WTCS Cagliari 2022 results: Classy win for Georgia Taylor-Brown

Georgia Taylor-Brown added another WTCS win in Cagliari on Saturday to extend her lead in the 2022 Series.

Taylor Knibb had the extra factor on the bike, which dictated the outcome of the race in Sardinia, Italy.

Taylor-Brown benefited from Knibb’s hard work and then used her superior run strength to secure her third WTCS win of the season and extended her lead in the overall Series.

Knibb was rewarded with bronze as Beth Potter and Cassandre Beaugrand found themselves on the wrong side of the beak and too far back to factor in the medal positions.

Georgia Taylor-Brown WTCS Cagliari 2022 — Photo Credit: World Triathlon

Swim – Lopes leads the way

The beach run into the water split athletes up immediately. Beaugrand ran, dived and swam away from the rest in the choppy sea before Maya Kingma and Vittoria Lopes took over, particularly on the second lap.

Lopes was first to hit the timing mat after 1500m in 19:39 while Summer Rappaport, Beaugrand, Kingma and Sophie Coldwell and just about everybody else except Taylor Knibb, were bunched up with her. Potter and Taylor-Brown were 9th and 10th out, but there was really nothing separating them as they all burst into transition.

Bike – All aboard the Knibb train

The short transition was executed cleanly and quickly by everyone and a huge bunch left transition. The pace looked to be on from the start, but Knibb overcame a 30-second deficit from the swim and caught them by the third of 10 laps.

She hit the front, blew the pack apart on the fourth lap and it was a rare moment that she wasn’t on the front for the rest of the cycle leg. The British trio of Taylor-Brown, Coldwell and Waugh rode in the front group of 11 athletes, but Potter and Beaugrand were dropped.

By the time the leaders hit T2, the group had put 1 min 44 seconds into the chase group, which contained Potter and Beaugrand.

Run – GTB takes control

The group of 11 leaders were separated by no more than a second coming into transition, but it wasn’t long before Taylor-Brown hit the front along with Knibb and Emma Lombardi.

By the third of four laps, Taylor-Brown hit the front and stayed there to cross the line in front to claim another excellent victory in 2022.

She said: “I just tried to run my own race and tried to stay in contact with that bike group. Taylor made it really hard but it worked in our favour because we got a really good gap.

“I forgot how hard she rides, but it’s good, she really gets the group going and we’re all trying to hang on to her wheel.

“I started speaking to the girls on the first two laps (of the run), ‘lets work together because this could be the podium.'”

On extending her Series lead over Flora Duffy, who wasn’t there today, she said: “It’s all going to come down to Abu Dhabi now.”

Lombardi was delighted to win silver, her first ever WTCS medal, she said: “I’m really enjoying racing against the best in the world, it’s fantastic.”

Beaugrand ran up to eighth place and moved in to third position overall in the Series. Potter finished 10th, which moves her down one place to fourth in the Series.