After a true thriller in which Alex Yee and Hayden Wilde ran side by side until the very last meters, the Briton has just won the WTCS Cagliari. Yee had to dig deep for it, but after a final effort he left Wilde behind to run away with the victory.
No serious differences emerged during the swim: in a large group all the men came out of the water one by one, led by Márk Dévay who needed 17:07 minutes for his 1500 meters. On the bike, a small leading group initially formed at the front with Dévay, Jamie Riddle, Dorian Coninx and Nicolo Strada, but within the first few kilometers a number of chasing groups joined, creating a peloton of 24 athletes. Biggest absentees in this group included Jelle Geens, Kristian Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden and even though they formed a chasing group, they could not prevent losing more and more time. Nor was that very fas though, because once back in T2, this group followed 1:10 minute behind.
During the run, initially Schomburg went away fastest – a picture we see often – but already in the first of four running laps, big favorites Alex Yee and Hayden Wilde passed by. From then on, a high-speed tactical joust ensued, with Yee and Wilde running head-to-head, steadily increasing the pace and for a long time even side-by-side. Also behind the two leaders a beautiful battle for the remaining medal ensued, mainly led by Bergere, Le Corre, Coninx and Schomburg.
With only 2.5 kilometers to go, the battle was completely open and eyes were mainly on Yee and Wilde, who still kept running together. Wilde in particular tightened the thumbscrews with some acceleration, but the always strong running Yee was seemingly able to follow just fine. Meanwhile, Bergere seemed to decide the battle for bronze in his favor by also running away from his competitors.
Only in the very last meters did Yee, thanks to a beautiful acceleration, run away from Wilde. The Brit won the race in a time of 1:36:28 and remained five seconds ahead of Wilde. Bergere indeed captured the bronze, 36 seconds after Yee won the race.
