Vincent Luis dominated his return to racing, topping the podium at the World Triathlon Championship Series in Bermuda.

 

Luis was back in fine form after overcoming a running-related injury that saw him miss most racing through mid-2022. Racing the Olympic distance, the two-time world champion led out the 1.5-kilometre swim onto the 40-kilometre bike leg. He pushed the lead group of eight in a breakaway from the chase pack, extending their advantage by 42 seconds by the time they hopped off their bikes. It was on the 10-kilometre run Luis showed his experience over the distance: he settled into his pace over the first two of 2.5-kilometre laps, then turned up the speed over the final two laps to break the tape 10 seconds ahead of the rest of the podium.

 

He said post-race, “Last year I thought I was done and then I got injured again, but still I’m surrounded by amazing people who believe in me so I just had to believe in myself as the minimum I could do… When you have Alex Yee and Kristian Blummenfelt behind you, you never know what might happen, and I had zero expectation for my run, so I’m just really happy for myself. I knew I had to be careful with the pace and make sure I had another bullet left for the last lap.”

 

Tyler Mislawchuk was in a good position on the bike leg, but unfortunately on lap 3 of 4 hit a pothole and sustained damage to his bike which forced his withdrawal.

 

Bahrain Victorious 13 teammate Kristian Blummenfelt pushed the pace within the chase pack, his valiant effort rewarded with a sixth-place finish 30 seconds behind Luis. After winning the Ironman 70.3 world championship last week and taking third place at the Ironman world championship last month, the Norwegian is building back into short-course form. He said, “Sort of happy with the result with last month in mind, but hope to be further up and fight for the Grand Final win in three weeks.”

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