5 Takeaways from the Crashfest at WTCS Alghero

Well, at least the women came through and kept things exciting. At the third World Triathlon Championship Series race of the year, we did get to see the much-anticipated return of Olympic gold medalist Cassandre Beaugrand to triathlon racing as she took on both the WTCS series leader, Beth Potter, and last year’s world champion, Lisa Tertsch. (Not to mention the return to draft-legal racing for Taylor Knibb.)

For the men, though, the much-anticipated duel between last year’s world champion, Matt Hauser, last year’s T100 world champ, Hayden Wilde, and the reigning Olympic champion, Alex Yee, never got off the ground.

So what can we takeaway from today’s racing? Here we go:

Hat Trick for Beaugrand

After having to skip the first race of the season in Samarkand due to illness, the Frenchwoman arrived in Sardinia after setting a new French 5,000 m record on the track (14:40.77) for her first triathlon of the year. The rust appeared evident as she missed the front pack of four that led the way out of the water – Brits Tilly Anema and Sophie Evans, Germany’s Lisa Tertsch, the reigning world champion and Hungary’s Márta Kropkó. Beaugrand, normally a quick swimmer, even trailed the American Taylors – Spivey and Knibb – but was able jump into the chase group on the bike.

It wasn’t long before Knibb’s impressive bike power helped the chase group bridge up to the front, which led to a lead group of 22 riding together. The pressure from the likes of Knibb and Georgia Taylor-Brown would whittle the group down to 18 as the women hit T2. Beth Potter, who won in Samarkand and took second in Yokohama, was on her game in transition and shot out onto the run course on Mexican Rosa Maria Tapia Vidal’s shoulder, with Beaugrand struggling in transition and falling a full 13 seconds back as she started the 10 km run.

Once the running got rolling a lead pack of five would form that included Potter, Beaugrand, Luxembourg’s Jeanne Lehair, Tertsch and Taylor-Brown, who would be the first to crack. (Fresh off her first T100 win last weekend, she had good reason to be a bit tired.) As the remaining four neared the finish line Beaugrand continued to show her running prowess, pulling clear of the rest of the field to take a third straight win in Sardinia, with Potter coming across the line four seconds later and Tertsch rounding out the podium.

Vilaca Likes This Winning Thing

Coming into this year, Portugal’s Vasco Vilaca had finished on a WTCS podium nine times, but had yet to take a win. That “best to not have a win” streak ended in Samarkand at the first WTCS event of the year, and he kept his streak going with another win in Alghero today.

We’ll run through the nitty gritty of the various crashes that sidelined many of the favourites in our next takeaway – we’ll focus here on how Vilaca put himself in the perfect position to nail another WTCS win. He stayed in contact after the swim, where Aussie Matt Hauser, the reigning world champ, pushed the pace onto the beach alongside France’s Dorian Conninx and Italy’s Alessio Crociani. Vilaca was part of the initial breakaway group of 10, alongside Brazil’s Miguel Hidalgo and Germany’s Henry Graf.

Despite those crashes (I promise, we’ll get there!), a big group would hit T2 together, with Aussie Luke Willian leading the way out onto the run course with Hidalgo by his side. Vilaca would work his way up to the front, and eventually Willian would drop off the pace, leaving things to be decided between the two Portuguese-speaking leaders.

Hidalgo would try to make a move on an uphill towards the end of the race, but Vilaca would have none of it, pulling clear on the subsequent downhill and sprinting clear for the win. Hidalgo nursed a cramping hamstring to the line, holding off Ricardo Batista for second – Batista was thrilled to outsprint Conninx for his first WTCS podium finish, while Canadian Charles Paquet continued his breakout year with fifth.

Crashes Change the Day

Hauser was pushing hard at the front trying to create a breakaway when he went down hard on one of the many corners on the technical Alghero course. While he would get back on the bike and get himself to T2, he called it a day there. Graf would go down, get up and get back into the mix, then go down again. That second spill took out David Cantero del Campo (ESP), last year’s quickest runner in Alghero. In that same crash, Yee would be forced onto the grass after riding over fellow Brit Hugo Milner’s rear wheel. After the race Hidalgo noted that he saw Hauser and Graf go down and also had, according to World Triathlon, “a brief scare during the bike and was forced to recoup valuable seconds.”

Tough Day for the Big Three

In case you’re wondering why there’s been no mention of Hayden Wilde – the Kiwi star had to pull out due to illness before the race, which meant we were never going to see the much-anticipated race between him, Hauser and Yee. Hauser’s day ended at T2, but his chance of contending for the win disappeared after his crash – he was over two minutes down once he finished the bike.

According to Yee’s social media post, he was dealing with an ankle issue sustained during yesterday’s swim recce, and decided to “pull the pin” on the run course.

We’ll have to wait a bit before we see another potential Olympic-distance race between the three. The next three races in the series, Quiberon (France), Hamburg and London will be sprint events. (The last three races in the series – Weihai, Karlovy Vary and the Championship Finals in Pontevedra – are all Olympic-distance races.)

Potter Leads the WTCS Standings

While she didn’t get the win today, Beth Potter’s remarkable consistency has put her on track for another go at the world title – she won the 2023 world championship thanks to wins in Abu Dhabi, Montreal and the Paris Test Event that year before winning the Championship Finals in Pontevedra.

Potter hasn’t finished lower than second at an event this year, having taken the first race of the season in Samarkand before her runner-up finishes in Yokohama and today in Alghero. With Beaugrand’s slow start to the year ad the slightly less points available at the sprint events (750 vs 1,000), Potter has put herself in an excellent position to go after the world title. It is, of course, still very early in the season, and as we’ve seen so often, it can all come down to the Championship Finals – last year both Potter and Beaugrand headed into the Wollongong finals seemingly in a position to take the world title, but in the end Tertsch would both win the day and the championship.

Taylor Knibb Keeps Olympic Options Open

The last time we saw Taylor Knibb on a race course she was working on being patient on the bike so she could run a sub-3 hour marathon in Texas (photo above). She did just that, finishing second to Solveig Løvseth and running a 2:54 marathon. Today the American finished 11th in her first draft-legal Olympic distance race of this level since the 2024 Olympics, where she outsprinted Potter to give the American team the silver medal in the mixed relay.

Today’s race was the first WTCS event of the 2028 Olympic qualifying cycle, which is presumably why Knibb was on hand. While she just missed the top 10, the 11th-place points certainly help on the qualifying front. It will be interesting to see just how many more WTCS events we see Knibb at this year as she gears up for another big day in Kona this October.

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