It was a consummate mid-May display at WTCS Yokohama that took Matt Hauser to the top of the Series rankings after two events just a fortnight ago. Now, Australia's numero uno heads to a new Olympic-distance challenge in the shape of WTCS Alghero on Saturday, eyes firmly on another 1,000 points that would cement his position at the top of the rankings.
Sardinia has become Italy’s home of swim-bike-run with three editions of WTCS Cagliari (2022-2024, four World Cups in Cagliari (2016-2019) and three in Arzachena (2020-2022) over the past decade. The city of Alghero on the island’s north-west coast steps up this weekend to host over the 1.5km swim, 9-lap 40km bike and 4-lap 10km run.
Watch the men in action on TriathlonLive.tv from 3.30pm on Saturday 31 May.
Of those ten races on the island since 2016, Hauser has been involved just once, finishing 11th at WTCS Cagliari in 2022. Now, with the prospect of a Wollongong home Finals coming up fast in October, the 27-year-old has a glorious opportunity to put himself in the box seat even before the halfway point of the season.
Hauser’s gold in Yokohama followed silver in Abu Dhabi. On both occasions, Vasco Vilaça was the closest in chase. In Abu Dhabi, the Australian was 18s faster over the 5km than his Portuguese rival, in Japan it was just 6s over the 10km. Another trademark field-stretching swim from Hauser will be the first goal on Saturday.
But Vilaça will have learned much from both outings this year and, after a remarkable eight top-tier podiums, will still be fully confident in his ability to shut out the Australian, just as he did on route to fifth place in the Paris Olympics.
Yokohama saw a second bronze medal in four Series events for Brazil’s Miguel Hidalgo, and that included a huge amount of work on the bike to help haul the chasers up to the lead group. Reducing the deficit out of the water and the demands on the legs across the bike will be a big target in Alghero.
Portugal’s Ricardo Batista has been building towards that precious first Series podium since smashing onto the scene with sixth place at Paris 2024 just behind his teammate. With no obvious weakness to his game, it looks like just a few more Olympic-distance races in his legs should be needed to see him among the medals at some point soon.
Completing the top five names onto the start line will be Britain’s Max Stapley. It may still only really be his second season proper on the Series, but his aggressive swim-bike has seen him a front-pack regular and successive finishes one spot off the top 10 will be fuel to the fire of a big show as GB’s top-ranked athlete here this weekend.
Fourth and fifth respectively in Yokohama, the ever-consistent French duo of Leo Bergere and Dorian Coninx will be joined by Pierre Le Corre for his first Series action of 2025. Expect all three to be front pack across all three disciplines, but can one of them conjure up a first French podium of the year?
Canada’s Tyler Mislawchuk and Charles Paquet were both back among the top 10 in Yokohama and will be eager to lap up some hot Sardinian racing, Spain’s U23 World Champion David Cantero marks returns from a long training block ready to detonate his impressive run. If in touch off the bike, both Cantero and GB’s Hugo Milner – pacer for Alex Yee at the London Marathon – undoubtedly have the speed to challenge for the medals.
WTCS ALGHERO
SATURDAY 31 MAY
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