro Fabian (ITA) 1:48:11
7. Adam Bowden (GBR) 1:48:16
8. Brendan Sexton (AUS) 1:48:28
9. Alexander Bryukhankov (RUS) 1:48:45
10. Sven Riederer (SUI) 1:48:52

Complete results.