The 2025 World Triathlon Championship Series is four races in, with three races – and a possible 3,000 points – and the Championship Finals to come. The first of those is Sunday’s sprint-distance newcomer WTCS French Riviera, and there are fireworks ahead as we kickstart a momentous second half of the season.
Watch the men’s WTCS French Riviera on Sunday 31 August from 14.45 CEST on TriathlonLive.tv
Top of the rankings stands Matt Hauser, on form and on fire with two golds and two silvers so far to his name this year, the Australian is a little under 300 points clear of Brazilian Miguel Hidalgo and 430 ahead of Vasco Vilaça (POR).
One of Hauser’s silvers came way back in February behind Hayden Wilde, the Kiwi who began his season with the gold in WTCS Abu Dhabi, before a bad bike accident took him out of Yokohama, Alghero and Hamburg. Just three months later, Wilde was already back to winning ways at T100 London and is now eyeing a remarkable double of T100 and WTCS in the French Riviera.
Then there is defending World Champion Alex Yee. The Brit has yet to step on the blue carpet in 2025, April’s debut London Marathon mission taking the Paris Olympic Champ out of early season contention. But Yee is still left with three races in which to try and haul himself into a title defence before the Championship Finals and few would bet against him.
On Sunday 31 August, the three men will line up for the first time since last year’s Championship Finals, ready to tackle a brand new WTCS French Riviera course with 1,000 points on the line.
Should Yee or Wilde win this weekend, surely the call of a possible world title in Wollongong would be too loud to ignore, and the heat on WTCS Karlovy Vary and WTCS Weihai would ramp up even further.
What Hauser has in spades is momentum, form and race sharpness, dominating the WTCS podiums in 2025. But how have the three favourites stacked up against each other in recent years and how much can that tell us about what may lie ahead in France this weekend?
When they have raced together, Yee has finished ahead of the other two on five occasions versus Wilde’s four times and Hauser’s once (that unforgettable rollercoaster ride of a Championship Finals Pontevedra in 2023). In terms of total wins since the start of the 2023 season, Yee has five, Wilde and Hauser both have four.
Only Wilde and Hidalgo have managed to unpick the lock to beating Hauser over the run this year, but earlier this month Yee dropped a 5km personal best of 13m13s on the track in Belgium that once again made the triathlon world’s mouths drop.
Of course, as the number one Hauser will have his pick of the start positions. Conversely, Wilde starts in 18th place and Yee will be down in 39th – a small win for the Series leader but one that could have a big impact on the early stages of the race.
The Aussie will definitely want to work with the likes of Hidalgo and Chase McQueen to put as much time into his main rivals as possible over the 750m swim, and from there it is it’s going to be box-office all the way to the line as the 2025 season heats right up once more on Sunday!