Capital performance from Brownlee puts him top of World Cup
June 21 - Britain’s Alistair Brownlee (pictured) followed up his victory in Madrid to claim a second straight Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Series win in Washington DC to put him top of the rankings.
Brownlee’s victory means he displaces Russia’s Dmitry Polyansky, who won yesterday’s European Under-23 Championships in Italy.
Australia’s Brad Kahlefeldt holds onto second ahead of compatriot Courtney Atkinson in third.
Fellow Briton Will Clarke put on another strong showing to claim a top ten finish in a competitive field.
Brownlee was within the thick of the action from the very start as he helped to form a strong swim pack with 2008 World Champion Javier Gomez, Germany’s Maik Petzold and the strong American pair of Andy Potts and Hunter Kemper.
They managed to instigate a break away which carried onto the cycle, as Germany’s Olympic champion, Jan Frodeno, was left just out of the action.
The lead pack of five were pegged at 40 seconds for much of the 40km cycle, however, in the final couple of laps around the United States capital the chasers slackened the pace and allowed the leaders to pull out to an unassailable two minute advantage by second transition.
Brownlee tried to utilise the same tactics that took him to victory in Madrid as he surged hard to open up an early lead on the run.
However both Gomez and Petzold dug deep to reign him back in as the Americans were dropped.
The three Europeans proceeded to tussle with each other until the final 2.5km lap when Brownlee made his decisive move, pulling away from Gomez late on to
The 21-year-old Yorkshireman said: “It was great to have another good result at a world championship race.
"The venue here in Washington DC is fantastic; it’s rare to get the chance to race in a setting like this, it was pretty amazing.
"It was a hard race, a windy bike and I really had to push on the run to get rid of the other guys.
“I kept looking behind me on the run and they were still there, and finally on the last lap they weren’t.”
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| May 2009: | Brownlee destroys field to win World Cup triathlon |
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