Chrabot Leads U.S. at World Championship Series Grand Final

Finishes the 2010 WCS as the No. 1 American

USA Triathlon

September 11, 2010 (Budapest, Hungary) – Reigning USA Triathlon elite national champion Matt Chrabot pulled in front on a solo breakaway for much of the bike and held on for a 16th-place finish Saturday at the Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Series Grand Final.

Chrabot (Colorado Springs, Colo.) covered the Olympic-distance course (1.5k swim, 40k bike, 10k run) in 1 hour, 44 minutes, 12 seconds to lead the six-man American contingent. With his showing Saturday, Chrabot finishes the season ranked as the No. 1 American and 12th overall in the ITU WCS series rankings.

Ben Collins (Seattle, Wash.) took 42nd in 1:46:03 to cross the line as the No. 2 U.S. finisher. Jarrod Shoemaker (Maynard, Mass.) was 51st, followed by Kevin Collington (Orlando, Fla.) in 56th, Manuel Huerta (Miami, Fla.) in 58th and Chris Foster (Redondo Beach, Calif.) in 66th.

Greg Bennett (Boulder, Colo.), who was racing under the ITU flag as he transitions to U.S. affiliation from that of his native Australia, was 14th in 1:44:05.

Great Britain’s Alistair Brownlee broke the tape Saturday in 1:42:26 to edge overall series champion Javier Gomez of Spain by 4 seconds.

After Collins and Chrabot were out of the water in the top 20, nearly 60 riders exited T1 within a minute of each other and quickly formed a pack on the bike. Chrabot began to make his move early on the second of seven bike laps.

“The first lap was really slow. Everyone was taking the corners really carefully; I was like ‘If I just ride steady on the rest of the course and not break as much. I can probably get away.’ I really didn’t get more than 30 seconds, but I was looking for a minute,” said Chrabot. “These guys know I can run, so they weren’t going to give me that much time.”

Chrabot slowly extended his lead to 25 seconds before he was rejoined by the chase pack on the sixth lap.

“Once the gap hit 20 seconds, I just started riding easy and shaking my legs out and waited for the group to catch me. I tried to get with one of the Germans as they went off the front, but I got about 5 minutes of soft peddling in before the group came and got me, and that made a big difference because I got to ride easy, and then I did a couple of sprints before coming into transition—had a great T2,” said Chrabot.

Fifty men headed out on the run within 30 seconds of one another, but Brownlee and Gomez quickly pulled away and built a 13 second lead on the first of four laps en route to the one-two finish. Chrabot worked his way up to 11th on lap No. 2 and held on for the top-20 finish.

“I started to go backwards a little bit the first two kilometers of the run, but the second lap of the run I really started to pick it up, and I thought I could hit a top 10 finish, but my legs are just fried, so I did the best I could and I’m happy with the top 20,” Chrabot added.

Saturday’s 16th-place finish marked the fifth top-20 showing out of the seven ITU WCS races for Chrabot. “I had some breakthrough races, and I guess you could say this was another breakthrough race. This is my second world championships…to be in the top 20 I’m really pleased,” said Chrabot.

In addition to Chrabot’s No. 12 final position in the WCS series rankings, Shoemaker finished 13th to give the Americans two men in the top 15 of the final world rankings for the first time since Andy Potts and Hunter Kemper were third and fifth, respectively, in 2006.

Results

1. Alistair Brownlee (GBR), 1:42:26 ($30,000)
2. Javier Gomez (ESP), 1:42:30 ($22,000)
3. Steffen Justus (GER), 1:43:04 ($16,000)

ITU

14. Greg Bennett (Boulder, Colo.), 1:44:05 ($1,800)

United States Finishers

16. Matt Chrabot (Colorado Springs, Colo.), 1:44:12
42. Ben Collins (Seattle, Wash.), 1:46:03
51. Jarrod Shoemaker (Maynard, Mass.), 1:47:54
56. Kevin Collington (Orlando, Fla.), 1:49:13
58. Manuel Huerta (Miami, Fla.), 1:49:55
66. Chris Foster (Redondo Beach, Calif.), 1:53:56