Podium Racing dominate at Supertri League Chicago
Alberto Gonzalez Garcia and Jeanne Lehair secure victory for Podium Racing in Illinois
It was a case of two very different races, two very similar outcomes for Podium Racing in Chicago, Illinois, with Alberto Gonzalez Garcia and Jeanne Lehair taking the overall elite race titles for John Anthony’s Supertri team.
The winning results heat-up the race for the team championship, as well as the individual honours, with Lehair now leading the women’s field ahead of Georgia Taylor-Brown, her vanquished foe here in the Windy City.
Spanish star Gonzalez Garcia also moves to the top of the men’s leaderboard,
ahead of his Podium Racing teammate John Reed, with two races of the 2025 series to go in Jersey, and Toulouse.
SPEEDY GONZALEZ
In one of the most dominant performances in Supertri history, Gonzalez Garcia
dominated the second-ever Supertri Chicago race from the get-go in only his
second-ever Supertri event.
The 27-year-old racer from Malaga in Southern Spain assumed control on the first bike leg of the day, and dominated the next eight stages to record a famous Supertri win and to lay down a marker for the 2025 Supertri season.
Despite a late surge by Tyler Mislawchuk of Crown Racing, Gonzalez Garcia would hold on to record Podium Racing’s first win of the 2025 season, with his teammate John Reed finishing third to make it a men’s race to remember for John Anthony’s team.
Gonzalez Garcia was a top 10 finisher at the Paris Olympics in 2024, but he’d only raced one Supertri event until Chicago (a fourth-placed finish at the previous event in Toronto, Canada, in July). Not that Gonzalez Garcia’s inexperience showed in the nine-stage Supertri format with three triathlons back-to-back, with the Spaniard delivering a masterclass in racing alone at the front in produce a statement victory that will make him one of the favourites for the overall 2025 Supertri title. Mislawchuk would finish 6secs back, with Reed 14secs behind.
“I believed in myself from the beginning,” said Gonzalez Garcia at the finish. “I knew Marcus Dey was going to try and get the Short Chute on the first swim so I followed his feet. I always give everything I have and every year I believe I’ll have a top level performance and I’m getting closer every time.
LEHAIR MOVES TOP
In the women’s race, Jeanne Lehair broke free from Georgia Taylor-Brown on the final run leg of the day to move top of the 2025 standings at the halfway stage of the series.
Lehair, the 29-year-old who formerly raced for France but now competes for
Luxembourg, looked in the mood from the off, regularly pushing the pace at the front of the nine-stage triathlon and finally making the decisive move on the final run leg of the day. The rising Brownlee Racing star, 17-year-old Fanni Szalai, would finish third in a statement result from the Hungarian.
Taylor-Brown edged Lehair to win the 2024 Supertri series but had no answer to
Lehair’s run pace today, with Lehair assuming control of the race with 1km to go and never looking like giving it up to record her third-ever Supertri win after victories in London in 2023 and Boston in 2024.
“I was a bit disappointed after Toronto but I knew I was coming here in good shape,” said Lehair at the finish line.
The third place for Brownlee Racing’s Fanni Szalai was one of the most abiding
memories of the race. “I really didn’t expect this, I was shocked when I crossed the finish line,” the visibly emotional 17-year-old revealed at the finale. “This will give me confidence and it’s a good feeling that I can stand up with some of my racing idols.”
NEXT STOP, JERSEY
After a thrilling Supertri race in Toronto, Canada, Chicago followed in the four-leg 2025 series, with stops in Jersey (September 21) and Toulouse (October 5) to come.
Today was Supertri’s second event in Illinois, with the race now firmly part of the
Chicago Triathlon, which welcome around 10,000 age-grouper triathletes in 2025 to make it the largest urban triathlon in the US and one that’s been running for over four decades.
Huge crowds and the backdrop of Chicago’s skyscrapers greeted athletes on the Supertri format, which saw athletes face a 300m Lake Michigan swim, a flat 4km bike before a 1.6km run three times in a row, all without a break between stages.