Jeanne Lehair surges to 2025 Supertri League title
After disqualification and puncture woes in Toulouse in 2023 and 2024, respectively, Jeanne Lehair of Podium Racing has today found redemption in the French city to secure her first Supertri League Championship.
The French-born athlete, who now races for Luxembourg, assumed control of the race of the final run leg of the day to break the resolve of her Podium Racing teammate, Léonie Périault, to take gold in both the series and the Toulouse event itself. Her victory would also confirm the teams title for her Podium Racing squad, with Périault coming home in second in both the race today and the overall series.
Jess Fullagar of Brownlee Racing would finish third in Toulouse and Georgia Taylor-Brown of Crown Racing in fourth, the latter securing third overall place in the series having won it in 2024.
Lehair went into Toulouse knowing that victory here would finally secure her a Supertri League title, having won two of the 2025 series races in Chicago and Jersey. The 29-year-old had previously suffered Supertri heartbreak in her hometown, however, failing to finish in both 2023 and 2024 for an unclipped helmet and suffering a puncture, respectively.
Nerves would show on the final run leg of the day when Lehair failed to utilise her Short Chute, but she had enough speed and stamina to take the victory and celebrate on the finishing chute in front of thousands of fans.
“I’m almost more relieved than happy! When I crossed the line, I was like ‘Amen, finally!’ I’m happy to win here and the overall series victory as well. We [Lehair and Périault] were still having to think about the team out there as well, which made it more complicated instead of just going for the individual title. But it’s finally a happy ending for me here.”
Today’s race was contested over the Supertri format with no breaks between the three swim, bike and run stages. The course was arguably the toughest Supertri course, with a rare Supertri river swim in the chilly waters of the Garonne river, before twisting city centre bike and run courses pushed the skills and stamina of the Supertri triathletes to their limits.
RACE BREAKDOWN
STAGE 1
The first 300m swim of the day would see a main group led out by the 17-year-old rising star Fanni Szalai of Brownlee Racing, securing a Short Chute for her team ahead of series contenders Jeanne Lehair of Podium Racing and Georgia Taylor-Brown of Crown Racing.
The 4km bike was initially dominated by Taylor-Brown, who broke away at the front to established a 5secs advantage by the halfway stage, but that lead had evaporated by T2 and it would be Jess Fullagar of Brownlee Racing to prevent the second Short Chute going to anyone else.
Stage 1’s 1.2km run saw Lehair lay down an instant marker, pushing into second to leave Taylor-Brown trailing in her wake. Lehair would pass Fullagar by the halfway mark but the two would run together on the hilly and technical run course to create significant daylight by the end of Stage 1, with Lehair gaining the third and final Short Chute for Podium Racing.
STAGE 2
The second 300m swim saw Lehair and Fullagar enter the water together, with Taylor-Brown and series contender Léonie Périault of Podium Racing diving in together. Those duos would become a gang of six by the halfway stage of the swim, being joined in the water by Szalai and Jolien Vermeylen of Brownlee Racing.
The 4km bike would begin with Taylor-Brown failing to mount her bike and losing valuable seconds to the leaders. Two groups of three existed throughout the bike leg, with Lehair, Fullagar and Vermeylen in the lead pack five seconds ahead of the chasing Taylor-Brown, Périault and Szalai. A group of six had again formed by the end of lap four, with the rest of the field now over 40secs in arrears and already out the podium picture.
The penultimate 1.2km run of the day saw Lehair first onto the course, soon joined by Fullagar, Périault and Taylor-Brown, with the Brownlee Racing pair of Szalai and Vermeylen slipping behind. With their swim caps on heads, that front four would finished Stage 2 together with little separating the championship contenders. Lehair would have the Short Chute, however.
STAGE 3
First into the final 300m swim of the series was Lehair, but the 29-year-old would soon relinquish that lead to her Podium Racing colleague Périault. Szalai and Vermeylen would again bridge the gap to the leaders to again create a lead group of six. Series contenders Lehair and Périault would bump into each other on the exit ramp, after Périault dropped her cap to lose vital seconds going into the bike leg.
Lehair started the 4km bike leg at the front, with the high-octane pace seeing the rest of the field bar Zuzana Michalickova of Podium Racing dropping out at the back of the race due to the 90-second eliminator being in place. Formidable cyclist Taylor-Brown would move to the front on lap three but couldn’t create enough of an advantage ahead of the deciding run leg of the series, with a slower transition seeing her exit T2 in fourth.
All was to play for on the decisive 1.2km run of the day and series, with Lehair and Périault knowing victory in Toulouse would see them also crowned the series champion. But it would be Lehair who’d take to the front of the run course first, dropping the chasers but forgetting to use her Short Chute. Not that it mattered, as she still had enough in the tank to gap the chasers and celebrate on the finishing chute in front of her home crowd. Périault would place second, Fullagar third, Taylor-Brown fourth and Vermeylen in fifth.
