Georgia Taylor-Brown claimed second place at WTCS Leeds on Saturday, but was left wondering what might have been after a day where she said her race “went very wrong”.
The Tokyo Olympic silver medallist was beaten by Cassandre Beaugrand after a thrilling race in Roundhay Park, even though the French star had to serve a 10-second stop/go penalty late in the race.
Georgia passed fellow British star Sophie Coldwell close to the finish to claim the runners-up spot as both made the podium. But it could have been even better.
‘Awful’ says Georgia
Taylor-Brown told BBC1: “Awful to be honest, it went very wrong. The swim was really hard, I got bashed around but that’s standard. I couldn’t get my wetsuit off so that was a bit stressful, couldn’t get my feet in my bike shoes because my feet were so cold.
“Tried to stay calm, I still had other girls around me. Did what I could on the bike, just keep pushing, it was really windy. Tried to go with Cassandre on the run and paid for it on the second lap.
“I felt really good the first lap of the run, I went with Cassandre and it felt really comfortable. I think that was the best decision I could have made – I tend to go out harder and create a little gap and then try to hold on.”
GTB hails ‘incredible’ Coldwell
Taylor-Brown paid tribute to Coldwell’s terrific performance in third, admitting: “It was hard going past Soph because she worked so hard, but I just kept saying ‘come on Soph, keep working together’, keep pushing her because I knew Taylor Spivey in fourth was closing in on us.
“It was incredible to see Soph at the front of the race. I didn’t really want to catch her but I also did want to be at the front of the race. She was an absolute machine today the time kept going out, it was incredible, it was so nice to see Soph up there.”
