Taylor Knibb blitzes world class field in Ibiza T100 triathlon – World Triathlon

Taylor Knibb became Ibiza T100 Triathlon Champion, taking her second T100 victory from two race starts to underline her once-in-a-generation talent among an incredibly strong women’s pro field.
While Knibb was a class apart, Olympic silver medallist, Julie Derron, showed she could be the one to challenge the American, with a strong second-place finish marred by a 1min drafting penalty on the bike. The last spot on the podium was secured by breakthrough Miami T100 Triathlon winner India Lee, who overcame the disappointment of a weekend before in Nice to show her class in Ibiza.

Speaking at the finish Knibb said: “You always want to execute the best of your ability on any given day and you wanna do the best you can on any given day so each race counts.” On the next race in Lake Las Vegas, she added with a smile: “Yes I am excited to race at home with a less than 2-hour flight.”

T100 first-timer, Julie Derron, said: “I am super happy, I didn’t know what to expect. It was pretty tough to get back into the swing of things after the Olympics and I am super pleased I had a good day out there.”

India Lee spoke about coming back from the struggles that saw her DNF the previous weekend at the IM world champs in Nice: “I was so motivated to prove that I had put in all the work for this week and I didn’t want it to be a waste of time so to pull off a solid result I am really chuffed with.”

How It Unfolded

As the pro women dived into the sea off Ibiza’s beautiful Figueretas Beach, Olympic power in the front swim pack came from the USA’s Taylor Spivey and 2020 Olympic Champion Flora Duffy along with Miami T100 winner India Lee and Sara Perez Sala, followed by San Francisco T100 Champion Taylor Knibb.

Spivey was first out the water but before long – and as all pundits predicted – it was Taylor Knibb who took charge, extending her lead throughout the 80km bike course while India Lee established herself in clear 2nd place.

The lead of the chase group was shared between Olympic silver medallist Julie Derron and 3-time Canadian Time Trial Champion Paula Findlay and Imogen Simmonds.

55km in, Derron was handed a 1-minute penalty for drafting, which the Swiss athlete had to serve at the next penalty tent. Meanwhile, multiple T100 Champion Ashleigh Gentle made it inside the top 10.

By the end of the bike, Knibb had a lead of 3:13 to Lee, who in turn earned an advantage of 2mins to Simmonds, Byram, Derron and Findlay.

Such was Knibb’s lead that by the time Gentle came off the bike 10-minutes back, Knibb had already lapped her fellow T100 Champion.

Meanwhile, Derron showed the foot speed that earned her an Olympic Silver medal. As the fastest on the course, the Swiss talent was quickly into 3rd and munching through her deficit to Lee to take 2nd by the halfway mark in the 18km run.

From there Derron continued to make up time on Knibb, but the top step of the podium seemed out of reach. Gentle, having un-lapped herself was blitzing through the field, moving up from 9th out of T2 to 4th place.

Knibb’s victory was assured, however, the US superstar taking two T100 victories from two starts this year, she crossed the line in 03:30:03 to earn 35 points and $25,000. She now sits in 3rd in the T100 Standings after only 2 races.

Julie Derron claimed second on debut with the day’s fastest bike split (01:00:48), earning 28 points and $16,000.

India Lee held strong to round out the podium, adding 25 points to her tally, taking home $12,000 and moving to 3rd in the T100 standings.

Gentle, 4th in Ibiza, maintains her grip on top of the T100 Standings, but, like Lee, has a full compliment of scoring races to her name. Meanwhile, ever-consistent Paula Findlay secured 5th place and is 6th in the T100 Standing.