Tanner Best Of The Kiwis In Hamburg

Hamburg turned on huge crowds and plenty of rain in race five of the ITU Dextro Energy Triathlon World Championship Series this morning as Aussie world number one Emma Moffatt won for the third time this year.

Once again it was American Hayley Piersol who led out of the water, the former World Championship medalist in the pool showed the swim speed that made her just the third women in history to go sub 16 minutes for 1500m to lead by 45 seconds into transition one.

Kiwis Debbie Tanner and Nicky Samuels emerged in the second chase group onto the 40km bike but with the heavens opening the Hamburg course began to resemble a skating rink and the race quickly came together, helped by a heavy fall by Piersol early on the second lap that saw her big lead disappear as she remounted and resumed the race.

No sooner had the majority of the field found themselves in one large group however; the medal defining move came from Daniela Ryf (SUI), Lisa Norden (SWE) and world number one Emma Moffatt (AUS) as this classy trio slowly but surely rode away on a soaking wet course to establish a lead of 90 seconds as they entered transition two.

Tanner and Samuels were safely in the chase group off the bike but by now were running for the top ten at best with the podium well and truly up the road but neither would have that sort of run in them in the cold Hamburg conditions.

Tanner proved the best of the Kiwis in 14th, a little over 30 seconds outside the top five in a congested finish, reasonable points but again not the top ten that the Aucklander will have been looking for while Wanaka’s Samuels came home in 19th place.

ITU Dextro Energy Triathlon World Championship

Hamburg, Germany

Elite Women

Elite men start – Monday July 27th, 12.50am NZT