World Triathlon

The first-ever edition of the World Triathlon Championship Series Weihai saw another masterclass of hard racing by Olympic champion Alex Yee on Friday morning in China. The Brit was in the big lead group out of the 1500m swim and stayed up front during the eight laps of the gruelling bike course to then lead the run from start to finish and claim yet another victory over New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde, who didn’t have the legs and suffered on the bike segment to cross the finish line in 7th place. Second over the line was France’s Leo Bergere, while Brazil’s Miguel Hidalgo (BRA) finished in third place, the best result of his career so far and the first time ever on a WTCS podium for the rising star.

“That was a triathlon for sure!” beamed Yee afterwards. “I just wanted to come back and have fun, the last few weeks have been so chaotic and being on that course with these guys on this course, I couldn’t ask for much more, that was a race to be proud of. This format is what I love doing. I’ve grown up inspired by the likes of Vince (Luis), Mario (Mola), Alistair and Jonny (Brownlee)… and I wanted to be just like them and that’s what I aspire to do. I’m absolutely loving it. For me, this is the racing I’ve had a passion for.”

Yee off to perfect start

As the 42 men lined up on the stunning beach of Halfmoon Bay in Weihai, the sun started to shine from early morning and with the water slightly above 24 degrees, it was the perfect temperature for the 1500m, 2-lap swim. It was Australia’s Matthew Hauser who once again showed his dominance in the water, being the first to hit the beach both on the first lap and then on the swim exit towards transition.

But he was not alone. Right on his shoulder was another excellent swimmer, Vincent Luis (FRA), while Alberto Gonzalez Garcia (ESP) and Dylan McCullough (NZL) were only a couple of seconds behind. With all the main contenders in the lead pack hitting transition, Alex Yee (GBR) was only 8 seconds back after a great swim, while Hayden Wilde was 16 seconds behind the leader, the last athlete to make it to the big group that would head up the first of the 8 climbs of the Weihai hills.

As soon as they were on their bikes, McCullough, Leo Bergere (FRA), Jack Willis (GBR) and Simon Westermann (SUI) put their heads down and started to get the group organised. At the same time, Wilde, Pierre Le Corre (FRA) and Hauser stayed at the back of the group, trying to breathe a bit during the fast downhill to hit transition.

Pace too hot for Wilde and Hauser

It only took the front of the packs another lap to drop their first rivals: Hauser first, and half a lap later, Le Corre and Wilde, much to the surprise of the front group, who kept looking behind them checking who was with them.

By the end of the second lap, the lead group was down to 11: Yee, McCullough, Willis, Max Stapley (GBR), Westermann, Bergere, Luis, Miguel Hidalgo (BRA), Jonas Schomburg (GER), Gonzalez and Luke Willian (AUS) and they went to work immediately, knowing that class runners like Wilde, Le Corre and Hauser were struggling behind.

Halfway through the bike, Yee decided to show off his brand new golden helmet putting his head down, and the gap with Wilde’s group increased to a minute and a half, with the chase group struggling to get organised to take turns pulling on the climb on each lap.

Hammer down out of T2

The leading 11 men hit the second transition with a safe 1min30secs lead, enough for Wilde to know that it would be too much of a task to finish on the podium. Up front, it only took a few seconds for Yee to take the lead and never look back, knowing that he also had some strong runners on his lead pack.

The Brit soon got some daylight with Leo Bergere and Miguel Hidalgo, who led the chase, while Luis, Gonzalez, McCollough and Willian fought to stay up front. And behind them came flying Wilde, coming closer and closer and the laps went by.

Meanwhile, Yee extended his lead with another stunning running masterclass, with the fastest split of the day -29:40- to cross the finish line with almost a minute over Leo Bergere. Yee’s victory also puts him in a golden spot for the Championship Finals in Torremolinos, leading the Series rankings with just one race to go.

An impressive final push on the run had Alberto Gonzalez crossing the finish line in fourth place, also a personal best for the Spaniard, while Luis rounded the top five. Luke Willian followed him just a couple meters ahead of Wilde, with the second fastest run split of the day to finish in a bittersweet 7th place, and his teammate Dylan McCullough with a solid 8th.

What they said

“(The swim) has been a long-term project,” admitted Yee. “I’ve been working towards getting to that point where I can call myself a complete triathlete and I feel I’m getting close to that, and it’s kudos to everyone back home in my corner who has put so much into it. This was a standalone race, Torremolinos will be the same. The hard work had been done before the Olympics, now I’m just going to have fun and give everyone a show”, he added.

“I’m pleased more in the way we pushed all day long, we had fun at the front hurting, but we need more tough courses like this,” said Bergere. “Hats off to Alex for the front-pack swim, I was quite surprised to see him there but he did the perfect race. I wanted to make the race hard for everyone and I knew on the hill everyone was suffering, even in the draft. I was pushing with Dylan and Alex and a few guys. I knew Miguel was a tough runner and wasn’t going to let me win the battle easily, I had to really dig deep for that second place.”

Bronze was for Hidalgo on his best performance so far, the first time ever on a WTCS podium for the young Brazilian. “It feels amazing. I remember watching my first WTCS, Stockholm 2013, Alistair doing the breakaway and I knew it was just a matter of time until I could be on the podium. I’ve been consistently in the top 10 for a while now and I knew after the Olympics a lot of people might not be training so much, so I went back to altitude and worked hard and it paid off. I’m still learning a lot in the races. I didn’t race much this year so in Paris I felt bit of a lack of race rhythm, but today I finally did it and there’s much more to come for sure”, he said.