Racing the unusual PTO 100km format for a share of the $1m prize purse and qualification spots for the PTO Collins Cup, the women left it all out on the field today, here\u2019s how it all went down\u2026<\/p>\n
What happened in the PTO Canadian Open women\u2019s swim?<\/strong><\/h2>\n ![\"""\"]( "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> The swim comprised of three 667m laps plus Aussie exits (Credit: PTO \/ Eurosport)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\nThe vast majority opting for hydrodynamic swimskins over wetsuits in the sunny 17\u00b0C Canadian sunshine, the elite women lined up on the blue carpet for the start of the inaugural PTO Canadian Open in Edmonton<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\nFrom the get-go, it was Brazil\u2019s Vittoria Lopes who took dominance over the 2km swim, with Spanish swim star Sara Perez Sala (ESP) struggling to stay on her feet and Lauren Brandon (USA) just behind in third. The rest of the athletes including Aussie pros Ashleigh Gentle and Ellie Salthouse jostling amongst themselves, heading a larger chaser pack.<\/p>\n
As Lopes extended her lead curving round the central island, she ended up swimming on the inside of an orange marker buoy, earning herself a 30s penalty to take later during the bike leg.<\/p>\n
The initial 667m lap took the athletes on a loop of the lake around a central island, before they had to wade out for a lung-busting Aussie exit. By the end of the first lap of three, Lopes had already broken away from the crowd with a 13s lead, sprinting out the water in a time of 8min43s, striding round a lakeside tree, and diving back in for lap two.<\/p>\n
By the end of the swim, Lopes was first to run into transition while Sala Perez managed to cut that lead to 13s, with podium hopefuls Paula Findlay<\/a><\/strong> (CAN), Holly Lawrence<\/a><\/strong> (GBR) and Nicola Spirig<\/a><\/strong> (SUI) leaving the swim only a minute behind.<\/p>\nWhat happened in the PTO Canadian Open women\u2019s bike?<\/strong><\/h2>\n ![\"""\"]( "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> Lopes led the women\u2019s swim and first 20km of the bike (Credit: PTO \/ Eurosport)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\nAfter a slow T1 for some who wrestled getting tight swimskins off, others like Sala Perez and Spirig benefitted from only wearing tri-suits in the water. It was Lopes, though, who spun out first onto the 80km bike leg, re-instating her 30s solo lead.<\/p>\n
Whether she\u2019d maintain that lead was anyone\u2019s guess, Lopes having actually raced over Olympic-distance triathlon before.<\/p>\n
An initial 5% hill greeted the athletes on the first of four laps of downtown Edmonton, with several more hills as well as cool straight patches awaiting them. Large sections of the course had been recently re-tarmacked for the arrival of the Vatican\u2019s Pope Francis, who was set to visit the Canadian city the following day (Sunday 24).<\/p>\n
Unlike some of the World Triathlon Series racing<\/a><\/strong>, this race\u2019s not draft-legal, cyclists having to keep over 20m from each other\u2019s slip streams or risk accruing penalties.<\/p>\nThat means no chaser packs in this race, the field stringing out into solo riders including the likes of Spirig, Findlay, Salthouse, Gentle and GB\u2019s India Lee<\/a><\/strong> making up the top ten.<\/p>\nBy the end of the first 20km lap of four, Findlay had worked her way up to second place with only 10s separating her and Lopes. As Canada\u2019s home hope and racing in her hometown no less, Findlay\u2019s connections to this race are two-fold with her mum as the official race director.<\/p>\n
After a total 1h35s of racing, Findlay sped past Lopes and set her claim on the lead position. Further back in the field, one of GB\u2019s main hopes ahead of the race Emma Pallant-Browne<\/a><\/strong> unfortunately suffered a puncture, the wait for assistance completely wiping her from contention.<\/p>\nBy the last bike lap, USA\u2019s Jocelyn McCauley made her way up to second position, while a loose chase group of four in the shape of the two Aussies Gentle and Salthouse, along with Spirig and Lopes sat over 2mins behind front runner Findlay. Meanwhile, women\u2019s middle-distance record holder<\/a><\/strong> and PTO ranked #1, Laura Philipp<\/a><\/strong> (GER) made her way up to seventh position after losing some places in the swim.<\/p>\nWhat happened in the PTO Canadian Open women\u2019s run?<\/strong><\/h2>\nAfter 2h25min of racing, Findlay passed through T2 without issue for the start of the four-lap, 18km run course.<\/p>\n
