On a new course that could foreseeably become one of the iconic locations in the WTCS, and on a day in which an icon in the making delivered a clinical performance, the men’s race could be encapsulated by two moments and two iconic quotes.
- “Death, taxes and Márk Dévay coming past at the second buoy,” said Matthew Hauser of the swim that broke up the field.
- “He was the one that got away,” noted Vasco Vilaca, in reference not to the typical relationship drama but rather the drama of the final fight on the run against Hauser.
Later in the afternoon, the women’s race was up, down, left, right and everything in between as it tried to figure out what it was. A breakaway, a running race and a gripping showdown at the death on the blue carpet; it had all a triathlon can be squeezed into less than an hour. Find out five of the numerous talking points we took away from the racing below.
A new sheriff in town
Let’s get the excuses out of the first. It was Alex Yee’s first WTCS race of the year. Hayden Wilde had raced (and won) the T100 the day prior. But come on: surely no one can have watched Matthew Hauser’s total domination of WTCS French Riviera and genuinely thought that at this moment there is a better male triathlete in the Series. Taking his third win of the year, he bossed the race and the recent top dogs on men’s triathlon.
Hauser’s supremacy started in the first discipline, and it is no secret Yee and Wilde have previously been vulnerable in the water. Leo Bergers exploited it to win the 2022 world title. Dorian Coninx did the same in 2023. Since then, however, Yee and Wilde have done enough to still win. But now Hauser is the man so often driving the pace in the water. Moreover, he proved himself a dab hand at the other end of the race, out-splitting Yee and Wilde over 5km with the fastest run of the day. And then we come to the big picture. Since Hauser powered to his first WTCS win in Montreal in 2023, no man has won more than his five golds, Yee and Wilde included. What is increasingly clear, then, is that Hauser has barged his way to the top of the pile and the WTCS Final in Wollongong looks like it will be his coronation.
Reigning monarch reasserts herself
At the same time, the women’s race saw a reassertion of the status quo as Cassandre Beaugrand became the first athlete to win multiple WTCS races in 2025. The Olympic champion was made to work for every inch by the fearless performance of silver medallist Jeanne Lehair. Nevertheless, she found a way to solve the problem posed to her.
After her defeat to Leonie Periault in Hamburg, her first loss in over a year, the aura Beaugrand had carefully constructed showed the first hint of waning. With the inevitable emotional comedown after the Everest-like task of delivering gold at a home Olympic Games, there was a chance this was going to be someone else’s year. In the French Riviera, however, Beaugrand showed that she would not go down without a fight. With two wins and a silver medal, she now ascends to the top of the WTCS standings and, like Hauser, seems set to win this year’s world title, although in this rollercoaster season nothing can be taken for granted.
Vilaca vs Hidalgo
While Hauser is a runaway train at the top of the standings, the battle for 2nd behind him is becoming increasingly tense. Vasco Vilaca took a third silver medal of the season yesterday; unfortunately for him, each has come the exact same way, with Hauser pulling away from him in the final kilometre of the run. For his part, Hidalgo has collected one gold and two bronzes this season. He is also the only man to have beaten Hauser over the standard distance, a detail that could prove significant with only standard distance events to come.
Like Hauser, neither Vilaca nor Hidalgo have made the overall podium in a full WTCS campaign (Vilaca did medal at the single day world championships in 2020, but that was not a Series). As such, however this season ends, it seems likely that both will enjoy the best campaigns of their budding careers. Equally, the overall silver remains very much up for grabs. At WTCS French Riviera, as in Hamburg, Vilaca got one over Hidalgo. Their sub-battle, however, will be one of the biggest clashes for the remainder of the Series.
Home boy delivers
It was a race of dreams for France’s Tom Richard. The local athlete with plenty of home support urging him on, he uncorked a best ever WTCS performance on his way to 5th place. He was part of the ten-man breakaway that escaped on the streets of Fréjus and then topped off a perfect race with a classy run split, giving teammate and former world champion Coninx a mighty tussle.
Being born in 1993, Richard was one of the oldest men in the field and his result reiterates the truth that an athlete can hit new highs at any moment in their careers. In addition, his showing offers a kind of solace for 2024. With the surfeit of French talent, he did not make it to the Paris Olympics. Now, however, he has grabbed his chance to wow a crowd of compatriots.
Periault at the double
For an athlete that has medalled in every WTCS campaign since making her first podium at the 2021 Series Final, it has been an oddity of Leonie Periault’s career that she had never won multiple Series medals in the same season. Even after claiming a maiden win in Yokohama last year, she did not manage to back it up. In the wake of her phenomenal win in Hamburg, the question therefore had to be posed whether this would be the year she broke the trend.
On a day in which it seemed everything was determined to go slightly wrong for her, from missing the front pack on the bike to dropping crucial seconds in T2 that left her straining in 4th place to close down her rivals, she showed significant mental fortitude to reel in Emma Lombardi and take 3rd place. Thus, for the first time, Periault has two WTCS medals in the same year. Now her sights will turn to defending her ranking to make the overall podium for the first time. This might just be her year.
