Morning endurance fans…

Have you taken a breath yet? WOW… what a weekend of action. Full of drama, thrills, spills, and, in Matty Hauser’s case, probably a few bandages and plasters as well.

His tumble, the first of too many in the men’s race at WTCS Alghero, was just one of the stand-out moments of a weekend which also saw French superstar Cassandre Beaugrand return to triathlon with a bang, proving just how incredible she is.

And the added bonus was that this WTCS race was FREE to view… not that it is likely to be a regular occurrence, and we will look at that thorny issue later in the Split.

So settle down, take the load off and catch up on our latest feast of endurance.

🤕 OUCH: Matt Hauser insists he is still smiling despite a devastating crash in Alghero on Saturday that wrecked his chances of a WTCS win. Read HERE.

👀 VISION: World Triathlon President Antonio Fernández Arimany has outlined the governing body’s ambitious plans for the sport. Read HERE.

🏅 COMEBACK: Husband and co-coach of Lucy Charles-Barclay has revealed what it meant to LCB when she won in Lanzarote. Read HERE.

🎽 LAZCON: Lazarus Lake has completed his latest endurance epic by finally reaching the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Read HERE.

🏃‍♀️ REVEALED: One of the key secrets behind Rachel Entrkin’s historic Cocodona 250 win can be found in her post-race data. Read HERE.

Women’s Race: French superstar Cassandre Beaugrand completed her hat-trick of WTCS Alghero wins with a running masterclass as she returned to triathlon in true style to secure an impressive win and set her Olympic qualification process rolling.

Having missed out in Samarkand due to illness, and having spent much of her time enjoying her running exploits, all eyes were on the Olympic gold medallist of Paris 2024 to see what kind of form she could bring to swim-bike-run.

The answer was somewhat emphatic as she put a poor swim and a terrible transition off the bike behind her to steam through the pack and then kick away from Britain’s Beth Potter and Germany’s Lisa Tertsch to take the win with some real va-va-voom.

A star-studded field, which also included the likes of Taylor Knibb (USA), Georgia Taylor-Brown (GBR), and Jeanne Lehair (LUX), simply had no answer to her brilliance as she took the line for the third successive race in Alghero.

Women’s results (swim-bike-run=overall):

🥇 Cassandre Beaugrand (FRA) 19:45 - 59:16 - 33:26 = 1:53:49
🥈 Beth Potter (GBR) 19:40 - 59:24 - 33:42 = 1:53:53
🥉 Lisa Tertsch (GER) 19:15 - 59:50 - 33:46 = 1:53:58

Men’s race: A race which had been advertised as the long-awaited return to battle for star trio Matt Hauser, Hayden Wilde, and Alex Yee ended with one of them not starting and two others recording DNFs as Portugal’s Vasco Vilaca took advantage to seal his second win of the season.

With Kiwi Wilde having pulled out on Friday due to illness, the smart money was on a much-anticipated battle for the line between last year’s WTCS champion Hauser (AUS) and the reigning Olympic champion Yee (GBR).

However, Yee never truly threatened to enter the race for a podium place and eventually pulled out on lap one of the run, while Hauser crashed out spectacularly on lap two of the bike course and called it a day as he entered T2.

That was not the end of the drama, however, in this first race of the new Olympic qualification period, as Vilaco and Brazilian Miguel Hidalgo raced each other for gold, and the rest were left fighting for the bronze.

Men’s results (swim-bike-run=overall):

🥇 Vasco Vilaca (POR) 18:03 - 55:45 - 30:27 = 1:45:16
🥈 Miguel Hidalgo (BRA) 18:00 - 55:46 - 30:46 = 1:45:35
🥉 Ricardo Batista (POR) 18:09 - 55:39 - 30:53 = 1:45:45

Delighted Dutch triathlete Youri Keulen is headed to Kona after a three-year plan to prepare for full-distance racing resulted in a debut to remember at IRONMAN Brazil on Sunday.

The one-time middle-distance specialist admitted it was a ‘dream come true’ to be heading out to the Big Island for October’s World Championships, although he did also confirm that his body felt like a ‘train wreck’ after securing second place behind winner Wilhelm Hirsch (GER).

Describing the race as a ‘massive milestone in his career’, he put in a truly impressive display as he and Hirsch broke away from the main pack and never looked in danger of surrendering their places at the head of the field.

While it was the German who had a little bit more in his legs come the final stages of the marathon, Keulen was just happy to have achieved what he set out for… a spot at Kona.

Arnaud Guilloux of France grabbed third place and the final Kona slot with a finishing time of 7:38. While in the women’s race, the top three were Romina Biagioli (ARG), Pamella Oliveira (BRA), and Julie Iemmolo (FRA).