A huge 2min+ behind were chasers McCauley, Spirig, Gentle, Salthouse and Lopes, but it\u2019s Philipps who made strides on the runners ahead, overtaking Spirig and McCauley within the first few minutes.<\/p>\n
As the run wore on, Gentle started cutting down Findlay\u2019s gap, slowly but surely gaining on the front runner until a swift pass was finally made 2h54mins into the race. Meanwhile, Philipp remained 2min36 behind Findlay, as the three front racers consolidate their claims on the podium and prize purse.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile strong runner USA\u2019s Chelsea Sodaro made her way up to fourth place behind Philipp, Lopes retaining her position in fifth.<\/p>\n
The final few kilometers saw a fight break out for third position between Philipps and Sodaro, the latter forcing the German champion to up her game and pace in the final few minutes.<\/p>\n
Who won the women\u2019s 2022 PTO Canadian Open?\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\nA stacked field didn\u2019t deter two-time Olympian Gentle from ripping through the competitors and claiming the win along with the whopping $100k prize in a time of 3:30:54.<\/p>\n
Coming in second and claiming the $70k prize to the cheers of family, friends and hometown fans was Findlay in a time of 3:33:16, while Sodaro sprinted it out with Philipp to overcome the German and take the final podium spot with $50 prize in 3:34:59.<\/p>\n
Quotes from winner Ashleigh Gentle<\/strong><\/h2>\nWhat was going through your mind coming down that line?<\/strong> Gentle struggles to break through her emotions, \u201cI\u2019m super happy, super excited. I had the most amazing day today. It\u2019s not been the easiest two or three years, I\u2019m just grateful for the peopole who kept believeing in me\u2026because I\u2019m really proud of myself right now.\u201d<\/p>\nWhat does winning that $100k mean to you?<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s an absolute dream. It\u2019s going to take a really long time to sink in. I didn\u2019t start the sport of triathlon for money, but I have bills to pay as an adult\u2026 that million dollar prize purse will go a long way.\u201d<\/p>\nQuotes from runner-up Paula Findlay<\/strong><\/h2>\n\u201cHonestly, racing at home I was more nervous than I\u2019ve ever been. More nervous than the Olympics, becuase I had all this support behind me and I didn\u2019t want to disappoint anyone.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew I was fit, I knew I was healthy, but you never know what\u2019s going to happen on the day. Of course I wanted to win, but there couldn\u2019t be a more deserving champion, Ashleigh\u2019s such a classy runner. I\u2019m just so happy I could hold onto second.\u201d<\/p>\n
Top image:<\/strong> PTO \/ Eurosport<\/p><\/body><\/html>\n
","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Kate Milsom Published: Saturday, 23 July 2022 at 12:00 am A sunny and bright Edmonton greeted some of the world\u2019s best female triathletes on Saturday 23 July for the first day of the inaugural PTO Canadian Open.\u00a0 Racing the unusual PTO 100km format for a share of the $1m prize purse and qualification spots […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":16006,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"6"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/07\/ashleigh-gentle-wins-first-ever-pto-canadian-open.png",1272,732,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/07\/ashleigh-gentle-wins-first-ever-pto-canadian-open-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/07\/ashleigh-gentle-wins-first-ever-pto-canadian-open-300x173.png",300,173,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/07\/ashleigh-gentle-wins-first-ever-pto-canadian-open-768x442.png",768,442,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/07\/ashleigh-gentle-wins-first-ever-pto-canadian-open-1024x589.png",800,460,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/07\/ashleigh-gentle-wins-first-ever-pto-canadian-open.png",1272,732,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/07\/ashleigh-gentle-wins-first-ever-pto-canadian-open.png",1272,732,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Kate Milsom Published: Saturday, 23 July 2022 at 12:00 am A sunny and bright Edmonton greeted some of the world\u2019s best female triathletes on Saturday 23 July for the first day of the inaugural PTO Canadian Open.