Being able to win a WTCS race is no mean feat. Similarly, winning a WTCS title requires a near-perfect season built upon consistency and high finishes.
The challenge of winning multiple world titles, however, is on another plane altogether.
Since the start of the WTCS, only four men have become world champion more than once: Alistair Brownlee, Javier Gomez Noya, Mario Mola and Vincent Luis. It should be noted, though, that Luis’ second title came at a single-day world championships in 2020.
Of that quartet, only Mola has really been what can be called a single strategy athlete. That is to say he had one primary method of winning races: by crushing the field in running races with his superior speed. Brownlee, Gomez and Luis, however, displayed an ability to win using a number of strategies. They could win in running races and breakaways alike.
If the capacity to use multiple race strategies has been a common feature of athletes that have won multiple world champions, which men could be the next cabs off the rank?
Having looked yesterday at the next generation of women that could become multi-strategy athletes, in this article we will survey the group of male athletes that could form the spine of the next generation of race winners and consider which, if any, of them could develop multi-strategy athletes.
When it comes to defining the next generation, the focus is on athletes in the 1998-2001 cohort. The athletes named here are already consistent performers in the WTCS with almost all of them making it into the top-30 of this season’s Series. With several WTCS and World Cup medals between them, the athletes listed have achieved a lot at a young age already .
The goal here is not to say who will be a world champion. Rather, the goal is to survey which the individuals that could develop into multi-strategy athletes.
As with the women’s next generation, two athletes have already been removed from consideration. With six WTCS wins in two years, Alex Yee is already a bona fide world title contender. At this stage he can be considered a single strategy athlete in a similar style to Mola.
Matthew Hauser is also a WTCS race winner. However, his profile was incorporated in the discussion of the emerging swim-run approach. To not belabour the analysis of Hauser, he will not be repeated here.
Being born in 1998, Yee and Hauser could naturally become multi-strategy athletes. As the better swimmer of the pair, Hauser could be the likeliest to do so at this stage.
When it comes to the next generation, leading the way on the men’s side is an athlete that occupies a middle ground. Born in 1999, Vasco Vilaca certainly falls into the next generation on the basis of age. On the other hand, without illness striking at WTCS Cagliari and WTCS Pontevedra or his crash at WTCS Montreal there is every chance that he could have ended up on the overall WTCS podium in 2023.
Moreover, had Pontevedra turned out differently, Vilaca could have been world champion already.
As a result, it would be fair to say that he has already arrived at the top level. However, unlike Yee and Hauser, who are a year older, Vilaca has not yet won a WTCS race. He is therefore still travelling on the path to the peak of the sport.
Based on his 2023 performances, it would be fair to call Vilaca’s race strategy a run-based one. All four of his 2023 WTCS medals came in running races. In addition, he won the Rome World Cup in a running race.
At the same time, Vilaca showed nascent breakaway credentials by riding in the front group at WTCS Bermuda in 2022. He did not hold on to a place on the podium that day, although he was still an U23 athlete.
Logically, Vilaca should be able to stitch together his previous breakaway experience with the new level of running speed that he has shown this year. If he can do that in the coming years, he will likely be able to compete for wins in multiple scenarios, making him a multi-strategy athlete.
While Vilaca has not yet won a WTCS race, Tim Hellwig has. He was therefore noted in the analysis of the WTCS race winners from the current Olympic cycle. Being also born in 1999, though, we noted that Hellwig is too young to say for sure what his primary strategy is right now. Instead, given his age, he falls into the next generation.
In 2021, Hellwig won a silver medal at the World U23 Championships. He made it into the eleven man front pack in Edmonton before being beaten to the gold medal late on the run by Csongor Lehmann.
Hellwig then continued a great run of form by winning WTCS Hamburg in September 2021. He achieved that by winning a classic running race. The German athlete, then, has already showed a degree of versatility in approaches.
In terms of recent success, Hellwig claimed the silver medal at WTCS Pontevedra, losing the sprint finish, in what looked more like a running race than a breakaway. Furthermore, Hellwig also used multiples strategies in his recent World Cup success.
