Lehair Gets Paris Redemption, Yee Over Wilde at SuperTri Boston

The Olympics are over and SuperTri is back. The four teams have been rebranded as Brownlee, Crown, Podium, and Stars and Stripes Racing. Today’s race took place in Boston, Massachusetts, paired with a longstanding event that saw age groupers race earlier in the day.

Sixteen athletes took to the start line in the women’s race, which consisted of three “mini” triathlons back to back to back. It was Luxembourg’s Jeanne Lehair who emerged victorious. The race came down to four women, Georgia Taylor-Brown, Kate Waugh, Taylor Spivey, and Lehair, on the final run leg. Lehair blazed ahead of the others just past the 50:00 mark. Lehair was a DNF at the Olympics and said after the race that “It was a bit of frustration from Paris in my run today.”

The men’s race, similarly, came down to a run battle. Just like a couple weeks ago in Paris, Alex Yee and Hayden Wilde ran neck and neck in the closing minutes of the race. Wilde had a small lead on Yee early in the final run leg but Yee worked his way back to the New Zealand athlete to move into the lead. The race leader would change again just 30 seconds later. Wilde stayed on Yee’s shoulder and passed him back. Would Yee be able to respond? The answer was a resounding yes, as 20 seconds later Yee would hit the lead again and sprint to victory. He crossed the finish line with his arms crossed, which left Wilde visibly upset. After the race Yee said that, “We want SuperTri to be exciting.” Today’s races definitely checked that box. Wilde, when asked about being so close to victory, immediately cut in and said, “Close isn’t good enough.”

Women’s Race:

Brazil’s Vittoria Lopes led out the women’s race and picked up the first short chute for Podium Racing. For those new to SuperTri, short chutes are awarded at different points in the race to the leaders’ team. The team captain (manager) can then pick any athlete on their team who can cut a small part of the run course later in the race. Most of the 16 person field stayed together through the first bike leg, with American Katie Zaferes being the only one to fall off of the pace. Brownlee Racing picked up the second short chute. A small group of 5 edged ahead on the run, leaving Olympic Champion, Cassandra Beaugrand, with the chasers. Georgia Taylor-Brown was the main aggressor, pushing the pace at the front of the race. Taylor-Brown and compatriot Kate Waugh led out the second swim, with Lehair closeby. American Taylor Spivey also bridged up to the front pack. The lead group whittled down to 5 on the second bike leg and then down to 4 after the second run leg.

The winner was going to come out of the lead group consisting of Taylor-Brown, Waugh, Spivey, and Lehair. That group would come out of the water together on the final swim. Lehair was last to get on the bike, opting to run with her bike a little longer before hopping onto it to avoid the tight first corner coming out of transition. The two Crown Racing athletes, Taylor-Brown and Waugh, attacked on the bike right as Spivey went for a sip from her bottle and opened up a small gap on her and Lehair. Lehair looked to be falling off of the back. Spivey managed to hang onto their wheels and emerged in first after the final transition. Taylor-Brown and Waugh were right behind her. Lehair was 6 seconds back but had a short chute to use. Taylor-Brown moved into the lead. It looked like it could be her day but then Lehair, utilizing her short chute, pulled even with her. Lehair made a hard move at the 50:00 mark and the race was effectively over. Taylor-Brown looked behind to see where Waugh and Spivey were. Lehair, possibly running on some anger after her disappointing Olympics, pulled away and even had time for some high fives at the finish line. Taylor-Brown finished in 2nd. Waugh was 3rd and Spivey was 4th. France’s Leonie Periault, who had been running great all day, moved up to take 5th. Beaugrand finished well off the pace in 8th.

Men’s Race:

The first 100m of the swim made triathlon look more like a combat sport instead of an endurance event, with athletes jostling for position. Matt Hauser beat Max Stapley out of the water to pick up the first short chute. The first bike leg went to plan for most athletes, with 14 of the 16 starters within 6 seconds of the lead. The first run started to break the field up a little, as Hayden Wilde and Alex Yee hit the front of the race. A group of 7, including Yee, Wilde, Hauser, Vincent Luis, Tim Hellwig, Dorian Coninx, and Sergio Baxter, emerged from the next swim leg in the front pack. Wilde made the next bike leg difficult on the others and, at first, dropped two riders. He could not find any solidarity among the other leaders, as nobody else wanted to take a pull at the front of the race. That allowed the two dropped riders, Hellwig and Hauser, to latch back onto the group. Hauser would lose contact with the group on the next run leg and then the race was down to six athletes.

Coninx picked up a 5 second penalty for not putting his goggles into his box at the end of the final swim leg. Wilde was definitely trying to inject some pace into the final bike leg but he, again, had no takers to share the work and the pack was content to let the final run leg decide things. Yee had a bad transition, struggling to rack his bike, and came out of the final transition in 6th. Coninx used his short chute to move into first but still had to serve his penalty, which he did take halfway through the run. That dropped him from 1st to 5th. Wilde took over the lead. Yee had moved all the way up from 6th to 2nd. At the 48:00 mark, Yee pulled even with Wilde. The two would trade blows from there to the finish line. Yee went ahead of Wilde first but that move was only good for 30 seconds. Wilde passed back and injected more pace into the run. It was not enough to shake Yee, as he would be passed 20 seconds later. Yee charged to the finish and seemed to let up a couple steps before the finish to cross his arms in celebration. The two shook hands shortly after but Wilde seemed unhappy with the celebration choice. Wilde said after the race that it was a shame that some of the other boys did not want to share the work and that he has been seeing too many silvers in the last couple of weeks. It would be nice to get gold in Chicago. We will see if he can do one place better next weekend.

Not so Quick Take: I have been covering a lot of different races for SlowTwitch this summer and SuperTri, perhaps, seems like one of the most compelling formats to take to mainstream viewers. I do not know why today’s race was buried on Triathlonlive or a sign-up link on the SuperTri website. SuperTri racing is exciting from start to finish. Its fast and furious racing style, with real time statistics and tracking, should appeal to casual fans. You can shut down a small area of a major city and really put out a great product. Obviously Formula 1 is not a fair comparison for triathlon but my mother-in-law, who is not the biggest sports fan, watches it and is fascinated by all the little things they detail for their audience, like tire pressure and type of tire. There is no reason a stream like this cannot dive into equipment selection that casual fans would understand. Are athletes using clear or tinted goggles? Are they wearing a wetsuit? What tire pressure are they using? What kind of tires do they have on their bikes? What super shoes are they wearing?

My mother-in-law is also a huge fan of the Olympics. This window that we are currently in only exists once every four years. A lot of people just watched Yee and Beaugrand win gold. There is no reason a series like this cannot have a Sunday afternoon time slot on a real network at a time of year when some of the major sports are in their offseasons. I would love for everyone to sit down and watch an 8 hour IRONMAN with me but it is much more realistic to pull folks in with a race like this. Both races were full of excitement today. Both gold medalists were on the start line, racing right after the Olympics. There has to be some sort of pathway to get more eyes on the sport. I think there is an opportunity in front of us, right now, with SuperTri.

Photos: SuperTri

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