2022 CrossFit Games Event One “Bike to Work” Results — Adams Sets the Pace, Men’s Leaderboard in Flux
The first of 13 events for Individual division athletes at the 2022 NOBULL CrossFit Games got underway in Madison, WI, at 9:00 a.m. CDT. The 40 Individual Men and 40 Individual Women opened the biggest CrossFit competition of the year with the following workout that combines long bike rides and gymnastics:
Workout One — “Bike to Work”
For time:
- 75 Toes-to-Bars
- Five-mile Bike
- 75 Chest-to-Bar Pull-Ups
- Five-mile Bike
Time cap: 50 minutes
Each Individual was fitted to a Trek bike featuring all-terrain tires for this contest. For the bike portion of this event, athletes will leave the North Park and ride five laps of a one-mile course. With a 50-minute time cap, the athletes knew this event was calling for a steadier pace for longer.
Four athletes were given penalties for not completing the requisite number of laps during Event One — Saxon Panchik, Lazar Đukić, Danielle Brandon, and Elena Carratala Sanahuja. Time equal to the slowest recorded lap was added to their final scores. Here are the Event One results:
Individual Women’s Results
- Haley Adams — 38:23.74
- Tia-Clair Toomey — 38:26.64
- Emma Lawson — 38.30.48
- Alexis Raptis — 39.01.04
- Laura Horvath — 39.01.25
- Mal O’Brien — 39.06.04
- Matilde Garnes — 39.07.12
- Lucy Campbell — 39.43.56
- Kara Saunders — 39.59.64
- Emma McQuaid — 40:19.55
Four rookies scored in the top 10 — Lawson, Raptis, Garnes, and Campbell.
Individual Men’s Results
- Ricky Garard — 36:47.61
- Jonne Koski — 36:49.34
- Justin Medeiros — 36:53.65
- Jeffrey Adler — 37:06.17
- Spencer Panchik — 37:17.00
- Roman Khrennikov — 37:18.52
- Björgvin Karl Gudmundsson — 37:24.35
- Willy Georges — 37:25.29
- Moritz Fiebig — 37:29.71
- Lazar Đukić — 37:48.00
There was confusion as to the number of laps several athletes performed. The leaderboard is subject to change pending any further review that could warrant penalizing an athlete.
[2022 NOBULL CrossFit Games Results and Leaderboard]
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Bike to Work Recap
The Individual Women were first to the field of play with much of the attention on five-time reigning Fittest Woman on Earth®, Tia-Clair Toomey. She would become the all-time winningest Individual CrossFitter ever if she claims the Games title for the sixth consecutive time.
All 40 women sprinted to the rig to knock out their 75 toes-to-bar, which the commentary team considered critical. They did not believe there was much room to maneuver during the workout once athletes were on the bikes. Toomey, Haley Adams, and Matilde Garnes were the first to reach the bike course. The rest of the heat jumbled in a crowd as they moved from the arena to the bike course.
Laura Horvath quickly took the lead and was noted to have had the fastest test run on the bike portion before the contest began. She navigated the ever-changing terrain, from flat road to grass to gravel, and all the twists and turns to complete lap one first with an unofficial 10-second lead.
Through the second lap, Horvath extended her unofficial lead to 15 seconds, and it quickly became her event to lose. Adams, Toomey, and Emily Rolfe stayed tightly together behind Horvath, and the rest of the field was a sizable distance behind them. Horvath lapped Michelle Merand, heading into lap three with a 14-second lead over Adams in second.
Horvath’s wide lead continued as she entered the stadium for chest-to-bar pull-ups. Adams pulled away from Toomey and Rolfe to assume a clear second-place position. Toomey was in third, leading the group of Garnes, Rolfe, Emma Lawson, and Alexis Raptis. Horvath finished the bike ride at a time of 15:58.
Adams and Toomey churned through the chest-to-bar pull-ups to overtake Horvath. Toomey finished larger sets of the pull-ups to get onto the bike course first, making up a 45-second deficit. Adams was tight on her heels, and it didn’t take long for Adams to take the overall lead — 20 seconds ahead of Horvath.
