And two!
Without an audience and in a single race, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Vincent Luis won his second triathlon world champion title, mastering the Hamburg event (Germany) on Saturday.
For his first world title last year in Lausanne, Vincent Luis could afford to manage: a fifth place was sufficient, because the world title was awarded at the end of a season of seven events.
This year, however, with the Covid-19 pandemic, the World Triathlon Series (WTS) has been reduced to one stage, with a world title being played out, as was the case before 2009, in a single race.
So no question of calculating for the 31-year-old Frenchman, especially since instead of a classic Olympic format (about two hours of effort), the organizers had to fall back on a sprint format, half as long. .
“I think we were all happy to have a race, and to be able to show what we have done over the past ten months,” commented Vincent Luis at the end of his race.
Thanks to the swimming part, he first managed to win the best runners - the Belgian Jelle Geens, the Briton Alex Yee, the South African Richard Murray and the Spaniard Mario Mola - and found himself in the group of head of a dozen triathletes, including the French Léo Bergère and Dorian Coninx, as well as the brothers Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee.
With the world's best
“When you have the two Brownlee brothers in your group, you have a good chance of taking the lead,” said the leader of the French triathlon.
The group was able to keep about twenty seconds ahead of the hunting group at the end of the 20 km by bike, in the Hamburg Stadtseepark where the event had been relocated to avoid the public on the main arteries of the Hanseatic city. .
The six weeks spent at altitude near Font-Romeu were used by Vincent Luis, in the last 500 meters of the running (5 km), to win his last two opponents for the title: the Portuguese Vasco Vilaca, finally 2nd , and the French Léo Bergère, 3rd.
“I knew I was in good shape.
There are the best in the world in my training group.
I knew Jelle Geens was one of the fastest runners and I was doing my sessions with him.
You don't need to race when you have the best in the world in your group, ”said the Frenchman.
Since the summer of 2018, Vincent Luis has been training in a group bringing together the best in the world.
A change that pays off, since he is now a double world champion.
Among the women, Cassandre Beaugrand had to settle for eleventh place, behind the leading group during the cycling part.
The American Katie Zaferes gave up her title to the British Georgia Taylor-Brown.
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