Startlist can be found here
A slight reduction in the calibre of a WCS field will give opportunity to perhaps the first non gomez/brownlee winner in the series since Frodeno's sprint in Seoul of 2010.
With this race being three weeks out from many federations Olympic qualification in London we may see a surprise here with some stronger athletes 'training through' this weekend while others may have tapered.
Swim wise the water temp is hovering around wetsuit conditions. It will be a race day decision but I would lean towards wetsuits being worn. Even though he was outsed last weekend for the swim prime in Edmonton, Varga (SVK) is still the favourite to lead into T1.
With the weather forcast calling for overcast and possible rain, the technical bike could become even more so. Combined with a Specialized bike prime every lap and there could be a lot of 'out of the saddle action' taking place. A small group may get away from the pack, that will be quite large, in the later stages, but no one of significance for the run.
Cold conditions seem to suit Gomez quite well for running (Vancouver'08,Sydney'11) so he will be hard to beat. Clarke (GBR) has shown good form as of late but may have been racing a bit too much to have a proper crack at this podium.
I feel we see Riederer (SUI) take his first WCS victory with Gomez in second and a crowd pleasing upset of Zipf (GER) taking bronze.
Darkhorse: Jones (CAN)
come on mate you were doing so well!
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