Javier Gomez of Spain outran Ivan Vasiliev and a freezing downpour on the bike to win the Madrid BG World Cup Triathlon, joining legends Brad Beven, Hamish Carter and Simon Whitfield as the only men to win 10 or more world cup titles.

Gomez, who solidified his status as the prohibitive favorite for June’s ITU World Championship in Vancouver and the Beijing Olympics in August, won his third World Cup of the season and his incredible 16th straight World Cup podium finish with the strongest run in the game.

At the line, Gomez’s race-best 31:01 run propelled him to a 1:56:25 finish, 19 seconds in front of inspired young Russian Ivan Vasiliev, who ran 31:25.

“It’s so special,” said Gomez to ITU Media. “My first was here and this is my tenth victory. It was perfect with all the people.”

When a sudden spring rainstorm hit the race venue during the men’s bike, the course was flooded in places and cold temperatures forced out more than half the field with symptoms of hypothermia. “My teeth were aching from chattering so hard,” said U.S. star Matt Reed. “My arms were turning purple with the cold.”

Even with precious Olympic qualification points on the line, top ranked stars like Great Britain’s Andrew Johns and Stuart Hayes, the Ukraine’s Volodymyr Polikarpenko and Andriy Gluschenko, France’s Stephane Poulat, Spain’s Ivan Rana and US triathletes Joe Umphenour and Matt Seymour were overcome by conditions and pulled out.

But once the front pack of two dozen men hit T2, that’s precisely when Gomez, Great Britain’s young Olympic hopefuls Will Clarke and Alistair Brownlee, and up and coming Russian Ivan Vasiliev broke out front on the 10km run.

Gomez answered the challenge by surging away on the second of four laps and never looking back.

With Great Britain’s Olympic selection weighted heavily on the results of this race, 2006 Under 23 World Champion Alistair Brownlee fought off the late run charge of 2006 ITU senior World Champion Tim Don to take the final spot on the podium. “I’m absolutely over the moon,” said Brownlee to ITU Media after the race. “I had such a bad start to the season.” Fellow young Brit Will Clarke followed closely in sixth, taking a likely inside track to the third Great Britain’s men’s Olympic triathlon slot.

By abandoning the race, two-time Olympian Andrew Johns and top contender Stuart Hayes did major damage to their chances of making the trip to Beijing.

With Daniel Unger and Jan Frodeno taking the first two German men’s Olympic slots at the 2007 ITU World Championship in Hamburg, this race was a Gunfight in the OK Corral for the final spot between relative newcomer Christian Prochnow and veteran stars Andreas Raelert and Maik Petzold.

When Prochnow pulled away late in the run to take 5th place, 10 seconds ahead of Petzold in 7th place, he secured the final German men’s Olympic spot.

In matters crucial to the U.S., Australian and Russian national Olympic men’s team qualification, Matt Reed’s 10th place finish moved the U.S. men’s Olympic team from 9th to 7th place in the standings. With Dimitry Polyansky of Russia placing 15th, and Australia’s Brendan Sexton scoring a DNF due to a bike crash, the Russian men stayed in eighth and the Australian men slipped to 9th in the standings going into the final national Olympic teams points test at Vancouver ITU World Championship June 8.

The significance is this: Only the top eight nations in national Olympic team qualification points will qualify three athletes to start in the Beijing Olympic triathlon. Ninth and lower ranked nations will only qualify two triathletes for the Games. The otherwise complex ITU points scheme for determining how many athletes each nation can take to Beijing does come down to a simple formula. The nations are ranked on the basis of their third-highest ranking athlete in Olympic national qualifying points.

But because the points are so close among third ranking men for the three countries – the U.S.’s Matt Reed has 2552, Russia’s Dimitry Polyansky has 2541 and Australia’s Brendan Sexton has 2507 – each national team has a good fighting chance to prevail at the ITU World Championship at Vancouver.

As of now, Australia’s Greg Bennett, who has been nominated for Australia’s third Olympic team position, isn’t going. Brendan Sexton, whom Australian selectors have already determined is not going to Beijing, is the only man who can save Bennett’s second Olympic start – with a superior performance at Vancouver.

Madrid BG Triathlon World Cup
Madrid, Spain
May 25, 2008
S 1.5k/ B 40k/ R 10k

Elite men

1. Javier Gomez (Esp) 1:56:25
2. Ivan Vasiliev (Rus) 1:56:44
3. Alistair Brownlee (Gbr) 1:56:53
4. Tim Don (Gbr) 1:57:04
5. Christian Prochnow (Ger) 1:57:13
6. William Clarke (Gbr) 1:57:15
7. Maik Petzold (Ger) 1:57:23
8. Laurent Vidal (Fra) 1:57:39
9. Steffen Justus (Ger) 1:57:41
10. Matt Reed (USA) 1:58:09
13. Olivier Marceau (Sui) 1:58:45
15. Dimitry Polyansky (Rus) 1:59:36
20. Doug Friman (USA) 2:00:37
23. Mark Fretta (USA) 2:01:46

DNFs included:

Volodymyr Polikarpenko (Ukr)
Stephane Poulat (Fra);
Brendan Sexton (Aus)
Stuart Hayes (Gbr)
Andrew Johns (Gbr)
Joe Umphenour (USA)
Ivan Rana (Esp)
Matt Seymour (USA);