Frenchman Léo Bergere gave the crowd what they came for as he took his first Super League Series win of the year in Toulouse, France.
Jonny Brownlee made it two silvers from two SLT starts, while South Africa's Henri Schoeman rounded the podium out for bronze.
Hayden Wilde, in his first SLT race back since a bike crash before the Paris Test Event, finished fourth having made an error on the final bike stage.
What happened in the 2023 SLT Toulouse men's race?
Stage 1 of the Triple Mix – a 300m swim, 5km bike and a 1.6km run – went to reigning World Triathlon champion Bergere, followed by Brownlee in second just 5secs back, ahead of Kristian Blummenfelt and Wilde.
The second stage – run, bike, swim – then saw a switch as US athlete Seth Rider just nudged Wilde for first. Brownlee was fifth, Blummefelt 11th.
The accumulated times from Stages 1 and 2 saw the pursuit-start line-up for Stage 3 (a bike, swim, run after a 4min rest) topped by Bergere who had 2secs on Wilde, 3secs on Brownlee and 4secs on Rider.
What happened to Hayden Wilde in Toulouse?
Bergere and Wilde got the jump on Brownlee, racing alongside Schoeman, pulling out 12secs by the swim.
But disaster for Wilde who thought there was another bike lap to do – the 1 board was showing for the lapped athletes –ploughing through transition as Bergere switched to the swim. The error put him back with Blummenfelt, 24secs down.
Schoeman had a characteristically superb final swim to pull up to Bergere in the lead, but as soon as the run course kicked off Bergere was gone. Schoeman also lost out to Brownlee, who could see his second SLT silver in a row ahead of him.
As Bergere took his short chute for winning the first round, he knew victory was in the bag.
"I think I made the right choices through the three stages today, and I can't thank my captain Tim Don enough, and my Eagle teammates," said Bergere. "I'm really disappointed Hayden and I didn't have the battle we wanted, though."
"Another tough one," said Brownlee at the line, "but Leo was too strong today. So much is about staying calm and getting around safely, but that was quite hard work today."
Toulouse SLT men's results
- Léo Bergere, FRA
- Jonny Brownlee, GBR
- Henri Schoeman, RSA
- Hayden Wilde, NZL
- Daniel Dixon, GBR
- Kenji Nener, JPN
- Kristian Blummnefelt, NOR
- Chase McQueen, USA
- Matt Hauser, AUS
- Roberto Sanchez, ESP
Brownlee now leads the championship with two races to go; the next one is in Malibu on 30 September.
Top image credit: Super League Triathlon