The field appeared to look more cluttered as Adams and Toomey started lapping groups of athletes maintaining slower paces. Adams held the dominant position that Horvath assumed early on.
Cameras spent a lot of time focused on Lawson’s drafting strategy behind Toomey, meaning Lawson stayed very tight to Toomey’s hind wheel. At this point in the event, the commentary team seemed to consider Adams the defacto winner, given her long lead of approximately 12 seconds over Lawson and Toomey. Adams sprinted to the finish line to claim her first career event win at the Games.
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The men raced across the field to the rig for their toes-to-bar, and Event One was on. Ricky Gerard, Giorgos Karavis, Lazar Đukić, Roman Khrennikov, and reigning Fittest Man on Earth®, Justin Medeiros, appeared in the lead on the toes-to-bar, but it was Noah Ohlsen who was first to the bike ride.
Ohlsen’s lead did not last long as Khrennikov moved into first with Medeiros behind him. Pat Vellner entered the fray towards the front of the heat as well. The men were much more tightly crammed together early in the first bike ride than the women.
Khrennikov led a group of five other men pulling away from Gerard, who split the gap from the rest of the field. After the second lap, Medeiros and Đukić made their moves to first and second, respectively. Jonne Koski snuck into third place, heading into lap three.
Trees along the course revealed a decent breeze T-barred the course. The greenery watched Koski slip between Đukić and Medeiros to take the lead with the intent to win the first event at the Games for the second straight year.
Koski, Đukić, and Medeiros were at the front of the pack. They communicated with each other about who would lead the group—the other two drafted behind the leader. The competition is individual, but the teamwork was paying off. They were the first to the stadium for the chest-to-bar pull-ups.
The trio continued trading the lead in the pull-ups, but Koski was the first athlete back to the bike. History started to repeat itself as rain trickled in — Koski won the first event of the 2021 Games in the water and could do something similar in 2022 if he maintained his lead.
The all-terrain tires should handle any added slickness on the course caused by the rain but athletes needed to be aware of the rain’s potential impact with five one-mile laps to go. Spencer Panchik paired up with Đukić for second and third, respectively, behind Koski. Colten Mertens struggled early and was lapped by the lead athletes.
Koski’s lead extended upwards of 22 seconds, but the commentary team believed there was still time for Đukić and Panchik to close the gap. Koski disguised himself in a group of riders he effectively lapped to throw off his trail. That group eventually began drafting off of Koski.
Panchik and Đukić entered the arena and crossed the finish line, but confusion ensued. Both men were behind Koski, and they both skipped a whole lap. The commentary team feared what this mistake would do to their times:
This is an unprecedented situation.
Koski entered the arena and crossed the finish line behind Ricky Gerard, who may have also skipped a lap. Medeiros wasn’t far behind them. The commentary team was at a loss as chaos regarding who was in the lead took over.
The leaderboard listed initial results, but after clarifying the situation, the commentary team seemed convinced that multiple athletes indeed skipped laps, and Koski would be declared the official winner. Following review, Panchik and Đukić received penalties for not performing all five laps. Garard apparently took the lead from Koski and finished before him as Garard was not given a penalty.
On To Event Three and Four?
Event Two consists of two Individual workouts, each of which will be worth an entire event’s worth of points. Titled the “Shuttle to Overhead,” it combines running and jerk. It was initially scheduled to and will start at 1:00 p.m. CDT on Day One, but weather delays pushed the event to Aug. 4, 2022, which was an originally scheduled rest day.
The third and fourth workouts in Day One are scheduled for 4:30 p.m. CDT and 7:00 p.m. CDT, respectively, and will remain on schedule.
Individual athletes will compete in 13 workouts throughout the five-day competition. There will be a cut of 10 athletes in each Individual division before the final day of competition.
Featured image: @crossfitgames on Instagram