Alex Yee came into the World Triathlon Championship Series Grand Final in Torremolinos needing a sixth place finish to finally earn his first world championship. That title has proven elusive, with three straight tries for Yee coming up short.

Today, that streak ended — although it took another outstanding run from Yee in order to make it happen, using the second fastest run of the day to move into the podium places and secure the world title. He joins women’s champion Cassandre Beaugrand in pulling off the Olympic Gold – WTCS World title double in the same season.

Yee, post-race, said, “This has evaded me for the last three years and makes it even sweeter. It is probably something that has haunted me day in day out and I wanted to put on a show and a smile on peoples’ faces and I’m World Champion. There’s always going to be pressure in these races… but pressure makes diamonds.”

Fellow series contenders Hayden Wilde and Leo Bergere gave it their best, blowing the race apart to take gold and silver on the day, and bronze and silver, respectively, for the year.

Wilde and Bergere were close enough out of the water to help create a five man leading effort, joined by Vincent Luis, Tayler Reid, and Simon Westermann. Yee was in the first chase group, led by swim pacer Matt Hauser, but when Hauser crashed out of the race, the chase pack slowly lost time on each lap to the leaders.

By the time the leaders had racked their bikes and swapped into run shoes, the deficit to the chasers was 1:40. The race win was almost certainly up the road, with Yee needing to put in an effort to nab the top-six finishing position required to claim the world championship. After one lap, Yee had closed almost 40 seconds on positions three through five on the road, and made the comfortable pass into a podium position just over the halfway mark. Wilde cleared Bergere, eventually opening a full minute margin of victory in one of his finest performances.

Wilde enjoyed his victory, saying “I had the same sort of plan as the Olympic Games really, two laps hard, one lap easy then go and had a really nice gap. It’s a bit disappointing not to win the World Championships but to win the Grand Final is something special.”

Race Results

Photo: World Triathlon

The post Wilde Wins Race, Yee Claims World Championship in Torremolinos first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

Cassandre Beaugrand has claimed her first world championship, capping off an undefeated individual season of World Triathlon Championship Series racing with a win at the Grand Final in Torremolinis-Andalucia.

Although Beaugrand entered the race with a comfortable lead in the Series and the inside track for the world title, the race win was not an easy one to come by. Beaugrand took a position on the swim start pontoon on the far right and veered further and further right once the gun went off. She was forced to swim hard to the first buoy just to latch back onto the back of the field, but then would work her way further through the field over the course of the next 1000 meters to emerge with championship contender Beth Potter in 10th place.

There were 12 women in the lead pack of the bike, including Beaugrand and Potter, as well as swim leaders Bianca Seregini and Lena Meissner. Emma Lombardi was also there, setting up for a potential battle amongst the three leading title contenders (Beaugrand, Potter, and Lombardi). The group rode mostly together into transition, where Beaugrand, Potter, Lombardi, and Jeanne Lehair broke away during the course of lap one.

But it would be Beaugrand who would drive the pace on lap two, surging to drop her fellow title contenders and eventually open a 38 second margin of victory over Potter, who clinched second in the Series. Lombardi took bronze, which also moved her into third for the Series.

Beaugrand post race was delighted, saying, “I just wanted this world title so badly and have dreamed about it for so many years. Last year I was very disappointed finishing second. Nobody can take this away from me now. I was training hard and fighting all year for this one.”

Race Results

Photo: World Triathlon

The post Cassandre Beaugrand’s Perfect Season Ends with World Title first appeared on Slowtwitch News.