T100 London women’s results 2025: FAIRYTALE win for Lucy Charles-Barclay in front of home fans

Lucy Charles-Barclay claimed a landmark first T100 victory in quite brilliant – and emotional – style in front of her legion of fans in London.

The 2023 IRONMAN World Champion has gone close many times in the 100km format but she reached the top step of the podium on the course she’d surely have chosen as she led home a British one-two ahead of Kate Waugh.

Waugh had won the opening T100 race of the year in Singapore and the other two 2025 winners – America’s Taylor Knibb and Switzerland’s Julie Derron – came home in third and fourth to underline the quality of what must be the strongest women’s race of the season so far.

But the day belonged to Charles-Barclay, in what was a complete contrast to this event last year when she was a DNF after battling various injury and health issues.

Here’s how a memorable race played out…

Swim – LCB leads the way

It was two 1km swim laps – with an Aussie exit in between – in the Royal Victoria Dock and it was a very aggressive start which saw the field quickly strung out.

There was an unfortunate and early DNF for Meg McDonald (GBR), who was only added to the start list on Wednesday, with what looked to be a left shoulder issue and she was in a sling when on hand to greet the finishers later on.

Up front it was no surprise to again see Charles-Barclay and Jess Learmonth (GBR) lead it out – and exiting the water for the first time LCB was three seconds to the good.

But Learmonth ran hard through the Aussie exit to move into the lead and her surge meant a front pack of seven was quickly reduced to four.

Knibb and Waugh were the two who were able to keep tabs on the front two, with Holly Lawrence (GBR), Hannah Berry (NZL) and Georgia Taylor-Brown (GBR), on her T100 debut, rounding out the front seven and all within 15 seconds.

And the gaps continued to go out on the second lap as Charles-Barclay and Learmonth kept the pressure on up front.

Just six seconds covered the front four heading out of the water and up the steps to a raucous transition zone at the ExCeL. But it was now 40 seconds back to Lawrence in fifth, a minute to Taylor-Brown and Berry in sixth and seventh respectively, with 1:25 and upwards to the rest.

Of the quickest runners, 2024 T100 London champ Ashleigh Gentle (AUS) was ninth at 1:27 and Derron was 11th at 1:32.

Bike – Four-way battle

Early on the bike and it was Learmonth who put a small gap of just over 10 seconds between herself and Charles-Barclay and Waugh.

Knibb meanwhile, after a relatively slow transition after she elected to put socks on at that point, was in fourth at +27s.

They had eight 10km laps in front of them on what was a windy day in London and much had been talked about beforehand in terms of the sketchy road surface in places.

That was in evidence straight away as Lawrence was the first to lose a water bottle but plenty more would find themselves in a similar position.

Meanwhile Learmonth led until just before halfway when Waugh came past her but there was little between the front three – and Knibb was now closing menacingly in fourth too.

Charles-Barclay was next to take over at the head of affairs but then Knibb made light work of powering past the front three on a headwind section at the end of the fifth of eight loops.

Lucy Byram (GBR) was now the big closer from behind, up from 14th to fifth at +2:30 having effectively ridden the whole bike leg on her own.

And Derron was up to sixth at +2:39.

But Taylor-Brown, who had been in the next group, then suffered a nightmare when a rear wheel puncture brought her to a halt and salt was rubbed into the wounds when the spare wheel didn’t seem compatible and she lost a further couple of minutes before that was corrected.

It was fascinating at the front though as Knibb never got away and it was Charles-Barclay who put in a late dig to give her a slender advantage going into T2.

She had 10 seconds in hand on Knibb, 14 on Learmonth and 24 on Waugh.

Byram was at +2:05 and uber-runner Derron was sixth at +4:25 and a rapid transition from her suggested the chase was on!

Run – Fitting finale

Knibb may have had socks on going into T2 but she struggled with a shoe there and heading onto the run it was Charles-Barclay who had a narrow advantage, with Learmonth, Waugh and Knibb locked together in second, third and fourth.

That didn’t last long as Learmonth just dropped slightly off the pace.

The other three stuck together for a while but Waugh snapped the elastic when she ramped up the pace on the second of five laps.

And the most damage was done to Knibb who was never a threat from then on, even though she kept on well in third.

Waugh looked brilliant up front on the third and fourth laps but Charles-Barclay was hanging tough in second and the gap started to drop.

LCB had paced it brilliantly and her mindset was shown when she was hyping up the crowd going through the start / finish area ahead of the last lap as she had Waugh in sight.

And there was no messing with the overtake on the final lap – straight past and powering clear.

It meant she was able to relish a famous win on home roads, which potentially sets up an incredible second half of the year as she also looks to defend her Kona crown.

T100 London results – Pro women

Saturday August 9, 2025 – 2km/80km/18km