It has been many years in the making, but on Saturday afternoon in the heat of Alghero Miguel Hidalgo delivered Brazil's first ever World Triathlon Championship Series gold medal with an outstanding run to the title.
After bronze in Yokohama, the 25-year-old looked in determined mood to go even better as he lined up next to number one Matt Hauser on the Sardinian sands. After a 9-deep bike break put 90 seconds into the rest of the field, Hidalgo flew out of transition and detonated a first lap that nobody else could touch. That was where he would stay, too, taking nearest challengers Hauser and Leo Bergere out of the equation and taking the tape by 28 seconds from the Australian who maintains his Series lead, Bergere in third.
'It’s the best feeling I ever had in a race, days like this you just have to enjoy and go for it,' said a smiling Hidalgo. 'I saw that in the women’s race those on the right of the start had a bit of an advantage so I was happy to see Hauser go right too and give me faith I’d made the right choice. If it wasnt for Leo we wouldn't have had the breakaway, he worked so hard at the start of the bike. We opened up a good gap and kept it going so I was happy to keep guys like Cantero and Milner away. I started to feel good on the run and it is never a good choice to leave it late with Matt Hauser, so I set my pace and kept it. From the first lap I was just trying to keep focussed and its such an important moment for me and Brazilian triathlon and Im really proud of this one.'
The win and 1,000 points cements Hidalgo's second spot in the WTCS Rankings after three races behind Hauser. The best three Series scores plus the Championship Finals count in the race for the 2025 world title.
With the rest of the top-ranked athletes taking up position on the left of the deepwater start, Hidalgo and Hauser's decision to be right looked a good one as the Australian quickly carved through clear water up front.
At the 750m turn, Hauser led Tayler Reid, Miguel Tiago Silva and Chase McQueen, Hidalgo and Max Stapley well in touch. That was largely how things looked after the second lap, too, ten seconds separating the top 10, Bergere desperately hanging on to the front pack.
A lightning fast T1 helped Bergere's cause, as did staying out of trouble as Reid came off early, and soon he was past Hauser and on the front, setting a rapid pace through the first two of the nine 4.5km bike laps.
That effort paid huge dividends as the gap went out to a minute to the chasers at the halfway point, Luke Willian, Charles Paquet and Seth Rider completing the front nine names and scything through the Alghero streets.
By the end of the nine bike laps the chase pack was as one, but they had fallen 1m45 back and the medals started to look beyond the reach of even the likes of David Cantero and Hugo Milner's pace, unless the bike effort had seriously hurt the leaders.
Hidalgo put that beyond any doubt with a first 2.5km lap a full 20 seconds faster than his nearest rivals Bergere and Hauser and 6 seconds quicker than potential danger man Cantero. From there, it was a case of holding on to what he had built.
More than that, he was able to put another ten seconds in to the chasers on lap two, while Callum McClusky battled to hold on to Milner and Roberto Sanchez followed Cantero's charge of the Spaniards. Luke Willian and Charles Paquet refused not be caught, though.
The final kilometre and Hidalgo was finally able to enjoy the moment that he and Brazil had craved for so long. It was a 30m09s 10km run that secured the historic first gold at the end of a breakneck-speed race, Hauser battling back to take the silver and Bergere with bronze.
Willian pulled out an excellent fourth place, Paquet holding on for fifth from the marauding Cantero and Sanchez, Milner running into 8th, Miguel Tiago and Csongor Lehmann completing the top 10.
Matt Hauser:
'I'm really happy with that, I had a bit of sickness post Yokohama so Im stoked to have put that together. It was a tough run and seeing Miguel go up the road was a bit of a mindblower. When Leo overtook me I wasn’t quite ready to go into that zone so I tried to save it for the last hill and give a bit of a surge. The women had a good breakaway and gave us some belief and full credit to Leo Bergere for that effort.'
Leo Bergere:
'I wanted to have a strong start to the bike to get a gap on the group. Sad to see Tayler Reid go down early but I managed to stay out of trouble and hit the front. I had a lot of fun, a lot of single-file riding. Im slowly getting back to top form, still struggling with some back issues, but hoping to build my shape through what will be a long season and I don't want to rush things.'
Full results can be found here.
