Taylor Knibb and Marten Van Riel both made it two wins out of two in the T100 this season in Ibiza to seemingly put themselves in pole position for the respective overall titles – but a quirk in the rules means they still have ground to make up.
When it was announced that a proposed T100 Grand Final – on top of the seven-race schedule – wouldn’t take place, the rules were slightly changed.
The best three scores plus the Grand Final (which was moved to Dubai) criteria remained but athletes who competed at the Olympics would be allowed to take their average score from two completed T100 races and count it as a ‘third’ event.
That was because there were only two races to come – Ibiza and Lake Las Vegas – before the revised final showdown in Dubai on 16-17 November.
So following Paris, the likes of former Olympic champion Flora Duffy, Taylor Spivey and Julie Derron, who won individual silver, just had to race Ibiza and Lake Las Vegas and then take an average score to count as their third ‘race’.
But the crucial bit of wording in the rule change was that it only applied to athletes “who had not yet competed in a T100 race” this season.
So Knibb and Van Riel, who both won in San Francisco before the Olympics, still had to compete in two more races rather than go down the average score route. And that came as news to plenty of people, seemingly including Jan Frodeno on the live comms!
More to come from Knibb?
With their heroics in Ibiza the pair both gain another 35 points and move onto 70 – which leaves Knibb 22 points behind Ashleigh Gentle in the women’s standings while Van Riel has just nine points to make up on Magnus Ditlev for the men.
But on current form they will be hard to beat in Lake Las Vegas and might well achieve the perfect 105 points tally before the Dubai shootout – and both displayed the mindsets of champions afterwards.
Despite her utterly dominant display, Knibb was focussed on the one or two areas that didn’t go quite perfectly.
She came to a near halt early on the swim and said: “I wouldn’t say it was total control. You could tell from my swim start that I thought, this is going to be rough. Somehow I caught the lead group after that, I don’t know how.
“And then on the bike my shoes were driving me nuts so I need to work on that. I need to work on the technical sections too as I learned I lost 20 seconds a lap.”
At the start of the run such was Knibb’s lead that she was a full lap (2.5km) ahead of Gentle who, until today, was the only woman to win two T100 races this season.
And the frightening news for Knibb’s rivals is that it sounds like there’s plenty more to come.
For she revealed that she was “super sick” for a week after the Olympics and spent most of it in bed, leaving her just five weeks to prepare for this, adding: “I have a lot of work to do as I haven’t had that consistency.”
‘All in’ for Vegas
Van Riel, who has now won all six of his middle-distance races, had adversity to overcome in his race as he and fellow leader Sam Laidlow went the wrong way at a roundabout early on the bike.
They both had to make a U-turn and then work their way back to the front of the race and he explained: “It almost went wrong. I saw a motorbike going straight and I kind of didn’t know that we had to go right to the finish area first. So I followed the motorbike and had to turn back and was last of the group again.
“And the boys made me really, really suffer on the bike. I was happy to be able to just hang on.
“So I came into T2 kind of not cooked, but I was definitely feeling it.”
What unfolded on the run was a great battle with Laidlow until Van Riel kicked clear with just over 3km to go.
He added: “Sam was really, really strong today and made me work for it. It was amazing to share a battle with a legend like Sam, the winner of T100 London and IRONMAN World Champion, one of the greatest in our sport. And to be able to take it in the end, that makes me even more happy.”
And he added: “It was my biggest goal before this year to become the first T100 champion, so I’m all in for it.
“And if I do my best in every single race that I’m on the start line and I keep getting good results like this, I’ll be very close. So, yeah, it’s definitely a goal.”
And asked why he’s so suited to the 100km distance, Van Riel said: “I have the perfect mix between speed and endurance. Naturally I’m quite a fast guy, but I still have endurance. So I’m the best of both worlds. For now, this format is perfect for me.”
