At the end of May, the WTCS will welcome a brand new course to the circuit as Alghero makes its first appearance in the Series. In each of the past three seasons, Sardinia has successfully hosted a Series stop in Cagliari. Now the racing will be moving from the south to the northwest of the island to the old Catalan enclave.
Alghero will stand as the second standard distance race of the Series and, with the defending Olympic and world champion absent and the standard-setter for 2025 unfortunately struck down by a bike crash, it could play a major role in teeing up a first-time world champion. Read on to find out which men will be starting and four talking points from the start list.
Who’s not there?
We’re going to do this one a little differently as who is not in Alghero will have a major bearing on both the race and the broader hunt for the world title. We knew Alex Yee would likely not be racing given Alghero is only five weeks after his debut assault at the marathon. Having missed the first half of the year, we have no real idea what he will do on the triathlon scene this season.
The unfortunate news of Hayden Wilde’s bike crash in Tokyo at the weekend also means that he is out of the race. Having won the season openers in both the WTCS and the T100, Wilde had opened the possibility of potentially winning two titles this year. Alas, it is not to be.
With Manoel Messias, a previous medallist at WTCS Cagliari, and Morgan Pearson, a rare WTCS race winner since 2022 not called Yee or Wilde, both absent, Alghero is suddenly a race that is wide open with no obvious favourite.
Who’s there?
So if none of the obvious winners are racing, who is? Far from this being a weaker field, there are a plethora of WTCS race winners and medallists with world champions from two of the past three seasons in attendance.
The French quintet looks especially formidable with Leo Bergere (2022 world champion, Olympic bronze medallist and previous medallist in Cagliari), Dorian Coninx (2023 world champion) and Pierre Le Corre (WTCS gold medallist and Olympic 4th place finisher) all starting. Throw in Yanis Seguin and Tom Richard and this is a team set to do some damage on the streets of Alghero.
With Yee, Wilde and Pearson out, Matthew Hauser is the only race winner from 2024 starting. The two-time gold medallist has not yet won a Series race over the standard distance, however he arrives in Alghero having claimed the Oceania title over the longer format. Nor is he the sole Australian contender, with WTCS medallist Luke Willian, World Cup winner Callum McClusky and newly-crowned Oceania sprint distance champion Brandon Copeland lurking on the start list.
Vasco Vilaca finished one spot behind Hauser in 3rd place at the season opener in Abu Dhabi. No man won more WTCS medals than Vilaca in 2023 and after a crash undermined his 2024 campaign he is looking back to his best. A first Series win appears to be a question of when, not if. With Ricardo Batista and Miguel Tiago Silva also racing for Portugal, Vilaca will be part of a trio capable of breaking up the race in any of the three disciplines.
Csongor Lehmann won his first WTCS medal in Cagliari last season and will be champing at the bit to return to the start line in Sardinia. Similarly, Miguel Hidalgo will be in action after winning a maiden Series medal of his own last year. Whereas Hidalgo races alone this time for Brazil, Lehmann will be joined by the experienced Bence Bicsák and Márk Dévay as well as the rising Gergely Kiss on the Hungarian team.
In terms of proven talent, then, the men’s start list in Alghero certainly wants for little and the podium looks like it will be the most unpredictable of recent times. And that is before you add in the stars of tomorrow also racing.
David Cantero del Campo was the fastest runner in Abu Dhabi and recently broke the Spanish U23 10km record. Such is the brightness of his future, he might be the biggest threat on a Spanish team that contains two WTCS medallists (Antonio Serrat Seoane and Roberto Sanchez Mantecon) and a multiple World Cup winner (David Castro Fajardo).
Henry Graf has been one of the biggest talking points of 2025 so far. The 4th place finisher in Abu Dhabi and Lievin World Cup winner will be joined in German colours by Valentin Wernz, Eric Diener and everyone’s favourite breakaway maestro and running pace-setter, Jonas Schomburg.
