Lauren Parker took the silver medal at the UCI Paracycling Road World Championships in Zurich last Thursday, kicking off a busy weekend of racing for the Bahrain Victorious 13 team.
The Australian para athlete came straight off a cruise ship holiday celebrating her dual Paris Paralympic gold medals to log the day’s second-fastest handcycle time over 18.8 kilometres, finishing only 10 seconds adrift of the winner.
Onwards to Weihai the following day, Georgia Taylor-Brown won bronze at the inaugural World Triathlon Championship Series race in the Chinese city. It was her first WTCS podium since Cagliari last year before injury took her out of racing and nearly out of qualifying for the Paris Olympics.
“I said to myself I’d be so happy to just get back on that podium and prove to myself that I can still do it. It’s been a bit rough and I’ve been disappointed since the Olympics and not felt in my groove and rhythm, but super happy with that performance today,” Taylor-Brown said. “It has been a long road getting back to fitness and feeling like myself and I'm just happy to be racing, not [sitting] at home watching!”
Kate Waugh raced shoulder-to-shoulder with Taylor-Brown throughout the Olympic-distance course and finished two steps down in fifth.
In the men’s race, Vincent Luis was back at the pointy end of the race coming out of the swim in second, riding in the lead pack, and ran to the finish in fifth – his highest placing in a WTCS race in more than a year. Hayden Wilde placed 7th with the day’s second-fastest run helping to claw back time lost in the chase pack. Max Stapley finished 11th just 45 seconds later.
On Saturday Alistair Brownlee placed fourth at the T100 Triathlon Ibiza. After losing a few places serving a one-minute standing penalty for drafting on the bike, he rode and ran back up the field to finish exactly a minute after third place. Further down the field, Max Neumann logged a DNF after the bike leg. In the women’s race, Kat Matthews backed up her silver medal at the Ironman World Championships with a 13th place finish.
Back home in South Africa Henri Schoeman put on an exhibition at the Jozi Triathlon, topping the Olympic distance category.
To conclude Bahrain Victorious 13’s racing week, on Sunday Joe Skipper finished seventh at Ironman Chattanooga where adverse weather conditions from Hurricane Helene caused the cancellation of the swim.
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