The world title for the men came down to the final race of the year with Hayden Wilde in pole position ahead of Alex Yee and Léo Bergere.

Swim – Dévay leads out a big front pack

Márk Dévay lead out the race in Abu Dhabi ahead of the returning Henri Schoeman and Bermuda winner Vincent Luis. No gaps were really formed over the first lap as athletes exited the water for the Australian exit in a constant stream. Léo Bergere was 14 seconds back and Hayden Wilde swam an excellent first lap, only 2 seconds behind Bergere. Alex Yee was slightly off the pace sitting a further 8 seconds back from Wilde but had Gustav Iden, Kristian Blummenfelt and Jelle Geens for company.

Dévay continued to lead the athletes round the second lap and the top 17 athletes exited the water within 19 seconds of each other. Wilde had lost a further 4 seconds to Bergere and was now 6 seconds back. Yee was in the same pack as the first lap but was now 41 seconds back.

Bike – Breakaway sticks at the front

Wilde had the opportunity to bridge up to Bergere but he lost a second in T1 and didn’t have the legs to close the 7 second gap after mounting his bike. If he had been able to latch onto the leaders then the outcome of the race could have looked dramatically different.

Over the opening lap of the bike a lead pack of 9 riders was established, featuring Bergere, Luis, Dévay, Schoeman, Jonathan Brownlee, Chase Mcqueen, Pierre Le Corre, Seth Rider and Tayler Reid. This group started to work really well together and were putting time into the chasers on each lap early on.

The chase group contained 45 athletes within 10 seconds of each other, with a group this big it can be hard to get into a good rhythm of taking turns on the front as some athletes just want to sit in.

It wasn’t until the 6th lap that the chasers were able to take back any of the time they had lost, by this point the lead had stretch out to over a minute. Then there was a crash at the end of the 7th lap, the same corner as Taylor Knibb, that luckily didn’t drag down many athletes but it added a couple more seconds to the gap.

Upfront the pack continued to work well together, there were a couple attacks off the front of the group but none of them were able to stick and the group of 9 came into T2 together.

Over the final two laps the chasers started to work better and reduce the gap. By the end of the bike the gap had dropped to 37 seconds. I only wonder if this had happened earlier how the race could have played out.

Run – Bergere runs away from the pack

Bergere was the first out of T2 but was quickly overtaken by Brownlee who started to set the pace. However, Brownlee clearly wasn’t going fast enough as Bergere came round and moved ahead, gaining a 5 second advantage by the end of lap 1. Over the first lap Yee had moved up from 31st to 10th and had overtaken Wilde.

Yee had been running with Morgan Pearson over the first lap but the American broke away on the second lap and moved passed all the athletes from the breakaway, except Bergere who was still up ahead. Geens and Yee were now running together and continued to move through the field. If Bergere was going to win the race, then Yee would need to finish 3rd and hope Wildle didn’t finish 5th or higher.

Over the 3rd lap Geens and Yee moved into 3rd and 4th but were still 25 seconds back from Bergere. Pearson got to within 8 seconds of Bergere but that is as close as he would get. Wilde had overtaken Luis to take 5th place, at this point he was going to win the world title.

Over the final lap Matt Hauser was closing in on Wilde and he overtook him on the second half of the lap. With Wilde dropping to 6th Yee needed to out sprint Geens to claim the title. Geens got the better of Yee over the final 200m and out sprinted the Brit to take the final spot on the podium, behind Bergere and Pearson.

Results

Bergere raced exceptionally well. He was able to close the early gap, make the breakaway on the bike and ran really well after a hard bike in the heat. He timed his first WTCS win of the season perfectly to take the world title.

1. Léo Bergere – 1:44:14
2. Morgan Pearson – 1:44:25
3. Jelle Geens – 1:44:34
4. Alex Yee – 1:44:37
5. Matthew Hauser – 1:44:51

World Triathlon Championship Series – Final Standings

1. Léo Bergere – 4,741.89
2. Alex Yee – 4,721.41
3. Hayden Wilde – 4,696.48
4. Jelle Geens – 4,384.52
5. Vincent Luis – 3,880.95