There was a remarkable start to the women’s WTCS Grand Final in Torremolinos as Olympic champion and race favourite Cassandre Beaugrand went completely off course early in the swim as she attempted to add a world title to her Paris gold.
It started from the beach and featured two 750 metres laps in the sea – and it was on the very first of those that things went horribly awry for the woman who needs to finish in the first two to seal a maiden world title.
Wearing bib number one and starting on the extreme right, the Frenchwoman appeared to be sighting the wrong buoy and went from near the head of affairs to last of the 48 athletes before five minutes were even on the clock.
She realised her error in the nick of time – a safety jetski was by now near her – and later there would be a “protest for outside assistance”.
Mountain to climb
Beaugrand’s error meant she had to make a right-angled turn to ensure she went around the first buoy and at that point she was starting to get on the feet of the backmarkers.
But she still had a mountain to climb to get back into contention and to make matters worse the conditions were seriously choppy.
Exiting the water for the first time she was up to 30th place as Italy’s Bianca Seregni led the way, 30 seconds ahead of her.
But by the time the athletes finished the second lap and headed to transition, she had halved that deficit – she was up to 10th place and 15 seconds back, right alongside her biggest title rival Beth Potter.
The first transition then went well and she was ow up to eighth – and somehow made it into the front bike group.
That proved absolutely crucial as 12 women – including two of her rivals for the title, defending champ Beth Potter (GBR) and Emma Lombardi (FRA) – were able to then put distance between themselves and the rest.
By the end of the bike that dozen athletes had an advantage of nearly a minute and a half.
And then on the run it boiled down to a battle between the three title contenders – Beaugrand, Potter and Lombardi.
And as she has been for much of the season, Beaugrand was a class apart as she powered clear before the halfway point and never looked like being caught as she completed a remarkable last-to-first victory.
Protest drama
But there was more drama to come as the British Triathlon Federation lodged a protest, seemingly around the role of the safety jetski, with World Triathlon confirming the results were now pending due to a “protest for outside assistance”.
There was then a delay of more than an hour before the result was confirmed and the placings were left unaltered.
That meant Beaugrand sealed the world title for the first time in what has been a near-perfect season.
She won both her WTCS races (Cagliari and Hamburg) before her Olympic triumph on home soil.
But she suffered a hiccup last time out when she was disqualified in her first race since in France at supertri Toulouse for a bike helmet infringement.
