Ivan Rana proved he’s still a force on the world cup stage as he impressively won today’s Kitzbühel BG Triathlon World Cup, the last major tune-up for the athletes before The Beijing Olympics. Rana has spent most of the last few years in the shadow of Javier Gomez but today he showed Spain may have another medal threat in Beijing this August.

“I’m really happy. For me today is one of the best days of my life because I had a lot of problems in my body after Athens. I couldn’t train like I wanted for years so the come back was really hard and I’m really happy,” said Rana at the finish area.

New Zealand’s Kris Gemmell took the silver in an exciting sprint finish over Swiss Sven Riederer who hung on for the bronze. Bevan Docherty just missed the podium, finishing in fourth.

Russian Ivan Vasiliev was first out of the Schwarzsee lake but by a slim margin over German Maik Petzold and Swiss Sebastien Gacond. Docherty exited the water eight seconds back while teammate Gemmell was 35 seconds behind Vasilev.

As the men navigated the 40-kilometer bike course, a distinct lead pack of 14 men emerged as the leaders. The group included Rana, Docherty, Riederer, Russian Alexander Brukhankov and Brit Jonathan Brownlee, the junior world championships silver medalist competing in his first world cup. The chase group was not far behind and contained some strong cyclists including Tony Moulai of France and Gemmell. Those two groups came together midway through the bike portion. By the end of the 40 kilometers, the second chase pack also caught up resulting in 43 men all riding into T2 together.

As the elite men swarmed the run course, Rana powered to the front of the field with a punishing run pace. After five kilometers, he had put 20 seconds on his pursuers. As Rana took the bell lap, victory seemed to be comfortably in hand. The world champion from 2002 leaped in jubilation as he cruised towards the finish line, winning his first world cup since 2003. Behind him, the real drama would be for silver and bronze. In the final turn for the finish chute, Gemmell broke away first sealing the silver while Riederer outsprinted Docherty for the final spot on the podium. Young Jonathan Brownlee, finished strongly in 17th.

For full results click here.