Georgia Taylor-Brown Charges to First T100 Victory in Spain

Twenty top pro women hit a hot and hilly course in Pamplona, Spain, on Saturday as the T100 Triathlon World Tour made its third stop of 2026. Georgia Taylor-Brown took the win in 3:38:03 in this women-only pro race, taking home her first victory on the T100 tour. Switzerland’s Julie Derron finished 1:19 back in second, while American Taylor Spivey rounded things out in third, also recording a milestone as she secured her first-ever T100 podium finish.

Waugh Misses the Race

Reigning T100 world champion Kate Waugh of Great Britain made waves before the race in Spain, but not in the way she would have hoped, as a calf injury forced her to skip the event. That makes two missed T100 events in a row for the the Brit, as she also didn’t race the season opener in Gold Coast, Australia.

A second race with no points for Waugh is a big blow to her hopes of defending her world championship title. In 2025, she raced seven times on the T100 circuit, and there were nine races available to her and the other pro women and men. This year, the series was cut down significantly, and while there are still nine races on the pro calendar overall, four are women-only events, another four solely feature men, and only one — the T100 finale in Qatar — will see both men and women on the start line.

This pared-down schedule required the T100 to adjust the scoring system for the year-end rankings. In 2025, athletes earned points from their five best races on the year, but this season, their ranking will be determined by just four events. With only three races to go for the women in 2026, Waugh will not be able to maximize her points total, which will make it difficult to defend her T100 crown.

Perez Sala’s Early Lead

Back to the women who did race in Spain, it was home-country favourite Sara Perez Sala who led most of the way in the water on Saturday. The swim was a two-lap affair in the Alloz Reservoir, and Perez Sala (who was third at T100 Wollongong last year) took charge at the front of the pack early on. After exiting the water and starting the second lap in first, she carried that lead through to T1.

A long string of women followed Perez Sala out of the reservoir, with Spivey right on her heels just a second back. Great Britain’s Sophie Evans, Taylor-Brown, and Holly Lawrence were also in the mix, as well as Derron, the 2025 T100 series runner-up.

All in all, there were 12 women within 24 seconds of one another as they hit transition. After that, everyone else was more than a minute back of the leaders.

Perez Sala was first on her bike, but her lead as she started to ride was quite slim. With so many women so tightly packed in T1, it set up a fun opening few miles of riding as various athletes climbed in and out of the lead.

A Three-Woman Race

While most T100 events feature lapped biked courses for the pros, the race in Spain was a point-to-point ride. The course was winding and hilly, with multiple fast descents that required technical care to navigate sharp turns and corners.

Perez Sala didn’t get to enjoy her time at the front of the race too long after leaving T1, as Taylor-Brown flew into the lead just a couple of miles into the ride. Derron faced a 28-second gap as she started the bike, but she wasted very little time erasing that, and soon enough, she found herself in second place behind Taylor-Brown.

Also in the mix early on was Belgium’s Hanne De Vet, who finished fifth at T100 Wollongong last year. About four miles into the ride, she moved into the lead, passing both Taylor-Brown and Derron, but she faced a potential issue, as the race commentary team noted that she seemed to have lost a bottle at some point in those opening miles. In another T100 race, this wouldn’t have been too much of a problem, as the lapped format gives athletes plenty of opportunities to reload their nutrition. In Spain, however, there were just two aid stations on the bike course, making De Vet’s lost bottle a potentially significant blow.

Over the next 30 miles, there was a lot of shifting within the top five. Germany’s Bianca Bogen rode her way up to second place for a stint, then dropped back. Switzerland’s Imogen Simmonds moved into second for a while, only to fade away. De Vet regained control of the lead, but Derron eventually blew by her once more.

After 20 miles of riding, it looked like Derron was fed up with this yo-yoing. She dropped the hammer and opened up a gap of 14 seconds over second place. There was still plenty of riding to go, but it was conceivable at that time that Derron would ride away with the lead. Six miles later, though, her compatriot Alanis Siffert came charging down the road, flying by Derron to take the lead.

Siffert had started the ride more than two minutes back of the leaders, so she had put in a hard effort to claw her way through the field. The next few miles saw Derron and Siffert exchanging the lead back and forth, and all the while, Taylor-Brown sat just a few seconds back in third, apparently content to let the two Swiss women duke it out up front.

