Derron podiums, Byram fourth in T100 Las Vegas
Lucy Byram claimed 4th place at the T100 Las Vegas after serving a time penalty. The BMC athlete pushed her way to second place during the second half of the bike segment, battling it out on the run. She eventually crossed the finish line with a time of 3:45:27. Taylor Knibb (USA; 3:37:03) won the race convincingly, with BMC-athlete Julie Derron (SUI; 3:39:17) and Flora Duffy (BER; 3:44:04) completing the podium.
Byram approached her fifth T100 event with confidence, coming off a strong 2nd place finish at Challenge Beijing a month ago. That confidence was immediately justified as Lucy exited the water as part of the first chase group, battling for 5th place. Exiting T1 on her bike, she was trailing the leaders by 1’25.
As Knibb took off at the front, Byram started to close the gap on the athletes ahead of her. Just before catching up around the 17k mark, Lucy had to serve a one-minute time penalty for alleged drafting. She dropped back from 5th to 7th place but wasn’t fazed by the situation. She immediately found her rhythm again and began to make up lost time. Around the 35k mark, Byram caught up with Findlay in 5th position, 1’30 behind second place. It was in the back half of the bike segment that the 25-year-old made her move. She overtook 3rd place at the 50k mark and began chasing Derron in 2nd. In the final 20k, Lucy caught up with Derron. The BMC athlete pushed the pace further toward T2, opening a gap of 30 seconds as she dismounted her bike in 2nd place. With a time of 2:01:55 over 80k, the British athlete posted the second-fastest bike split of the day.
On the run, Derron soon overtook Lucy. Byram kept her pace as high as possible on the hilly, punchy run course but couldn’t prevent Duffy from passing her. With about 6k to go, Lucy had to settle for fourth place. She held a solid grip on that position, maintaining a gap of more than three minutes over 5th place. Eventually, Lucy Byram crossed the line in a time of 3:45:27, earning herself an impressive 4th place. This result moved her to 7th place in the season standings, heading into the final event in Dubai.
Getting Stronger
Afterward, Lucy reflected on her fourth-place finish: “I’m really happy with finishing fourth today. It’s my best result of this series so far. The swim was tough, but it felt good to exit the water in the first chase group. Unfortunately, I had to serve a penalty. I think I got the penalty on the hill, where Paula passed me, and I didn’t drop back enough, even though we were going uphill. I guess I’ll just need to learn to drop back quicker. The run was obviously really hard, suffering through every lap and trying to finish as fast as possible. Things and results in this series are heading in the right direction for me. I feel like I’m getting stronger overall. Not necessarily faster, but I’m fading less.”
Derron's second T100 race
BMC-ambassador Derron was very pleased after a back-to-back second place in the T100 triathlon series. She said: "My second T100 Triathlon race, and another second-place finish. I made the most of a last-minute call-up to race in Lake Las Vegas."
"The course was incredibly challenging and a true grind to the finish line, but I’m very pleased to have stayed strong and delivered another solid performance. Congratulations to Taylor Knibb for another victory and Flora Duffy on securing her first T100 podium."
