Cassandra Beaugrand bounced back from a DNF in Yokohama to take the win at the World Triathlon Championship Series (WTCS) race in Alghero, Italy this weekend.
The French Paris Olympic gold medallist and reigning 2024 WTCS Champion came out of the water near the front. She was on the chase early on the bike, behind a lead pack of five riders, but closed the 10 second gap fairly quickly. Riding at the front in a group of six, Beaugrand and the other riders had given themselves a two-and-a-half-minute advantage over the rest of the field.
Beaugrand took to the front on the run from the outset and held off her competition to cross the finish just over 30 seconds ahead of second-place finisher, Bianca Seregni from Italy. Olivia Mathias from Great Britain took third. For Seregni and Mathias, it was their first WTCS podium performance.
In Yokohama, Beaugrand DNF’d after a bike crash in wet conditions when her back wheel slid out. She said “it feels good to be back,” posting on social media after taking the tape.
Hidalgo wins men’s field in first WTCS victory
On the men’s side, Brazil’s Miguel Hidalgo was the star, dominating the run course to finish first. A large group came out of the water in quick succession, forming a lead pack of nine on the bike. The lead group had over two minutes on the rest of the field when they hit the run.
Hidalgo wasted no time getting to the front and running to victory. Australian Matt Hauser, who’d led out of the water, ran to second place, with France’s Leo Bergere in third. It was the first top-spot for Hidalgo at a WTCS race.
Not far back, Canadian Charles Paquet crossed the line in fifth. It was a huge result for Paquet, matching his career-best finish at a WTCS race. After a strong swim that saw him in 12th place, he made the lead pack on the bike, coming into T2 in second. After a few competitors slipped by him in transition, he headed out on the run in eighth place. He managed to pick off three of the men, but his pace got the better of him, and he couldn’t challenge the front.
“I had a cramp in my quad in T2, and after that, I just wanted to pace myself because I knew the run would be hard,” he said post-race.
Canadian Tyler Mislawchuk finished sixteenth, breaking a top-15 streak he’d enjoyed for the last three years.
Three incidents happened on the bike, one behind Mislawchuk and two in front. Within the first two kilometres, Tayler Reid from New Zealand and Adrien Briffod of Switzerland went down, while Great Britain’s Jack Willis had a mechanical that ended his race.
Next up on the WTCS calendar is a rematch in Hamburg, Germany on July 12.
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