TRIATHLON – Bahrain Victorious 13-supported Crown Racing made a powerful statement at the opening round of the 2025 Supertri League Series in Toronto, surging to the top of the team standings after a high-intensity day of Eliminator-format racing.
Spearheaded by reigning world and Olympic champion Cassandre Beaugrand from France and former world silver-medallist Vasco Vilaca from Portugal, who both claimed bronze finishes in the women’s and men’s races respectively, Crown Racing has built an early 16-point lead for its teams title-defence. After the first of four races in the series, the team holds a commanding total of 89 points.
The Eliminator format tests not only speed and stamina but also strategic endurance. Athletes face three back-to-back stages of swim-bike-run, with the last two finishers in each of the first two stages eliminated. Stage three shifts to a pursuit start, with time deficits from the earlier stages determining the staggered start order and a two-lap run instead of just one.
Beaugrand salvaged a slow start in the stage one swim, finding composure alongside Emma Lombardi, Georgia Taylor-Brown, and Emma Jeffcoat to all finish inside the top 10. She found her rhythm in stage two, taking the win to set up a stage three start just 14 seconds behind the leader.
In characteristic fashion, Beaugrand quickly obliterated that gap in the swim, then rode well to set up the final run. Surging into the lead on the first lap, Beaugrand looked poised for the win – but with one more lap to go, she was reeled in and ultimately held on to secure a hard-fought third place.
“The goal was to bring the team to the best place possible today and I did my best to come back,” Beaugrand said. “I actually thought it was just one lap at the end of the run so I was a bit struggling at the end, but it was my fault.”
Lombardi crossed the line just three seconds behind Beaugrand, while Taylor-Brown finished sixth. Although Jeffcoat was eliminated in stage two, her blistering bike splits secured crucial discipline points for the team.
In the men’s race, Vilaca finished third and second in the first two stages to start stage three only two seconds back. He led Crown Racing teammates Ricardo Batista, Charles Paquet, and Tyler Mislawchuk across the bike-dismount line and into the run mid-pack. But with Csongor Lehmann and Alex Yee holding Short Chute time advantages won by their teams in the stage one swim and bike, Vilaca had to settle for third.
“That was a very hard one,” he said. “The first Supertri of the season is always the hardest…Csongor and Alex had such a great race. They caught me by surprise with the Short Chute. Within triathlon, we only do it here – I forgot about that and I would say I didn’t position myself tactically for the last lap and they got a little gap and from there they just pushed to get first and second place.”
Vilaca nonetheless remained upbeat about his finish. “I don’t think I’ve ever opened a Supertri season with a podium, so it’s definitely a good place to be in and let’s work on it for now,” he said.
Batista, Paquet, and Mislawchuk finished in sixth to eighth place, respectively, with Paquet snatching up additional points in the swim and bike to add even more to Crown Racing’s team total.
With Toronto behind them and momentum on their side, Crown Racing will look to defend and extend their lead when the Supertri League continues next month in Chicago.
In the meantime, Bahrain Victorious 13 shifts its focus to middle-distance racing, with Kacper Stepniak set to represent the team on home soil at Ironman 70.3 Krakow on Sunday.
&uuid=(email))