As dawn broke over Bermuda, the narrative was set. Everyone knew what was supposed to happen. Alex Yee had been unbeaten all season and needed one more win to put himself in pole position to take the 2022 world title. After wins at WTCS Yokohama, Montreal and Cagliari, plus the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, Yee had asserted himself as possibly the best triathlete in the world.
There was one threat to him on the start line. Blummenfelt.
Barely a week removed from his win at World 70.3 Championships in St. George, Utah, Kristian Blummenfelt returned to the WTCS. After beating Yee to gold last summer at the Tokyo Olympics, Blummenfelt has been widely considered the only athlete capable of beating Yee head-to-head over the Olympic distance.
Joining Blummenfelt was his compatriot Gustav Iden, a renowned cyclist, current Ironman World Champion, and two-time medallist at WTCS Bermuda. If anyone could make Yee suffer, surely it would be the Norwegians.
With both men on the start line, the battle lines were set.
And then the race started.
From the off, Vincent Luis attacked the swim and by the time he reached the first buoy, he had formed a mini-break with Vasco Vilaca and Mark Devay. Over the course of the swim, the field regained ground on the trio but it was not enough. They were joined by six more men as a group of nine escaped from the pack out of T1.
Led by Luis, the group of Vilaca, Devay, Jumpei Furuya, Jonas Schomburg, Simon Westermann, Kyotaro Yoshikawa and Csonger Lehmann piled the pressure onto the chase pack and built a lead of 40 seconds.
In the chase group, Yee was often at the front, accompanied by Blummenfelt, Iden and Jelle Geens. Despite the feared Norwegian biking prowess, though, the group made precious few gains on the leaders. Though Lehmann fell off the back of the group, the leaders worked well together and arrived in T2 with their lead intact.
Jonas Schomburg was the first to attack, with Vilaca on his heels. Luis, meanwhile, started at a much more controlled pace. Furuya and Vilaca took turns pushing the pace off the front but by now the main pack had made it through T2 and were on the run in force.
Yee, Blummenfelt, Iden, Matthew McElroy and Lasse Luehrs were grouped together in the pack but curiously none of them made a move. Instead it was Jelle Geens and Antonio Serrat Seoane that attacked from the chase. Shortly after, Roberto Sanchez Mantecon also attacked but the rest of the chase continued at their pace.
At the front, Schomburg attacked Vilaca halfway through the first of four laps on the run and broke clear. Both Schomburg and Vilaca were now in the sights of Luis in third. Gradually, Luis reeled in the two leaders and hit the front at the end of the first lap. Behind him, Geens and Serrat Seoane were picking off the remnants of the lead bike pack one by one. Yoshikawa was swallowed up, as was Westermann and Furuya. And still no response came from Blummenfelt or Yee.
Vincent Luis continued to look strong although as Geens and Serrat Seoane passed Vilaca and Schomburg they ominously pulled him into view. Sanchez Mantecon moved up to fourth but after the halfway point in the run, the Yee-Blummenfelt group had made up almost no ground on Luis. Instead it was looking increasingly like a four man race.
Luis had the lead but had not been at the front of a WTCS run for quite some time. Serrat Seoane and Geens were closing on him, yet the fastest runner on the course going into the final lap seemed to actually be Sanchez Mantecon. It was at that point that Serrat Seoane surged.
Within seconds he had a gap to Geens, who started to grimace. Though Geens tried to catch Serrat Seoane he was soon looking over his shoulder to the oncoming Sanchez Mantecon. Serrat Seoane reduced the gap to Luis to 10 seconds, while Sanchez Mantecon was a further 11 seconds behind. Shortly after, Sanchez Mantecon then passed Geens. Neither Serrat Seoane nor Sanchez Mantecon had previously achieved a WTCS podium. In Luis they were chasing a seasoned veteran of the sport with world titles to his name.
Further back, Yee and Blummenfelt entered the last lap with a near-identical gap to Luis that they had at the start of the run. It was only now that they upped their pace. However it was too little, too late.
In the final stages of the race, neither Spaniard could close the gap and it was Vincent Luis that took a well-deserved win on the back of a monumental all-round display. Serrat Seoane came in second and Sanchez Mantecon finished in third for their best ever WTCS finishes.
After some extremely worried glances over his shoulder on the last lap, Jelle Geens held on for a hard-earned fourth. Yee and Blummenfelt came in 5th and 6th, 5 seconds down on Geens and 27 seconds down on Luis. For Blummenfelt, this was a solid return to WTCS racing after his long distance exploits and he can probably be satisfied with his race. He did not assert himself as expected on the bike, nor did Iden for that matter. However in the bigger picture he had a decent race.
Yee’s race was a little more concerning as it was such a stark contrast to the confident performances of earlier this year. He had a good run split, but was out-ran on the day and had several athletes run very similar splits to him. As a result, he heads into the Final in Abu Dhabi behind Hayden Wilde on points and will now have to make up ground if he is to take the world title.
Lasse Luehrs followed Blummenfelt home in 7th to continue his breakout season. Close behind were Bence Bicask, Gustav Iden and Tom Richard to round out the top 10.
The day, though, belonged to Vincent Luis. He did not put a foot wrong and, after two years without a win at this level, his fantastic performance was a loud reminder to anyone that may have questioned if he still had what it took to win in the WTCS.
View the results here.