In Chengdu, he won a running race with a devastating late burst. Then, in Tongyeong, he won through a breakaway.
Hellwig therefore already looks like he is on his way to becoming a multi-strategy athlete and, like Vilaca, he could evolve into a major threat in a range of race situations.
When Csongor Lehmann beat Hellwig to the World U23 title in 2021, the breakaway strategy paid off for him. Lehmann is not yet a WTCS medallist but as a World Cup winner he has proven himself to be a well-rounded athlete.
As things stand, the breakaway route remains his best shot at WTCS gold. His Olympic distance WTCS statistics for 2022 and 2023, taken before WTCS Pontevedra, put him as the 12th fastest swimmer in the field (losing on average 11 seconds to the top split) and the 16th fastest runner (losing 1 minute 33 seconds to the top split).
Lehmann, then, leans a little more towards the swim right now. Over the next few years, though, he could add a run-based race strategy to his toolbox. After all, his success at the World Cup level inspires confidence in his ability to do so.
Lehmann’s profile is actually similar to Miguel Hidalgo. The Brazilian athlete was the only man born in the 21st century to make it into the top-25 of the WTCS this year. Like Lehmann, Hidalgo is both a fast swimmer and runner with a slight emphasis on the former.
Hidalgo is also a World Cup winner, having won in Brasilia last month. Given his swimming speed, Hidalgo could become a breakaway threat just as Lehmann could. Over the next few years, though, it would be no surprise to see both become contenders in running races too.
Dylan McCullough is the next in line on the men’s side having finished 26th in the overall WTCS in 2023. Like Hidalgo, he was born in 2001 and he recently won his first World Cup medal, a silver in Miyazaki.
McCullough has shown a lot of the strength on the bike, particularly at WTCS Montreal this year. As a good swimmer too, he is currently trending as a breakaway practitioner right now. Being so young, he has a lot of time ahead to expand his repertoire of strategies.
Vetle Bergsvik Thorn (1999) is a little more run-based than Lehmann, Hidalgo and McCullough. He notably used his run speed to win the European Games and claim a maiden World Cup medal in Bergen.
As a Norwegian athlete the temptation will be to compare Thorn to his illustrious compatriots. To that end, there is every possibility that Thorn could ape the Blummenfelt development arc; Blummenfelt has historically relied upon a running race strategy in the WTCS.
At the same time, we cannot let nationality cloud any judgement. Even if Thorn seems more equipped for a running race strategy right now, he could still grow in another direction.
Barclay Izzard was ranked 30th in the WTCS in 2023, slightly behind Thorn. He is still finding feet at the top level, although his run has looked good in 2023, particularly at the Karlovy Vary World Cup. Furthermore, e impressed on home soil at WTCS Sunderland
With another season under his belt at the WTCS level it should become clearer how Izzard will tackle getting onto his first podium.
The final man considered here, Ricardo Batista, is actually a little lower in the WTCS rankings. He took the 33rd spot in 2023. The combination of his age, 2023 injury and growing collection of World Cup medals nevertheless warrant his inclusion.
At the WTCS level, Batista has already started to assert himself on the bike. He was particularly aggressive at WTCS Sunderland and rode away from the field in a mini-break.
That aggression was also on full display on his way to victory at the European Super Sprint Championships. A former World Junior champion, Batista’s run has also been a weapon at various points in his career. Should he continue to improve, he could become a force in running races.
Batista also made the breakaway and podium alongside Hellwig at the Tongyeong World Cup. A crash put an end to another breakaway at the Tangier World Cup. While his swim can be a little inconsistent, he has therefore shown the ability to become a breakaway athlete too.
Doing at the WTCS level will be a greater challenge. As with most of the men listed, Batista is still finding his feet at the WTCS level and has not yet had the chance to fight for medals. Once he has more experience and confidence at the level, though, he will be able to dial in on his preferred strategy or even develop multiple methods of competing for medals.
Looking through WTCS history, it has often been the case that mutli-strategy athletes have had the highest ceiling. Should any of the afore mentioned athletes become multi-strategy athletes , then, they could separate themselves from rest of their generation.
