Sarah Haskins of the U.S. used a breakaway on the bike to score her first career ITU Triathlon World Cup title in Monterrey on Sunday.  Japan’s Ai Ueda claimed silver for the second straight year.  Anne Haug of Germany came in third, the best World Cup result of her career.

More than 70 women began the race and out of the 1.5km swim, Haskins was part of the lead group along with Flora Duffy (BER), Pamela Nascimento Oliveira (BRA), Akane Tsuchihashi (JPN), Claudia Rivas (MEX) and Margit Vanek (HUN).  The leaders held a 40-second gap to their pursuers.

On the second lap on bike, Haskins and Duffy broke away from the rest and worked together to build a lead.  Tsuchihashi could not cling with the chase group of Vanek, Rivas and Oliveira, who were eventually caught by a big group of 50 athletes. 

Haskins worked with Duffy for the half of the 40km bike course but eventually pulled away from her and went solo. She built a lead of one minute, 24 seconds from the main pack by the end of the bike segment. 

“Once I got on the bike, I noticed that Flora and I had a gap right away,” said Haskins. “About with three laps, two and a half laps to go, I just looked behind me I didn’t see Flora, so I just kind of made the decision, I only had two and a half laps to go, I just went.”

With a comfortable lead in hand, Haskins had to hold off a surging Ueda on the 10km run course.  Last year’s silver medallist unofficially posted the fastest run split in the field at 35:31 but she was just six seconds short of catching Haskins.  Ueda’s performance was very similar from last year when she ran through almost the entire field except for the winner.  It was her fourth career World Cup medal; all of them coming in Mexico.

“Again second place, but I am so happy with the second place,” said Ueda. “I want to take this confidence to the next step.  I like Mexico!!”

The German Haug surprised many, taking the bronze.

“Fantastic race for me, and I am so happy about the podium,” said Haug.  “I had a very fast first kilometer and then I saw a very big chase pack behind me.  I ran together in the group, and in the last 200 metres, I gave everything I had.  So I am very happy about the third place.”

Denmark’s Helle Frederiksen just missed out on the podium in fourth place, just a few seconds behind Haug.  American running speedster Gwen Jorgensen came across in fifth place, followed by Rachel Klamer of the Netherlands in sixth, and Canadian Kathy Tremblay in seventh.

The next round of the 2011 ITU Triathlon World Cup series will be July 10 in Edmonton Canada.  The next Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Series event will be in Madrid on June 4-5.

Photo gallery and video highlights to come soon!