Pro men’s results (swim-bike-run=overall):

🥇 Wilhelm Hirsch (GER) 44:10 - 4:04:57 - 2:38:28 = 7:32:21
🥈 Youri Keulen (NED) 44:21 - 4:04:36 - 2:39:35 = 7:33:21
🥉 Arnaud Guilloux (FRA) 48:51 - 4:05:16 - 2:38:44 = 7:38:00

Pro women’s results (swim-bike-run=overall):

🥇 Romina Biagioli (ARG) 48:56 - 4:51:08 - 3:00:08 = 8:45:24
🥈 Pamella Oliveira (BRA) 48:08 - 4:51:16 - 3:02:18 = 8:46:46
🥉 Julie Iemmolo (FRA) 47:52 - 4:40:06 - 3:21:20 = 8:55:14

Caroline Pohle secured a record-breaking victory at St Pölten on Sunday as the German star led from start to finish in earning her third Challenge Family race of the season.

Fresh from her success at ‘The Championship’ the weekend before, she stormed to the line once again, setting new bike and overall course records in the process.

There was also a convincing win for her compatriot, Fred Funk, who simply proved too strong for the men’s field as he secured his first race success since 2023.

Giro d’Italia (men): Danish rider Jonas Vingegaard became only the eighth male rider to win all three Grand Tours, and the first rider to complete the trilogy since Chris Froome in 2018, as he secured victory in the Giro d’Italia at the weekend.

Having won the Vuelta a España last year and the Tour de France in 2022 and 2023, this was the first time that Vingegaard had participated in the Giro, and he has stamped his authority at every turn, winning five stages – including Saturday’s mountain stage – and gaining a margin of more than five minutes on his closest rival, Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM). Jai Hindley (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) claimed third place, over six minutes down on Vingegaard.

“It’s a special day for me. To win this race is something I dreamed of – I’m lost for words,” said Vingegaard. “There were so many people on the side of the road, so many spectators. To get the honour to wear the maglia rosa on the streets of Rome is something special. With these last three weeks, it’s just such a nice way to end.”

Giro d’Italia (women): Elisa Balsamo sprinted to her third successive victory at the Giro d’Italia Women, winning an unpredictable Stage 3 by a full bike length on Monday.

The Lidl-Trek rider triumphed after what was shaping up to be a very congested finish in Buja. Balsamo retains the pink jersey and extends her lead. The American Lily Williams (Human Powered Health) took second place, with Femke Gerritse (SD Worx - Protime) from the Netherlands in third place.

For more on these articles, visit Cycling Weekly, HERE.

It wasn’t the first time that Olympic champion Alex Yee had raised the thorny issue of triathlon’s viewing paywall, and it probably won’t be the last as the Brit competitor continues his push for free streaming of all triathlon races.

In his mind, the situation is simple… if you want to grow the sport, then you need to have as many people watching it as you possibly can; what’s the point in having the world’s best athletes battling against one another if nobody can watch it?

It was, after all, how he was first introduced to the sport, watching World Series racing on the BBC. His triathlon flame ignited as he cheered on his swim-bike-run heroes, and no doubt dreaming that he too could one day follow in their footsteps.

“Now it’s stuck behind a paywall, which I think is a real shame,” Yee recently told TRI247 News Director Jonathan Turner. “I was able to watch so many of my favourite athletes. I think creating that accessibility and that relatability is really important.”

Such accessibility, of course, is already being provided across the IRONMAN Pro Series and the T100 Triathlon World Tour, with free streaming either via YouTube or the Triathlonlive.tv website. Indeed, it is only the World Triathlon Championship Series and World Cups which are not available, requiring a £10.99 per month or £37.99 per year subscription – which equates to €11.99 and €42.99 across Europe, or $13.99 and $49.99 in the US.

And there doesn’t seem to be too much of a hurry to change that.

The World Triathlon website explains why the series remains behind the paywall: “As the only place to find ALL the World Triathlon Championship Series and World Cup racing each year, live, on-demand and advert-free, TriathlonLive is a paid service.

“For the first time in 2026, through partnership with PTO and ahead of the launch of the Triathlon World Tour in 2027, the T100 Series will be available to watch outside of the paywall for registered users.

“As the sport’s top-tier short-course racing, crowning the annual World Champions and a decisive part of Olympic Qualification, the World Triathlon Championship Series is TriathlonLive’s premium product with races streamed to the very highest international broadcast standards.”