\u00a0 Racing the unusual PTO 100km format for a share of the $1m prize purse and qualification spots…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/16005"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/34\/2022\/07\/Screenshot-2022-07-23-at-18.56.54-cd9efc8.png?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>The vast majority opting for hydrodynamic swimskins over wetsuits in the sunny 17\u00b0C Canadian sunshine, the elite women lined up on the blue carpet for the start of the inaugural PTO Canadian Open in Edmonton<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n From the get-go, it was Brazil\u2019s Vittoria Lopes who took dominance over the 2km swim, with Spanish swim star Sara Perez Sala (ESP) struggling to stay on her feet and Lauren Brandon (USA) just behind in third. The rest of the athletes including Aussie pros Ashleigh Gentle and Ellie Salthouse jostling amongst themselves, heading a larger chaser pack.<\/p>\n As Lopes extended her lead curving round the central island, she ended up swimming on the inside of an orange marker buoy, earning herself a 30s penalty to take later during the bike leg.<\/p>\n The initial 667m lap took the athletes on a loop of the lake around a central island, before they had to wade out for a lung-busting Aussie exit. By the end of the first lap of three, Lopes had already broken away from the crowd with a 13s lead, sprinting out the water in a time of 8min43s, striding round a lakeside tree, and diving back in for lap two.<\/p>\n By the end of the swim, Lopes was first to run into transition while Sala Perez managed to cut that lead to 13s, with podium hopefuls Paula Findlay<\/a><\/strong> (CAN), Holly Lawrence<\/a><\/strong> (GBR) and Nicola Spirig<\/a><\/strong> (SUI) leaving the swim only a minute behind.<\/p>\n After a slow T1 for some who wrestled getting tight swimskins off, others like Sala Perez and Spirig benefitted from only wearing tri-suits in the water. It was Lopes, though, who spun out first onto the 80km bike leg, re-instating her 30s solo lead.<\/p>\n Whether she\u2019d maintain that lead was anyone\u2019s guess, Lopes having actually raced over Olympic-distance triathlon before.<\/p>\n An initial 5% hill greeted the athletes on the first of four laps of downtown Edmonton, with several more hills as well as cool straight patches awaiting them. Large sections of the course had been recently re-tarmacked for the arrival of the Vatican\u2019s Pope Francis, who was set to visit the Canadian city the following day (Sunday 24).<\/p>\n Unlike some of the World Triathlon Series racing<\/a><\/strong>, this race\u2019s not draft-legal, cyclists having to keep over 20m from each other\u2019s slip streams or risk accruing penalties.<\/p>\n That means no chaser packs in this race, the field stringing out into solo riders including the likes of Spirig, Findlay, Salthouse, Gentle and GB\u2019s India Lee<\/a><\/strong> making up the top ten.<\/p>\n By the end of the first 20km lap of four, Findlay had worked her way up to second place with only 10s separating her and Lopes. As Canada\u2019s home hope and racing in her hometown no less, Findlay\u2019s connections to this race are two-fold with her mum as the official race director.<\/p>\n After a total 1h35s of racing, Findlay sped past Lopes and set her claim on the lead position. Further back in the field, one of GB\u2019s main hopes ahead of the race Emma Pallant-Browne<\/a><\/strong> unfortunately suffered a puncture, the wait for assistance completely wiping her from contention.<\/p>\n By the last bike lap, USA\u2019s Jocelyn McCauley made her way up to second position, while a loose chase group of four in the shape of the two Aussies Gentle and Salthouse, along with Spirig and Lopes sat over 2mins behind front runner Findlay. Meanwhile, women\u2019s middle-distance record holder<\/a><\/strong> and PTO ranked #1, Laura Philipp<\/a><\/strong> (GER) made her way up to seventh position after losing some places in the swim.<\/p>\n After 2h25min of racing, Findlay passed through T2 without issue for the start of the four-lap, 18km run course.<\/p>\n A huge 2min+ behind were chasers McCauley, Spirig, Gentle, Salthouse and Lopes, but it\u2019s Philipps who made strides on the runners ahead, overtaking Spirig and McCauley within the first few minutes.<\/p>\n As the run wore on, Gentle started cutting down Findlay\u2019s gap, slowly but surely gaining on the front runner until a swift pass was finally made 2h54mins into the race. Meanwhile, Philipp remained 2min36 behind Findlay, as the three front racers consolidate their claims on the podium and prize purse.