Marten Van Riel of Belgium was first to come out of the water. Beyond him, there were no significant groupings. Simon Viain exited the water with approximately 40 seconds to make up on the leader. In the early stages of the bike, a group of 10 athletes, including Van Riel, Sharpe (CAN), Perez (MEX), Lagerstrom (USA) and Billington (USA) quickly came together, but they we’re unable to make up ground on the chase group. Their lead was of only 10 seconds after the first lap.
Simon Viain took charge and pulled the chase group back to the leaders. Alexis Lepage (CAN), a Montpellier Club teammate of Viain was among the athletes to benefit from Viain’s impressive effort. In the end, as many as 46 athletes were bunched up in the lead group. Notable exclusions from this group are Alan Webb (USA) and Franz Loeschke (GER).
Hunter Kemper (USA) patiently stood by at the back of the lead pack while the likes of Haller (LUX), Malloy (USA) and Viain attempted to maintain a high paced tempo to keep any chase groups at bay, but were unsuccessful. A group of 10 cyclists eventually caught up.
Gaspar Riveros (CHI) and Kohei Tsubaki (JAP) launched an attack with two laps to go and were able to build a 27 second gap over the second group. Alexis Lepage led this group into T2, making sure to be amongst the leaders exiting the transition zone. Simon Viain, Matt Sharpe, Bob Haller, Eric Lagerstorm, Irving Perez and Jelle Geens were also safely at the front of this group numbering 64 athletes.
Such circumstances called for a very quick start to the run. A lead group quickly formed, including Keer (AUS), Fisher (AUS), Pevtsov (AZE), Huerta (PR) and Ward (NZ). American teammates McDowell, Billington, Kemper and Lagerstrom were not too far back in a second grouping.
Pevtov attacked and separated himself from the lead group at about the midway point. Viain was able to hang on, running at the back of the lead group now counting 8 athletes.
In an epic finish, Aussie Ryan Fisher was able to overtake Pevtov. McDowell who has had previous success in China, completed the podium, finishing in 3rd place. This result scores him a qualification to the Pan Am Games. Hunter Kemper finished in 4th place.
Fisher’s victory (in his first race of the season) is his first win in over 2 years, the last one coming in Ishigaki in April of 2013.
Simon Viain finished 10th while Canadians Matt Sharpe and Alexis Lepage finished 36th and 61th respectively.
| ✩ | 1 | Ryan Fisher | AUS | 01:46:07 |
| ✩ | 2 | Rostyslav Pevtsov | AZE | 00:01 |
| ✩ | 3 | Kevin Mcdowell | USA | 00:05 |
| ✩ | 4 | Hunter Kemper | USA | 00:10 |
| ✩ | 5 | Bryan Keane | IRL | 00:14 |
| ✩ | 6 | Peter Kerr | AUS | 00:15 |
| ✩ | 7 | Gregory Billington | USA | 00:15 |
| ✩ | 8 | Manuel Huerta | PUR | 00:28 |
| ✩ | 9 | Irving Perez | MEX | 00:32 |
| ✩ | 10 | Simon Viain | FRA | 00:36 |
| ✩ | 11 | Eric Lagerstrom | USA | 00:40 |
| ✩ | 12 | Sam Ward | NZL | 00:48 |
| ✩ | 13 | Kenji Nener | AUS | 00:52 |
| ✩ | 14 | Andrea Secchiero | ITA | 00:53 |
| ✩ | 15 | Abraham Castellanos | MEX | 00:53 |
| ✩ | 16 | Faquan Bai | CHN | 00:57 |
| ✩ | 17 | Amitai Yonah | ISR | 01:03 |
| ✩ | 18 | Davide Uccellari | ITA | 01:08 |
| ✩ | 19 | Matthew Baker | AUS | 01:09 |
| ✩ | 20 | Danylo Sapunov | UKR | 01:14 |
| ✩ | 21 | Jelle Geens | BEL | 01:19 |
| ✩ | 22 | Daniel Hofer | ITA | 01:22 |
| ✩ | 23 | Premysl Svarc | CZE | 01:26 |
| ✩ | 24 | Jesse Featonby | AUS | 01:31 |
| ✩ | 25 | Lukas Hollaus | AUT | 01:34 |
| ✩ | 26 | Zheng Xu | CHN | 01:38 |
| ✩ | 27 | Lin Chen | CHN | 01:41 |
| ✩ | 28 | Andrea De Ponti | ITA | 01:42 |
| ✩ | 29 | Joe Maloy | USA | 01:47 |
| ✩ | 30 | Min Ho Heo | KOR | 01:52 |
| ✩ | 31 | Luca Facchinetti | ITA | 01:54 |
| ✩ | 32 | Alexandre Nobre | POR | 01:57 |
| ✩ | 33 | Jan Celustka | CZE | 02:00 |
| ✩ | 34 | Marten Van Riel | BEL | 02:04 |
| ✩ | 35 | Sergio Sarmiento | MEX | 02:05 |
| ✩ | 36 | Matthew Sharpe | CAN | 02:05 |
| ✩ | 37 | Marco Van Der Stel | NED | 02:11 |
| ✩ | 38 | Kohei Shimomura | JPN | 02:14 |
| ✩ | 39 | Ji Hwan Kim | KOR | 02:17 |
| ✩ | 40 | Andrey Bryukhankov | RUS | 02:17 |
| ✩ | 41 | Zhengyu Duan | CHN | 02:19 |
| ✩ | 42 | Zhihang Jiang | CHN | 02:36 |
| ✩ | 43 | Danilo Pimentel | BRA | 02:51 |
| ✩ | 44 | Jumpei Furuya | JPN | 02:58 |
| ✩ | 45 | Miguel Arraiolos | POR | 03:03 |
| ✩ | 46 | Tamás Tóth | HUN | 03:04 |
| ✩ | 47 | Filipe Azevedo | POR | 03:11 |
| ✩ | 48 | Ron Lewinsohn | ISR | 03:23 |
| ✩ | 49 | Alan Webb | USA | 03:27 |
| ✩ | 50 | Kohei Tsubaki | JPN | 03:30 |
| ✩ | 51 | Felipe Van De Wyngard | CHI | 03:32 |
| ✩ | 52 | Chen Liu | CHN | 03:34 |
| ✩ | 53 | Gaspar Riveros | CHI | 04:02 |
| ✩ | 54 | Andreas Schilling | DEN | 04:03 |
| ✩ | 55 | Bob Haller | LUX | 04:06 |
| ✩ | 56 | Franz Loeschke | GER | 04:11 |
| ✩ | 57 | Thomas Springer | AUT | 04:14 |
| ✩ | 58 | Shachar Sagiv | ISR | 04:20 |
| ✩ | 59 | Cooper Rand | NZL | 04:25 |
| ✩ | 60 | Valentin Meshcheryakov | KAZ | 04:39 |
| ✩ | 61 | Alexis Lepage | CAN | 04:42 |
| ✩ | 62 | Aliaksandr Vasilevich | BLR | 04:50 |