Learmouth and Coldwell are the mega swimmers in women's ITU, Learmonth leads any swim she's in.

LCB drilling it. Streeeeeeeeeetch.

Watching Charles drilling the swim and creating some serious gaps. When was the last time a long course athlete put ITU athletes under any kind of pressure at the standard distance?

Very impressive so far.

Love to see the gaps on the bike.

Wow, can't believe how quickly Learmonth, Coldwell and Kingma gapped the other 3.

How far ahead was LCB on the swim and what happened in transition?

41 secs on swim. Lost a bit on the run to transition then gapped by Learmouth, Kingma and Caldwell on first hill.

Crazy she couldn't keep up in the blow-dry! /s

LCB is burning too many matches in that group. Not unexpected given her inexperience.

However Duffy bridging up is gonna help things for her. Could get a little smoother.

If she doesn't drop them!

Taylor is really looking like the choice.

Yeah, she lost 30 seconds on the first hill, didn't expect that. It kind of seems as if she struggles to stay on the wheels when Duffy is pulling. Exciting race so far.

Looks like just a matter of time before she is dropped..

She is dangling precariously just now. Possibly the next lap on the uphill to the dead turn. Flora was generous on this lap.

Right on cue!

I tend to agree. Lucy is doing better than I had expected.

Would have never guessed that Duffy is a stronger cyclist than Charles. Kind of ironic, that it if wasn't a draft legal bike, the long course athlete would have been dropped by the short course cyclist. On the other hand, if it wasn't for swim draft maybe the long course swimmer would have opened a gap to the short course swimmers.

It's a different kind of strong. W/kg rather than W/CdA.

Seriously impressed with LCB cycling strength and how she is contributing to the pack when she can. Obviously, challenging on the technical sections and having to work extra hard out of every corner, but really showing her prowess. Riding with Flora, Taylor and Vittoria is incredible. Guessing it will show itself on the run, just how much she worked on the bike. REALLY feel for Katie Z. Taylor is making a clear statement.

of course this isnt to ironic its just a different game. and i guess you remember the worlds in nice where charles was picked up relatively early by the group behind her.
watts per kilo and being good at exhalerations and trained pack cyclist vs high watt athlete not trained on group rides and not the best in climbing in long course.
i think she is doing very well.

Relative to slowtwitch expectation she's taking a sledgehammer to y'alls faces. Not expecting her to win, had no idea how this would go, only that she wouldn't get embarrassed.

---

Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

I'm impressed with LCB. Keep thinking she'll get dropped, gaps appearing when the course gets technical, but she is holding on with pure strength. Hope she has some run legs after this!

Got to fancy Sophie for the win now.

Not my face mate, fancied her (and still do) for top 10 which would be one hell of a result in your first ITU race. I'll admit though I've kept thinking she was dropped, only to see her pull up again. Some strength.

She has some potential in this sport ;-)

I am stoked for her. I hope she comes back for more.