The 2022 Super League Triathlon Championship Series headed to Toulouse and what an event it was!
At a brand new venue and in front of triathlon-mad French fans there was again drama aplenty as favourites Georgia Taylor-Brown and Hayden Wilde emerged as impressive winners.
GTB’s bike handling skills on the technical course again put her in pole position but there’s nothing between her and runner-up Taylor Spivey going into the final showdown in NEOM, which really is a winner-takes-all clash.
Wilde meanwhile looks to have the men’s title sewn up – he just needs to finish 13th or better – and he underlined his dominance by having time to pick up an inflatable shark before the line!
Matt Hauser again had more than his fair share of bad luck but battled on bravely to take fourth and keep the race alive, at least mathematically.
Where and when to watch
The racing took place on Sunday October 2, 2022.
Our explainer gave you the full details, with the women’s race getting underway at 1308 local time (1208 UK time, 0708 Eastern Standard Time), followed by the men at 1420 (1320 UK, 0820 Eastern Standard Time).
You can watch it again via the embedded video above and this live blog featured interviews and insights from athletes and managers as well as regular video updates from Mark and Lucy Buckingham.
The format and venue
Athletes took on the Triple Mix format which saw them race three times, in three different racing formats:
- Stage One – Swim, Bike, Run
- Stage Two – Run, Bike, Swim
- Stage Three – Bike, Swim, Run **
(** starts in pursuit style, based upon times from the first two events)
There’s little time for recovery either, with the ‘rest’ times between the stages being just two minutes (S1-2) and four minutes (S2-3), respectively.
The swim distance each leg will be 300m, the bike comprises of four laps for a total of 4km, while the run course will use exactly the same circuit as the bike loop (1km), and so for stage one and stage two, the run sections will be just one lap but the final stage three (Bike-Swim-Run) will finish with a two-lap (2km) run.
The 90-second rule is in play. So any athlete that falls 90 seconds or more off the leader’s pace at the end of any individual lap is shown the Yellow Elimination Flag and is out of the race.
