It's pure fantasy. He's a second tier pro, at least right now. He got some media time as the serious contenders let him dangle up front.

Again, the result says what he is: 9th. I could see maybe creating a comforting tale about how bold and tactical he might have been had he held on for 2nd and 3rd, and not been caught until late. But he was caught early, and a whole stream of guys went right by him with no difficulty, and Wurf's splits got slower with every mile. He never had a chance to win. Wurf either had to get to T2 with around a 20-minute lead or get there with some evidence that the contenders were somehow forced into burning matches to keep the gap at 7-8 minutes. There was no evidence. Wurf was the one who cracked early in the run, even relative to his own running standards. So he burned matches to get around 1/3 of the time gap he needed to have a chance. The contenders looked strong deep into the run. There's no hint, that I can see, that Wurf was dictating terms of the race to Lange or anyone else.

I get the attitude from a former bike racer. In bike racing sometimes if you get up the road early, you can beat better riders. Sometimes good things happen if the chase riders don't organize, or take you too lightly.

But triathlon, though it has some tactics, is much more of a time trial than mass-start bike racing.