With 16 miles left to ride, it was a three-woman race at the front. Simmonds and De Vet sat in fourth and fifth, but they were both close to two minutes back. Further behind them, Perez Sala and Evans were in sixth and seventh, both north of two and a half minutes off the lead.

The final third of the ride saw very little change at the front. The two Swiss women did manage to put a bit of time into Taylor-Brown in the closing miles before transition, and by the time they racked their bikes, it was Siffert in first and Derron in second nine seconds back. Taylor-Brown hit T2 31 seconds down, but a very slow transition cost her another half of a minute, leading to her starting the run 59 seconds behind Siffert.

Simmonds was the next athlete to cruise into transition, sitting in fourth 2:17 back of the lead. After having such a tremendous opening half of the race, De Vet faded hard, and she found herself close to five minutes off the lead as she started the run, just ahead of Perez Sala.

Taylor-Brown Wins on the Run

It didn’t take long for Derron to catch Siffert and move into first. After just one kilometer of running, Derron had caught and passed her compatriot, and after a mile, she was 16 seconds clear. Further back, Taylor-Brown had managed to make up time on Siffert, but she still found herself close to a minute behind Derron.

Just over two miles into the 11-mile run course, Derron’s lead had grown to 35 seconds over Siffert. Taylor-Brown was still in third, but only 42 seconds behind Derron as she slowly ate away at the gap. With about nine miles to go, there was still plenty of time for drama to unfold, and less than half a mile later, Taylor-Brown had flipped that gap from 42 seconds to 24.

Another half-mile down the road, Taylor-Brown was suddenly right behind Derron. She made the pass on an uphill section of the course, blowing by her Swiss competitor so quickly that it made Derron look like she was at a standstill. Yet another half-mile later, Taylor-Brown was a whopping 35 seconds clear of Derron. The race was still far from over at that point, but in that moment, it was Taylor-Brown’s to lose.

Just after the halfway mark on the run, Taylor-Brown’s lead was up to 1:45 over Derron, who was still safely running in second place. Siffert was in third at that point, and while she was by no means running slowly, it did look like she was at risk of being caught. Her gap over fourth-place Simmonds was about a minute and a half.

It didn’t appear to be Simmonds who was the biggest threat to steal a spot on the podium, however, but instead Spivey, who was flying through the field. After getting off her bike in 10th, Spivey had jumped five places in the opening half of the run. She was well back of Taylor-Brown (more than five minutes off the lead), but a first-ever T100 podium looked to be well within her reach as she charged along the course.

With six and a half miles down on the run, Spivey passed Simmonds to move into fourth, and it looked inevitable that she would catch Siffert. Two miles down the road, that moment came, and Spivey jetted by Siffert to move into podium position.

Further back, the next threat to pass Siffert was no longer Simmonds, who had faded to seventh. A pair of Brits, Lawrence and Lizzie Rayner, had passed Simmonds, and with under three miles to go, they were running side by side, sharing fifth place.

With two miles left to run, Taylor-Brown’s lead was around two minutes. Derron had made up a few seconds in the previous mile or two, but nothing substantial enough to threaten the leader. It was the same with Spivey back in third. She was running much quicker than Derron, but still two minutes behind the Swiss athlete, she was bound to run out of real estate before she could take any real shot at stealing second place.

While the podium was set by then, the battle for the top five was shaping up to be very exciting. Despite having looked to be labouring earlier in the run, Lawrence had moved into fifth all on her own after gapping Rayner by 15 seconds. With two miles left, she was 35 seconds behind Siffert. Half a mile later, the gap was down to 19 seconds. At that point, Lawrence was running the fastest out of the top-five women, and she had even managed to pull to back within a minute of Spivey.

By the time the women hit the line, it was Taylor-Brown in first in 3:38:03. Derron ate into the gap considerably in the final miles of the run, crossing the line in 3:39:23. Spivey had the best middle-distance race of her career to date, finishing in third in 3:41:29.

Just off the podium was Lawrence, who used a 1:10:46 run split to fly into fourth place. Siffert was just under 20 seconds back, completing a stellar race for her best T100 result yet (her previous highest finish was 10th).

Here is how the top 10 shook out:

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