Ryan Bailie has backed up his Top 5 finish in Auckland three weeks ago by running to a 12th place finish in the second ITU World Triathlon Series race in Cape Town.
Cape Town played host to the second round of the World Triathlon Series and it was the first time the race had ventured to the African continent. It was also the first time that Bailie had returned to his country of birth after immigrating to Australia with his family as a 6-year-old.
Cold water temperatures sparked much debate pre-race with many believing the 12 degree harbour water too cold for a full distance swim but the 1.5km swim remained.
Bailie exited the water in 17:33, +48 seconds back on the first swimmers out of the water, Slovakian Richard Varga and South African Henri Schoeman.
The Australian quickly settled into a chase group on the 40km bike leg, staying no more than 90 seconds adrift from the lead group throughout the 8-lap bike course.
World Champion Javier Gomez and Jonathan Brownlee stretched the field on the 10km run with several runners in the lead pack dropping back.
Bailie posted an impressive run leg time of 30:36 which was the 7th fastest run of the day, passing several athletes as he catapulted himself up from 31st at the second transition to 12th.
The next round of the series is in Yokohama, Japan on May 17.
Watch the race highlights below:
[su_youtube url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G-QhUdjjko” width=”560″ height=”320″ responsive=”no”]