Of course, the dream scenario would be for the series to be picked up by a major streaming broadcaster, such as the BBC, and World Triathlon has confirmed that they remain in negotiations over such an eventuality… even if it is just for the London race later this summer.

“As an international federation, we are, of course, interested in having as much exposure as possible and are willing to make it work,” a spokesperson said. “When there’s a WTCS event in the UK, the organisers of the event have the domestic rights on free TV at least for that event, and we are working together with the LOC (PTO in this case) and have offered that possibility to many takers in the UK.”

And this is where there is a definite level of sympathy for World Triathlon President, Antonio Fernández Arimany, and his board over the matter of paywalls and free streaming. Would the BBC be interested in taking the rights to something which is already available for free elsewhere?

Unlikely.

Is it worth holding out in the hope they can do a deal to have races broadcast on major free-to-air channels worldwide?

Definitely.

As it turned out, Saturday’s star-studded collection of world-class athletes at the WTCS Alghero did get the opportunity to compete in front of a non-paying audience, with World Triathlon announcing the free pass as a celebration of their Instagram page hitting half a million followers.

Of course, it is unlikely that we will ever truly know, but we’d also like to think that someone high-up somewhere looked at the stacked fields, realised there was an opportunity to raise some awareness, and decided to take a punt.

The creation of the Triathlon World Tour offers a wonderful opportunity for those at the helm of this sport to truly break new ground and attract not only new audiences but also potential future competitors.

For that to happen, then triathlons of all shapes and sizes must be granted the greatest audience possible, not just every four years at the Olympics, but every weekend when our athletes put their skills and endurance to the ultimate test.

Yes, we all want to be entertained, but if we can also inspire a new generation to take up multidisciplinary sport, then the future of triathlon is already looking a whole lot rosier.

There was drama everywhere you looked on Saturday as the WTCS race in Alghero kicked off the LA28 Olympic qualifying process in thrilling style.

But while the women were able to navigate their way around the Sardinian streets without too much trouble, the men found life a little more troublesome… particularly when it came to keeping upright on the bike.

First of all, we had the shock of seeing the reigning champion, Matt Hauser, kissing the tarmac when the wheels slid from beneath him on the opening lap of the bike course, and then it was the turn of Germany’s Henry Graf… although his fall was a tad more spectacular.

Indeed, Graf, who had also been caught up in the aftermath of Hauser’s earlier tumble, took out at least three others as he slid into the kerb on lap six; a crash which also put paid to the efforts of Spain’s David Cantero del Campo and Britain’s Hugo Milner.

To his credit, Graf did post an apology to his fellow racers, along with this video below, which really needs the sound up for you to feel the true drama of it.

As he said on his post: “In order to crash twice, you have to get up once! 🤷🏽‍♂️”

Riding in the aero position is one of the most effective ways to improve speed and efficiency in triathlon. However, it often comes with a downside: neck and back pain. Holding an aerodynamic position for long periods places stress on muscles that many athletes don’t train enough, leading to discomfort that can limit performance.

The good news is that this pain is not something you have to accept. With the right adjustments in position, strength, and training habits, you can ride comfortably and efficiently in aero for longer periods.

The aero position reduces wind resistance by lowering your upper body and bringing your torso forward. While this improves speed, it also places strain on the neck, lower back, and shoulders. Your neck has to extend to keep your eyes forward. Your lower back must stabilise your body in a fixed position. Your core works constantly to maintain posture. Without proper preparation, these demands lead to fatigue and discomfort.

One of the most common causes of neck and back pain is poor bike fit. Even small misalignments can create unnecessary strain. Here are some things to look for.

Your core plays a central role in maintaining the aero position. A weak core forces your back and shoulders to compensate, leading to fatigue.

Many athletes spend too little time in aero during training. Then on race day, they try to hold the position for hours.

Cameron Wurf just spent his Sunday running his own marathon around the streets of New York as he preps for his next IRONMAN race.

The Australian athlete, who is well known for his punishing fitness regime, ran 42.97kms in three hours, with an average pace of 4:12/km… with his efforts posted up on Instagram by The Triathlon Hour to prove just how much of a monster he really is.

Their post read: “@cjwurf literally just ran a marathon in training on a random Sunday morning NOT in a race in the build up to an Ironman. Every time you think you’re training a lot, the madman shows up to remind you that you aren’t. PS, does he get positive or negative aura points for using an Apple Watch?”

And the man in question even replied, as he attempted to explain the extraordinary effort: “Just building up an appetite for some NY Pizza🍕👌”

Oh well… that’s OK then… You crack on, Cam… 😆

Together, we go the distance. — @247_endurance 🏃‍♂️🚴‍♀️🏊‍♂️