Britain’s Lucy Byram admitted that a hip injury that stopped her run training heading into the PTO US Open gave her the mindset to achieve a career-best result of fourth place in Milwaukee.
“I've not been running for three weeks and didn’t know whether I'd be able to finish, so I just thought I'd attack the bike and see where I ended up,” the 23-year-old from Leeds admitted after the race.
Such was Byram’s firepower over the flat, fast, seven–lap 80km bike course in Wisconsin, that in a stellar field including Canadian time-trial champion Paula Findlay, only eventual champion Taylor Knibb rode faster.
It left the GB triathlete reaching T2 in a lofty second position and with Knibb 90sec up the road, it was only Australia’s Ashleigh Gentle and Findlay who were able to get the better of Byram over the 18km final leg as she held off Holly Lawrence for fourth.
“I managed to make it around the run, thankfully, so I'm really happy,” Byram, who started the sport with her twin sister, Erica, aged eight, added. “I definitely didn’t think I'd be able to hold off Holly at the end. With one lap [of five] to go she was only about 20sec behind and the last half lap I had to push really hard.”
Byram also thanked training partner Tom Bishop for the support around the course, after Bishop had been forced to abandon his own race the previous afternoon due to a mechanical issue on the bike.
“He was definitely helpful to keep me going,” she explained. “I could feel my hip a little bit but they kept cheering me on so it definitely helped.”
Byram was 10th out of the water in 29:06 before laying siege on the 80km bike leg, clocking 1:55:31, and closing the gap to breakaway leader Knibb in the final kilometres. Post-race, she was even thanked by Findlay for the late surge that helped the Canadian grab a time buffer on the rest of the field, and secure an eventual podium.
It was the latest result in a busy and impressive year Byram, an emerging talent, who has already won three races, Clash Miami, Challenge Puerto Varas in Chile and Challenge Wales in Swansea – a title she defended from 2022.
Having climbed the PTO rankings to No 36 heading into the race, the fourth place also earned her $15,000 and put the disappointment of a DNF in the PTO European Open in Ibiza behind her.
Byram’s coach, Jacob Tipper, said the result was a bonus although it didn’t wholly exceed expectations. “We’ve put loads of hard work in and I think it’s been coming,” Tipper said. “It was a matter of time. The numbers looked really strong over the winter, when training in Spain and aero testing afterwards.
“The game plan was just to start getting used to PTO events and the environment for next year. It was a chance to be aggressive on the swim and the bike and if she blew up it didn't really matter. Anything more was a bonus, but I had a suspicion we could also see a big result.
“In [the Challenge Championship] in Samorin [where Byram finished sixth] she probably should have had a better result but was not quite aggressive enough. This was a nice opportunity to show herself that she could get stuck into these races.”
Tipper said they will decide on the rest of the season depending how her hip feels post-Milwaukee, although Byram won’t be heading to the PTO Asian Open in Singapore and will also miss the Ironman 70.3 World Championship due to a clash with her brother’s wedding.
Top image credit: That Cameraman/PTO