<\/p>\n Meanwhile strong runner USA\u2019s Chelsea Sodaro made her way up to fourth place behind Philipp, Lopes retaining her position in fifth.<\/p>\n The final few kilometers saw a fight break out for third position between Philipps and Sodaro, the latter forcing the German champion to up her game and pace in the final few minutes.<\/p>\n A stacked field didn\u2019t deter two-time Olympian Gentle from ripping through the competitors and claiming the win along with the whopping $100k prize in a time of 3:30:54.<\/p>\n Coming in second and claiming the $70k prize to the cheers of family, friends and hometown fans was Findlay in a time of 3:33:16, while Sodaro sprinted it out with Philipp to overcome the German and take the final podium spot with $50 prize in 3:34:59.<\/p>\n What was going through your mind coming down that line?<\/strong> Gentle struggles to break through her emotions, \u201cI\u2019m super happy, super excited. I had the most amazing day today. It\u2019s not been the easiest two or three years, I\u2019m just grateful for the peopole who kept believeing in me\u2026because I\u2019m really proud of myself right now.\u201d<\/p>\n What does winning that $100k mean to you?<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s an absolute dream. It\u2019s going to take a really long time to sink in. I didn\u2019t start the sport of triathlon for money, but I have bills to pay as an adult\u2026 that million dollar prize purse will go a long way.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHonestly, racing at home I was more nervous than I\u2019ve ever been. More nervous than the Olympics, becuase I had all this support behind me and I didn\u2019t want to disappoint anyone.<\/p>\n \u201cI knew I was fit, I knew I was healthy, but you never know what\u2019s going to happen on the day. Of course I wanted to win, but there couldn\u2019t be a more deserving champion, Ashleigh\u2019s such a classy runner. I\u2019m just so happy I could hold onto second.\u201d<\/p>\n Top image:<\/strong> PTO \/ Eurosport<\/p><\/body><\/html>\n By Kate Milsom Published: Saturday, 23 July 2022 at 12:00 am A sunny and bright Edmonton greeted some of the world\u2019s best female triathletes on Saturday 23 July for the first day of the inaugural PTO Canadian Open.\u00a0 Racing the unusual PTO 100km format for a share of the $1m prize purse and qualification spots […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":16006,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"6"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/07\/ashleigh-gentle-wins-first-ever-pto-canadian-open.png",1272,732,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/07\/ashleigh-gentle-wins-first-ever-pto-canadian-open-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/07\/ashleigh-gentle-wins-first-ever-pto-canadian-open-300x173.png",300,173,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/07\/ashleigh-gentle-wins-first-ever-pto-canadian-open-768x442.png",768,442,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/07\/ashleigh-gentle-wins-first-ever-pto-canadian-open-1024x589.png",800,460,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/07\/ashleigh-gentle-wins-first-ever-pto-canadian-open.png",1272,732,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/07\/ashleigh-gentle-wins-first-ever-pto-canadian-open.png",1272,732,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Kate Milsom Published: Saturday, 23 July 2022 at 12:00 am A sunny and bright Edmonton greeted some of the world\u2019s best female triathletes on Saturday 23 July for the first day of the inaugural PTO Canadian Open.\u00a0 Racing the unusual PTO 100km format for a share of the $1m prize purse and qualification spots…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/16005"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What happened in the PTO Canadian Open women\u2019s bike?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/34\/2022\/07\/Screenshot-2022-07-23-at-18.57.48-3daccc9.png?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>What happened in the PTO Canadian Open women\u2019s run?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Who won the women\u2019s 2022 PTO Canadian Open?\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Quotes from winner Ashleigh Gentle<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Quotes from runner-up Paula Findlay<\/strong><\/h2>\n
","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"