Alistair Brownlee misses Lake Placid, and the final chance to qualify for IMWC Nice

Alistair Brownlee‘s hopes of qualifying for the IRONMAN World Championship in Nice this year are over.

The last race before the cut-off, IRONMAN Lake Placid, takes place tomorrow (Sunday) and the double Olympic champion is on the provisional start list. However, it has now been confirmed to TRI247 that he will not take part.

Time runs out this year

Brownlee left it late last year to book his IMWC spot, with his victory at IRONMAN Kalmar in Sweden his third win in four attempts at the full distance.

But this year injury has restricted the world #21 to just one race, when he was sixth in a star-studded field at the PTO European Open in May, leading on both the bike and run before fading late on.

He went on to win an off-road XTERRA event the following week in the UK but hasn’t been in triathlon race action since then.

Two places up for grabs

The men’s race at the IRONMAN World Championship is being held in Nice, France for the first time this season – with the hilly and technical bike course likely to have played to Brownlee’s strengths. He was runner-up to Gustav Iden there in the 2019 70.3 World Championships.

Alistair’s absence at Lake Placid sees Joe Skipper carry British hopes, though he has already qualified for Nice, as has another of the likely favourites in Matt Hanson.

Michael Weiss, Matt Russell, Ben Hoffman, Josh Amberger and Andi Dreitz all have their last chance of booking their tickets to the French Riviera as they chase the two spots on offer.