Lucy Charles, Javier Gomez win Polar Cannes International Triathlon

Flat tyre can’t stop Lucy Charles taking the win at Cannes International Triathlon

Javier Gomez cruises to 12 minutes winning margin on the French Riviera

In the weekend preview, I did say, of the headline entry names of Gomez and Charles, “I’m not 100% sure who else is racing – but that’s not going to stop me making them the race favourites too!” That proved to be correct – but not without a little drama along the way.

First out of the swim for the women – as if it was ever going to be anything else – Charles’ day started to get a little more complex around the 8km mark with a puncture. Here is the full story from Lucy herself…

https://www.instagram.com/p/BiKGLD3F0Im/?taken-by=lucycharles93

For the reigning IRONMAN 70.3 World Champion – in preparations for his full distance debut at IRONMAN Cairns – he came out of the opening 2km swim a few seconds behind Robin Pasteur (FRA), but with a swift transition he was soon into the lead.

He was caught on the bike by Sam Laidlaw (FRA), but the young Frenchman would suffer a broken chain. Remarkably, he picked up his bike and ran with it. If the results are to be believed, he must have run a long way… as it would appear that he still finished!

No pressure on Javier then – and if there was, a 51:23 run split for the closing 16km run would have eliminated it anyway. He was in a different league today, reflected in a 12 minute winning margin.