France's Vincent Luis was a surprise winner of the World Triathlon Series Grand Final in Rotterdam as he won a thrilling race in the Netherlands and he spoke to The Sportsman in the wake of his famous victory...
"I didn't expect that!" exclaimed Luis. "I had a stress fracture straight after Abu Dhabi so I have had to rest for a few months and realised I would have to take my time and maybe go 'all in' for the Grand Final... It paid off!"
Luis was involved in an enthralling race as he kept in touch with the leading swim group, with Richard Varga first out of the water for the 33rd time in WTS events and for the fourth time in the past five Grand Finals.
Jonathan Brownlee was then conducting the lead bike group, with Richard Murray, Mario Mola, Kristian Blummenfelt and Luis all in contention, although Henri Schoeman lost his way due to a flat tyre.
Luis admitted that he felt strong during the bike leg, "I felt really good on the bike and tried to break away two or three times, before settling in and focusing on the run."
It was Blummenfelt who came out of Transition 2 fastest and a strong pack of five were then battling for superiority on the run, which is where Luis would eventually emerge victorious.
"From about 9km on the run I was telling myself to 'be patient, be patient' and then I was asking myself to accelerate," Luis revealed. "There is a lot of pressure when you are racing guys like Gomez and Mola, who have won so many world titles, but then I just focused on working harder than them and beating them. I'm delighted!"
Luis finished ahead of Kristian Blummenfelt of Norway, with Mario Mola coming in third to secure his second successive World Championship title.
Defending world champion, Mola, needed to finish fifth or better to guarantee becoming only the second athlete to win back-to-back world titles and he duly delivered after producing arguably his best swim of the season so far. Javier Gomez followed him in fourth and Jonny Brownlee came in fifth after running out of steam on the bike leg.
Brownlee had a tough day at the office as he also lost his goggles during the swim and he told The Sportsman after the race that it just hadn't been his day.
