He had something to put right after his disappointment in Abu Dhabi, and Hayden Wilde just did it in very impressive style: the New Zealander was supreme at the WTCS Yokohama and ran unchallenged to victory.
That may seem different if you look purely at the results – after all, Wilde finished just four seconds ahead of Matthew Hauser and six seconds ahead of Vasco Vilaca, both of whom, by the way, had to sprint to secure a podium finish – but Wilde was able to take it easy for the last few hundred meters of the run: his lead was half a minute when he decided to enjoy the crowd and cheers in the closing stages. He looked over his shoulder a few more times when he was already running on the blue carpet, so he knew exactly how much margin he had to secure his victory.
He did just that after a fine swim and then a bike leg where a huge pack of 40 men led the race. Only eight men did not manage to make it to this group and thus found themselves lagging far behind. Most notable among these was Gustav Iden; remarkable, because in Abu Dhabi Iden already had a bad day and today was no different.
Wilde, meanwhile, maintained his position in the peloton, but during the run he immediately went off together with Léo Bergere. However, the Frenchman could only hang on for one of the four run laps and then it was Wilde who took off on his own. He won the race in a time of 1:42:13. Hauser followed four seconds later in second and Vilaca was third at six seconds.