To go with that, Connor Bentley, the 2022 World U23 champion, and Hugo Milner, the fastest ever runner at a WTCS Final, head up a four-man British team. And last, but no means least, there is the small matter of Mr Kristian Blummenfelt. The Tokyo Olympic champion and 2021 world champion is one of two Norwegian men starting in what will be his first short course appearance since the Paris Olympic Games. It remains to be seen whether Blummenfelt will actually start as he has long distance priorities to consider and could be substituted out for a Norwegian teammate. Still, his presence on the start list at this stage only makes the race that bit spicier.
Four talking points
Anyone’s game
The outlook from the men’s start list is simple. This is shaping up to be the most madcap, bonkers race of the last couple of years. There is no favourite. There is no obvious overpowering tactic à la Yee or Wilde’s run. There is simply a collection of phenomenal athletes, all of whom have beaten each other in recent times and all of whom would love nothing more than to get a jump on their rivals in the race to the world title.
Without Yee and Wilde, a running race suddenly appears a much more palatable strategy for several athletes. But will even the likes of Vilaca, Hauser and Bergere really fancy going toe-to-toe with Cantero and Milner? Let’s also not forget that only Bergere, Conninx and Blummenfelt have actually won a WTCS race over the standard distance. This is new territory for most of the contenders. We will likely have a better idea of what might happen after WTCS Yokohama, but for the most part, Alghero truly is anyone’s game.
Bentley and Kiss
Two athletes to watch closely in Alghero will be Connor Bentley and Gergely Kiss. The pair took gold and silver at the 2022 World U23 Championships (Kiss then added another medal at the 2024 championship) and aged out of the category at the start of this year. The time has now come for them to make their presence known in the senior ranks.
Bentley ended 2024 in promising form, with finishes of 17th at WTCS Weihai and 18th at WTCS Torremolinos. To date, he has only made three Series starts and so has plenty of room to grow. Kiss, meanwhile, will be making his long-awaited Series debut. The last Hungarian male World U23 medallist was none other than Csongor Lehmann and, while it might not happen right away, plenty will back Kiss to match his compatriot in achieving a WTCS podium at some point. A podium in Alghero may be beyond their reach, but look for Bentley and Kiss to show progress as they take the next steps on their paths to the top.
The 70.3 effect
Lately, it has become common for short course athletes to step up to the middle distance formats (whether Ironman 70.3 or the T100) to dazzling effect. Among those starting in Alghero, Pierre Le Corre, Emil Holm, Jonas Schomburg, Adrien Briffod, Csongor Lehmann and Roberto Sanchez Mantecon have all taken on the 70.3 distance in recent weeks, with several winning medals.
Lest we forget, Kristian Blummenfelt is a previous Ironman world champion, Leo Bergere took silver at T100 Singapore and Miguel Hidalgo recorded one of the fastest 70.3 performances in history mere weeks ago. As a result, the 70.3 distance has become a home from home of sorts for many in the field. In non-drafting middle distance racing, bike power acquires a far greater significance and the question is how this bike focus will translate into WTCS racing. Maybe it will enable more breakaways as the stronger riders power clear. Conversely, it could shut down moves as more athletes can count on middle distance strength. Either way, we are about to see the fruits of all this 70.3 labour.
Yokohama-Alghero double
One of the big talking points from WTCS Cagliari last year was how drastically the fortunes shifted of those that took on both Yokohama and Cagliari in quick succession. With the same two week interval separating Yokohama from Alghero this year, it remains to be seen whether the snakes-and-ladders trend of 2024 will hold.
As examples of the more prominent shifts last year, Morgan Pearson went from winning in Yokohama to finishing 40th in Cagliari while the women’s winner in Japan, Leonie Periault, also crossed the line down in 26th. In the opposite direction, Csognor Lehmann and Lisa Tertsch jumped from 14th in Yokohama to winning medals in Cagliari. Moreover, Ricardo Batista rose from 32nd to 5th across the two races with Jeanne Lehair making a similar climb from 28th to 5th. Notwithstanding that some athletes handled the double well last year, there was a clear pattern of changing fortunes and peaking for both races back-to-back may prove more challenging than many expect.
Watch all the action in Alghero live on TriathlonLive on 31st May and stay informed with all the latest developments across all World Triathlon channels. View the full men’s start lists here.
