It was a two-peat for Cassandre Beaugrand in Yokohama as she crashed out for the second year in a row. On a wet day in Japan, the bike course had to be modified for safety, but it wasn’t enough to save Beaugrand from a DNF at the World Triathlon Championship Series (WTCS) race.
Beaugrand held her own in the beginning with a strong swim at the front of the chase pack, but she was obviously struggling on the bike and fell off the pack at one point before catching the back of what had become a massive lead group of 32 athletes. Coming out of a wet corner, she lost control and went down. After a few tense moments on camera where she laid on the ground with no signs of getting up, she eventually made it off the course and called it a day.
She later reported on social media that she’d not suffered any broken bones, as she displayed a giant abrasion running the length of her forearm. Perhaps next year will bring the promise of “the third time’s the charm,” if she returns. For her first WTCS race of the year it was a disappointing result, especially given the 2024 Paris Olympic gold medallist has completely dominated so far this season with wins at the Supertri E World Championship and T1 Indoor Triathlon World Cup.
She revealed post-race on Instagram that she’d lacked energy from the start of the race and had lost focus at the moment of the crash.
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A surprise win in the women’s field
The other surprise of the day was Jeanne Lehair taking the win. The athlete from Luxembourg was not favoured to win against contenders like Great Britain’s Beth Potter, Germany’s Lisa Tertsch, America’s Gwen Jorgensen, and German’s Annika Koch, who rounded up the top five in that order. Lehair looked stunned herself as she grabbed the tape and reacted to her first WTCS win.
Lehair was at the front from the start, swimming up at the front and riding in the lead pack on the bike, then taking full control from the group on the run. She was out of T2 and on a mission, never looking back as the battle for second and third was shaking out behind her. It was a tight dual between Potter and Tertsch, who were only seconds back from Lehair. But in the end it was Potter who claimed silver, only four seconds behind Lehair. Tertsch secured third, only two seconds from Potter, with Jorgensen closing in on fourth about 10 seconds back in her own battle with Koch right on her heels.
A tight battle on the run in the men’s field
There was just as much excitement in the men’s field, which was ultimately triumphed by Australia’s Matt Hauser who had to fight hard on the run for the win. It was Hauser’s first WTCS Olympic distance race, and it definitely put him to the test, with plenty of pressure from Portugal’s Vasco Vilaca and Brazil’s Miguel Hidalgo. To take the win, Hauser had to pull out a final surge to sprint past Vilaca in the final stretch.
Defending champion and uber runner, American Morgan Pearson was never in contention on the run as he’d missed the front pack on the bike, which was made up of 23 athletes who rode to a two-minute-and-40-second-gap rolling into T2. After the first of four laps on the run, the top five were Hauser, Vilaca, Hidalgo, Frances’ Leo Bergere and Canada’s Charles Paquet.
Paquet dropped first and would finish in 10th. Bergere dropped next, but rallied to finish in fourth. Frances’ Dorian Conix rounded out the top five, with Canada’s Tyler Mislawchuk falling just shy by a mere two seconds, finishing in sixth place.
The wild and wet race kicks off a weekend packed with races. Next up is a busy weekend for Ironman and the Pro Series, and Challenge’s The Championship. Stay tuned for more action!
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