Jonny Brownlee wins in Hamburg, Alistair Brownlee second, Javier Gomez third
With both Brownlees and Gomez toeing the start line for the first time this season, the men’s race was a showdown between the Olympic podium.
Richard Varga (SLO) was soon stretching out the field over the fast 750m swim, leading out of the water in 8:42 with Henri Schoeman (RSA), Alistair and Jonny Brownlee hot on his heels along with Igor Polyanskiy. Javier Gomez was 10 seconds back.
At the start of the bike, the Brownlees were pulling hard at the front of an 11-man group including Gomez, Schoeman, Aaron Royle (AUS), Ryan Sissions (NZL), Alessandro Fabian (ITA), Vincent Luis (FRA) and Aurelien Raphael (FRA) while Polyanskiy and Varga struggled to keep with the pace.
The leading group down to nine, the Brownlees led onto lap three with a 21-second lead over the chasing group, which included Mario Mola (ESP), Sven Riederer (SUI) and Jan Frodeno (GER). By the end of lap three the lead was up to 30-seconds, which blossomed to 34 going into the final lap with no sign of the Brownlees and Gomez letting up their frightening pace.
The nine men were led into transition by Jonny Brownlee in 36:31, all producing fast transitions and getting onto the run together, the chasers 30 seconds behind.
The Brownlees and Gomez quickly took up their typical slots at the front of the race with Schoeman the only other athlete able to match their running pace, something he only managed for the first few hundred metres.
The leading trio pushed on with neither giving an inch and with 2.5km to go, they remained together, 20 seconds ahead of the chase being led by Schoeman.
The status quo remained right up until the hairpin of the tunararound, when Jonny Brownlee tried to surge away, a move quickly covered by Alistair Brownlee, with Gomez just managing to hang on.
A second kick from Jonny Brownlee saw Gomez lose his grip on the back of the brothers’ trainers. Alistair covered again and then pushed on to edge ahead of his brother coming into the final straight only to have Jonny kick hard again and sprint into first place just before the line.
Jonny Brownlee took the victory in 51:05 with Alistair being given the same time and Gomez taking third in 51:14.
Richard Murray (RSA) smashed the run course to take fourth, 37 seconds behind the Brownlees, four seconds ahead of Mola.