It was an elite field in Montreal with Spaniards Mario Mola, Javier Gomez and Fernando Alarza, and Brit Jonny Brownlee in the mix. With the Spanish making up the first three in the WTS rankings they have certainly been dominating the 2017 season but although he may not have a chance at the title Jonny Brownlee wanted a win and to start with it looked like everything was going his way.
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As predicted Richard Varga (SVK) led the non-wetsuit swim, followed by Brownlee and Ben Kanute (USA) with current WTS leader Mario Mola (ESP) 53secs behind the leaders when exiting the swim.
Aussie Aaron Royle joined the trio of Varga, Kanute and Brownlee out of T1 to form a leading group of four. However they were soon joined by Javier Gomez, Norwegian Kristian Blummenfelt and Seth Rider from USA.
Over the next nine bike laps this group of seven kept the lead between 40 and 55secs and entering T2 they were one minute ahead of the chasers.
Out on the run Gomez, Blummenfelt and Brownlee made their move and strode away from the remaining four. Then at 3km Gomez increased his pace, not wanting it to come down to sprint finish, and Blummenfelt and Brownlee were unable to respond. From then on a win for the 34 year old never looked in doubt and his winning time was 1:47:50.
Blummenfelt then strode away from Brownlee to take second place. While after some fantastic running South African Richard Murray made his way through the field up to fourth place and with just under 2km to go challenged and overtook Brownlee to take the final place on the podium.
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This 14th WTS victory from Javier Gomez was his meant he has become the oldest man to have won a WTS event.
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