German star Rico Bogen backed up his pre race battle cry to ‘Stop Hayden!’ and became a back-to-back champion at the Sokin T100 San Francisco Triathlon. Racing on the iconic Escape From Alcatraz course, which he seems to relish, Bogen demolished the rest of the field on the bike and then held off compatriot Lasse Nygaard Priester on the run.
Priester impressing with a superb race to finish second on his T100 debut and complete a German one-two ahead of PTO World #1 Hayden Wilde (NZL), who finished third despite struggling with illness in the build up.
In the week, Bogen was asked his race tactics: “Stop Hayden!” he’d said. “I think if you want to win, you have to stop Hayden.”
Having left T1 at roughly the same time, Bogen proceeded to pull out a massive five minute gap on the defending T100 series champion, which set him up nicely to run it home for the win.
The win puts Bogen third in the T100 Race To Qatar behind Jake Birtwhistle (AUS) and Hayden Wilde (NZL), with two races down and three to go. Athletes are able to choose their best three finishes plus the Qatar T100 Triathlon World Championship Final.
Next up for the men is Ekoï French Riviera T100 on 19 September. While the women return to action at the Vancouver T100 on 15-16 August.
Key Quotes
WInner: Rico Bogen (GER)
On the race: “I thought ‘this is my course’, so I had to do it right. It’s so great to be back on the podium.”
On Priester pushing him on the bike: “He’s a great runner, so I had to push really deep on the bike. I thought maybe I’m destroying myself, and last year I pushed even harder, but I went ahead. I felt I had good run legs, so I felt quite good that I could hold a gap to Lasse.”
On Priester’s penalty: “Yeah, I heard it on the third lap that he had a penalty, and then I thought, I have a one minute thirty gap, and then the 30 seconds penalty, so I thought the gap was big enough.”
On having run legs after pushing so hard on the bike: “Yeah, it’s a little bit riskier, but I hoped for good run legs. On the bike I thought my legs are really tired already, but yeah, running is a different kind of muscle, so I had good run legs, and it was good that I could hold on.”
Second: Lasse Nygaard Priester (GER)
On his penalty: “I think I had a penalty in T2 for leaving my socks out of the box. I realised it 200 metres later.”
On the race: “In general, I’m very happy with the race, especially the bike. I did everything I wanted. I really tried not to hide and go for it. At some point, I was also looking behind and realising the gap is getting bigger, so, yeah, I started the run and I felt quite controlled for second place. I hoped to get in touch with Rico at some point, but I had the penalty.”
“With such a tough bike course, I think it was really one of my best rides. I mean, I never bike that hard, and it was really a different and new experience.”
“I feel like my run is not where it has been this year. The whole race from the start to the end was quite hard, and I hope to improve a little bit from here.”
On being up against Bogen on the bike: “I managed to catch up again and again in the flat, but I think I burned some matches there. I almost rode one hour 20 solo, and I don’t know how the gap was, and he had 2.30. For me, that’s an improvement. I think Rico’s one of the best in the sport on the bike.”
On the course, and escaping from Alcatraz:
“I escaped for one second, and then my goggles went off! But, yeah, I managed to stay in the top five or whatever it was, and with a good transition, that was mainly what it was about.”
On racing in San Francisco:
“There was very amazing scenery. It was something special. It’s you and everyone sitting there on the bus. You feel the nerves, the tension. But yeah, it was a really, really great experience and I’m very thankful for that.”
Third: Hayden Wilde (NZL)
On the race:“It was a tough day out there, just battling all day. To be fair, full respect to Rico, I think even on a good day, it would have been damn hard to beat him today. He was pushing it up there in the front and there was not much I could do out there. The only thing I could really do was just be smart and just get as super aero as possible because I just wasn’t pushing the power I wanted to. I turned around and had a good run.”
On his illness:“It’s frustrating because I was in great form getting into the last two weekend races. It is what it is and it’s just how you bounce back and get into it.”
Getting on the podium:“I wanted to come respect the race, and I know that if I didn’t turn up, it was going to be hard to defend the title. So honestly, I’m actually pretty happy with the podium. I wasn’t expecting too much today and it puts me in a good position here to get to the Qatar final, and I can’t complain about that.”
HOW THE RACE UNFOLDED
Diving from the San Francisco Spirit into the cold, iron-grey water between Alcatraz prison and the shore, a front group of nine edged away from the others during the 2km swim. Morgan Pearson (USA) was first to start the long run from the beach to T1, leaving the water in 17:42 and picking up the pace on the 700m barefoot sprint to his bike. That leading group, including Leo Bergere (FRA), Lasse Nygaard Priester (GER) and Rico Bogen (GER) held a buffer of around 30 seconds to 2025 T100 World Champion, Hayden Wilde (NZL).
Once out on the challenging six-lap bike course, defending champion Bogen soon came to the fore, breaking away uphill to escape the competition. Bogen was initially followed closely by Nygaard Priester – a T100 rookie coming back to competition after a heart issue, but known as one of the sport’s swiftest runners.
Nygaard Priester eventually dropped off his compatriot’s wheel, losing 30 seconds by 35km in. He was still making time on the rest but with a 30-second penalty to serve on the run due to ‘equipment outside the box’ in T1. Meanwhile, Bogen had nearly two minutes to Wilde, who’d moved up from 10th out-the-water to 3rd.
With 20km to go, Bogen’s lead was still increasing, the German holding over a minute on Nygaard Priester and over 3:30 to Wilde, the Kiwi leading the Aussie pair of Jake Birtwhistle and Kevin McDonald, followed by Henry Räppo (EST) and Bergere despite the latter having served a one-minute drafting penalty. Pearson was next-best in 8th place, 40 seconds behind that group but nearly five minutes behind Bogen.
By the time Bogen dismounted at T2 and racked his bike in the empty transition, his lead was 2:33 to Nygaard Priester (with that penalty still to serve), with Wilde at 5:41, Bergere at 5:46 and McDonald in 5th at 6:08 back but with the run specialists sure to be on the hunt behind.
With half the 18km run in the bag, Bogen’s lead was just under two minutes, Nygaard Priester looking set in 2nd place despite the penalty with a buffer of over three minutes to Wilde, who himself had a lead of nearly two minutes to a group of Pearson, Birtwhistle, McDonald and Bergere with Jason West (USA) storming up the field behind.
Even with his penalty, Nygaard Priester continued to whittle away the time to Bogen, but the defending champion had executed his race plan perfectly. Coming into the finishing straight that’s seen him claim 3rd and 1st, he checked off his back-to-back win in San Francisco, coming home in 3:17:25 with a 17:54 swim, 1:55:34 bike and 1:00:35 run.
Nygaard Priester showed a spectacular debut, cementing himself as one to watch for the rest of the year, just 1:06 behind his countryman in the end with a 3:18:30 finish. Wilde took 3rd place, 3:49 after Bogen, pushing valiantly despite illness in the run-up to the race to complete the podium in 3:21:13.
The Americans rounded out the top five on home soil with Pearson clocking the day’s fastest run of 58:15 and Jason West, moving up from 14th to 5th with a superb 58:17 run on the heels of his countryman.