Tony Dodds was the sole finisher for the New Zealanders in the elite men's race at the ITU World Championships in Edmonton this morning, coming home in 34th place after hanging tough during the swim and bike legs in a fast and furious Grand Final.
The Wanaka athlete exited the 1500m swim leg in 16th place, alongside Jonny Brownlee (GBR) and soon settled into the lead group of 21 on the bike. He was the lone Kiwi however, with Ryan Sissons over a minute behind out of the water back in 58th place.
With Alistair Brownlee (GBR) driving the pace in the lead group, the margin back to the Sissons group continued to grow, with Sissons soon close to 3 minutes back on the bike. Meanwhile Dodds continued to work away in that lead bunch that would soon join with the first chase group to form a pack of over 50 riders.
National Coach Greg Fraine summed up the day.
"Ryan simply had a bad swim, I haven't yet spoken to him to see if anything else has played out in the water but he was isolated on the bike as a result and wasn't making any inroads and withdrew about halfway on the bike leg. Tony had a good swim and rode pretty well but didn't have much on the run, he found some rhythm in the middle stages and went past a few athletes but then struggled in the final couple of kilometres coming home."
While Brownlee was an impressive winner after engineering a breakaway of three riders and then effectively running solo to a comfortable win, the overall title of World Champion went to the ultra-consistent Javier Gomez (ESP) who crossed the line in third place, behind countryman Mario Mola who finished second in the end of year rankings with Jonny Brownlee's fourth place today enough to finish third in the world rankings.
Ryan Sissons ends the year ranked 19th with Dodds at 28th.
