SLT Stat Crunch: Would Beaugrand have beaten Zaferes?

It was the race that could have been.

Katie Zaferes took the win at Super League Malta with another stunning performance, but triathlon fans everywhere were left wondering what might have happened had Cassandre Beaugrand’s day not been ended by the disastrous mechanical failure that left her front derailleur in bits and her crying at the side of the course.

It might well have been a race for the ages according to Super League’s data analyst Graeme Acheson who has studied the numbers.

Here is his version of how things went:

• Beaugrand did some very intelligent racing to catch up with the main group after her big deficit from the ITT. She went from it from the off, setting the fastest time on the first swim (a 3:28 to Zaferes’ 3:35), a steady first bike leg, and then using the short chute on her first run leg running a 6:39 to Katie’s 6:48. With a similarly quick second swim, she had made up the entire 15 seconds she lost on the ITT.
• Had her bike not failed her on the second leg, we could have been set for an exciting finish, with Beaugrand no doubt planing to attack at some point to try and get the required distance ahead to negate Zaferes short chute. Sadly it wasn’t to be.
• Zaferes’ running was too strong in the end for Klamer and Takahashi. Despite coming out of T2 behind those two, she ran the fastest leg of the race (a 4:41 to Klamer’s 4:55 and Takahashi’s 5:05) to take the win. Zaferes was the only lady to INCREASE her pace from run leg one to run leg two. She went from 3:18 to 3:10/km.