French and British victories at Super League Triathlon Munich

Germany’s first ever Super League event took place over the weekend at Munich’s Olympiapark, the home of the 1972 Olympics. Fresh from the first race of the series in London the weekend before where athletes raced the Triple Mix format, this round saw the 36 elites battle it out in ‘The Equalizer’.

The Equalizer commenced with an individual TT bike leg of 2.4km, designed to decide the starting order of competitors in the following Stage Two race.

Following this, Stage Two had the athletes sprint racing a 300m lake swim, followed by a flat and fast 3.6km bike and a 1.8km run, twice, back-to-back. On the men’s side, these final legs became a showdown between France’s short-course triathlon star, Vincent Luis and Great Britain’s long-time Olympian Jonny Brownlee.

Thanks to a Short Chute advantage which was tactically employed in the final stages, Luis pipped Brownlee to the post, the latter shortly followed across the line by Olympic silver medallist Alex Yee for a double-Brit podium.

This weekend’s win in Munich marks Luis’ first major victory of 2021, who said after the race: “I had to really dig deep on the swim to grab the Short Chute and I was pretty empty on the last bike and run. First feels a lot better than the second I got in London! I even thought about not using the Short Chute to set up a fair sprint with Jonny, yet he was strong on the run and attacked a few times, and I didn’t want to waste what I’d fought for on the swim.”

Controlling the women’s race from start to finish was the dominant Jess Learmonth, who seems to shine in the short-course high-pressure format. Adding another $20,000 first-place cheque to her wallet, Jess admits: “That certainly wasn’t easy and I needed that lead onto the final run as they were closing me down, I wanted to savour the race so I didn’t use the Short Chute until the very end. All I was thinking during the race was about cornering well, smashing it up the hill and descending well.”

Jess claimed a huge 11sec lead over Olympic silver medallist and training partner Georgia Taylor-Brown, with GB’s Beth Potter coming in third for another all-Brit women’s podium. Taylor-Brown later admitted to suffering from a lack of motivation leading up to the race: “To be completely honest, I was very unmotivated for the race. I just didn’t want to be there, my mind was elsewhere and I wasn’t ready to race but I still turned up, I committed, emptied the tank and I did the best I could for Team Scorpions”. What a performance from the young athlete, especially after a short yet packed season of racing and Olympic glory.

Next up, athletes will be heading to Jersey this coming weekend for round three of the four-race Super League series this month. Stay tuned.

Kate Milsom Freelance sports journalist

About

Kate Milsom is 220 Triathlon's former staff writer. She's a keen endurance triathlete, marathon runner, and bikepacker and her interests include cycling, nutrition and sports injury. Having previously bikepacked across Europe solo, Kate advocates for adventure and inclusivity within sport.