The Bahrain Victorious 13 team delivered a dominant performance at T100 Vancouver, with Taylor Knibb and Jelle Geens claiming gold and Marten Van Riel securing silver.
Both Knibb and Geens rebounded strongly after their runner-up finishes in San Francisco two weeks ago, powering their way back onto the top step of the podium with emphatic wins.
Knibb, whose unbeaten streak in the Series ended in San Francisco, bounced back with a commanding display that played perfectly to her strengths. Emerging from the two-kilometre swim just seven seconds behind the leader, the American unleashed the fastest bike split over 80 kilometres, with only one athlete able to hold her wheel.
On the 18-kilometre run, Knibb never looked back, extending her lead to cross the line solo in 3:30:50.
“You want to race the best and expose yourself and find weaknesses and learn from them,” she said. “I talked to my coach after San Francisco and he said it would be tough, but based on how I said I felt, he said we could make some adjustments.”
In the men’s race, Geens emerged from the swim in the chase pack, with fellow Belgian Van Riel among the leaders. When a drafting penalty disrupted the front group midway through the bike leg, Geens seized the opportunity to bridge the gap. By T2, he had closed to within 31 seconds of Van Riel.
The final 10 kilometres became a head-to-head battle between the two Bahrain Victorious 13 athletes. With eight kilometres to go, Geens surged ahead and never looked back, clocking 3:12:49 to take the win. Van Riel followed 49 seconds later for a strong silver finish.
“The boys made it a very honest race, but I’m very happy to come away with the win,” said Geens. “I knew I had to pace myself, not give up. My strength is the run, so I just focused on keeping the gap close enough to make my move — and it paid off.”
