Australia’s Felicity Sheedy-Ryan and Great Britain’s Matthew Sharp win 2011 Geneva ITU Triathlon European Cup

Australia’s Felicity Sheedy-Ryan rode herself in to a position to take the race after coming from a deficit in the swim. Almost 3/4 minute down on the lead swim pack, Sheedy-Ryan put in a fast bike to bridge the gap and set herself up for a chance to win the race on the run. Radka Vodickova from Czechoslovakia was second and Rebecca Kingsford from New Zealand was third.

Australia’s Charlotte McShane finished a solid seventh and Ashlee Bailie was fourteenth. New Zealand’s Tanya Dromgool finished eighth.

In the men’s race Matthew Sharp came out of the water with the lead swim pack but they were all down on Richard Varga who had swum away on his own to have a 30 second lead over the field out on to the bike. It didn’t take the bunch long to reel Varga in but he ran well off the bike to finish fourth overall. Sharp managed to finish with a twenty second gap after putting in a solid 33:26 run split. New Zealand’s James Elvery was second and Alberto Casadei from Italy was third.

Australia’s Mitch Robins paid the price for missing the lead swim bunch and even a 32:34 run, almost a minute faster than Sharp, could not get him past fifth. Robins came out of the water around 40 seconds off the leaders and rode in the main pack behind the leaders. “It was always going to be a hard race and a good test of my swimming progress, with some of the worlds best triathlon swimmers Varga, Amberger, Salvisberg Brothers racing. I got out of the water with the main group, less the 40seconds behind the leaders, which I was happy with, but there is still plenty of work to be done in the pool.”

Disorganisation amongst this pack meant that they did not bridge the gap and saw the leaders put more time on them on the bike. Robins entered the run well down on the leaders. “I headed out on the run with a pretty big task at hand, and the first lap of 2.5 was FAST. I wasn’t feeling great like I had in training last week, but I just tried to keep pushing for the front and keep my eyes up the road. I started to pick up the guys from the front group at about 5kms, but in the end I just ran out of road. I was less then a minute from 1st and only 12seconds from 3rd, which was extremely frustrating and too close for my liking. I had the fastest run again to leave me with a 5th place at the finish, but still (& always) work to be done.”

James Seear finished ninth after an unusually slow 35 minute run. Seear was placed well with the leaders out on to the run.