Chanel, Hong Kong.

Café de Coral is the largest Chinese fast food brand in Hong Kong with over 150 stores. I first tasted their delights on a family holiday when I was 6. Fast forward a couple of decades to the next time I would be back and the winning formula hasn’t changed. There are a few factors which make Café de Coral a dining experience.

• Don’t let the fancy sounding name fool you. Meals are about $30 HKD which is approx. $5 NZD / $4 USD / €3 EUR for an Asian combo (just imagine rice instead of french fries to go with your meat and drink).
• They call their restaurants ‘self-service’. You pay for your order in one corner, go over to another corner to give your order to the kitchen, hang around like a bad smell while it gets prepared, and then go to the next to pickup.
• Everyone goes there. At 10:00pm, I was sitting next to families, suits, and deadbeats, all eating in perfect harmony.

Contrast this modesty to the exclusivity just around the corner. 11:00pm, and the line to the Chanel store is unabating while the patient young citizens wait for their turn. Ditto for Louis Vuitton to my right but not for Dior behind me who have closed for the evening.

Alice Betto drives the main pack.

In the 2012 World Triathlon Series final in Auckland, Anne Haug’s team mates helped her to bridge a gap on the bike to make it back to the main pack. She would bide her time before making a move on the final run lap which earn her the win. Fast forward six months to the opening leg of the 2013 ITU World Triathlon Series. It worked before, why not again?

Felicity Abram leads the pack early in the run.

For 2013, Haug would leave T1 45s down but make it to the main pack in little over one lap of the bike (5km). Too easy; next year the aim will be for a 2 minute deficit to make it interesting.

She would tuck in behind as Alice Betto drove the early stages of the bike while Felicity Abram did similarly on the run. Another move on the final run lap and a carbon copy victory was in the bag.

The first of three climbs on each bike lap.

Samantha Warriner in her return to ITU competition, aged 41.

Behind after the swim, Bárbara Riveros Díaz spends the day chasing.

Anja Knapp trails the pack by 20s on the first run lap.