Cameron Wurf, Camilla Pedersen win Cannes International Triathlon

Second for Tim Don on the French Riviera

Australia’s Cameron Wurf and Great Britain’s Tim Don were the headline names in the men’s race at the sixth edition of the Cannes International Triathlon on Sunday – and delivered on that expectation, taking the top two places in the south of France.

Robin Pasteur and Sam Laidlow set the pace on home soil in the swim, reaching T1 just over minute clear of Don, with Wurf a further 75 seconds back.

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As he’s done consistently through his career, Don was very quickly through transition and added another 20+ seconds to his advantage of the fast riding Aussie, no doubt knowing every second gained would prove valuable.

Wurf setting the fastest bike time (3:00:22) was no surprise to anyone, but as I highlighted in the preview, Don is more than accomplished on challenging French roads given his previous win at the Alpe d’Huez Triathlon, and a 3:02:14 bike split from the Brit meant that while the Kona bike course record holder did close the gap, the race was very much still on with the pair separated by barely 20 seconds starting the run.

Great battle between @trithedon and @cameronwurf in Cannes international triathlon. Tim taking 2nd place going strong 👊 pic.twitter.com/NmR6ln17jA

— Matthew Bottrill (@BottrillMatthew) April 22, 2019

Cameron Wurf - Cannes International Triathlon 2019 — Photo: Jose Luis Hourcade

Wurf and Don were equally matched over the first 4km, but from their the Australian did managed to pull away a few seconds each km, to finish with a 58:40 run split versus the 1:00:16 of Don, to cross the line one second shy of two minutes clear.

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Switzerland’s Philipp Koutny followed another two minutes later to complete the podium, while the fastest run split (55:13) went to Bermuda’s Tyler Butterfield, who represented his country on the Marathon at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

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Pro Women

The opening 2km swim did little to split the leading Pro women. Charlotte Morel (FRA) – 23:19 – lead the way, but close behind were Justine Guerard (FRA), Emma Bilham (SUI), Camilla Pedersen (DEN), Johanna Daumas (FRA) and Margie Santimaria (ITA) all within 15 seconds.

Denmark’s Pedersen soon hit the front on the bike, her 3:26:00 more than four minutes quicker than the next best, to leave her with a significant margin at T2, heading out on to the 10-mile run course.

Pedersen – who has made remarkable recovery from a bike smash and induced multiple week coma in 2013 – wasn’t going to let that go, closing out the day with a 1:04:12 run. Belgium’s Alexandra Tondeur made up for the four minutes she lost in the swim to the leaders with a swift 59:20 run – easily the fastest female time of the day – to move up into second place, with the podium completed by Charlotte Morel (FRA), to ensure there was one home athlete in the top three finishers.