Home > Personalities

Can Hayden Wilde figure out how to beat Alex Yee at Supertri Chicago this weekend?

They are the class of draft-legal racing in 2024, but so far, one keeps beating the other

Photo by: Kevin Mackinnon

It wasn’t long before they were hugging and congratulating each other after another epic race, but you could certainly see the frustration on Kiwi Hayden Wilde’s face as he crossed the line just behind Alex Yee at last Sunday’s supertri Boston event.

Yee takes a race for the ages to win gold at Paris Olympics

In a post-race interview Wilde said that his frustration stemmed from the lack of support from the lead group on the bike, not necessarily Yee’s finish line pose. (The British gold medalist from Paris implied on Instagram that it was modelled on the celebrations of soccer stars Kylian Mbappe or Cole Palmer.)

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Alex Yee (@lixsanyee)

“I thought I was solo for the last lap because no one was coming through,” Wilde said of the group of five that were off the front during the last lap of the third leg of the supertri event in Boston. “The other athletes didn’t want to take a turn. But hey, that’s racing, and yeah, you’ve just gotta go with it. Someone’s got to hold the pace because you don’t want the rest of the groups in the back to come up from behind. Maybe I’m just a little a touch too strong on the bike.”

Olympic redo in Boston – Alex Yee edges out a frustrated Hayden Wilde

As he did in Paris (and earlier this year at WTCS Cagliari), Yee passed Wilde in the closing stages of the race, outsprinting Wilde down the finishing chute to take the win in Boston. Despite finding himself in second place once again, Wilde was happy with the way he performed in Chicago, and was also happy with his day in Paris a few weeks earlier. In Paris Wilde made a bold move on the run, pulling clear of his British rival, but succumbed to the heat and faded in the final lap, which allowed Yee to surge past for the gold medal.

Wilde pushes the pace at Supertri Boston.

“I did everything I could,” Wilde said of his race in Paris. “I’m really proud of the way I raced and we’re super happy. Obviously it’s not the colour of medal I wanted …but, I’m super proud of the way I raced. I did everything I possibly could … but the one thing I didn’t do was heat training. We weren’t expecting to race at 10 in the morning, and I think it was the hottest day in the games over the two weeks.”

“I got to the last lap and I actually did the third lap quite conservatively, and my body core temperature just rose, and once that goes, it’s it’s impossible to get out of it,” Wilde continued. “It was just my body core temperature rising, and my heart rate was dropping. And I was in trouble.So, it was just one of those unfortunate things. And yeah, for LA, I’ll be more prepared.”

There weren’t any heat issues in the overcast, wet conditions the athletes faced in Boston, but Yee once again was able to prevail. 

“I didn’t blow up this time, but yeah, Alex just had the top end speed that I didn’t have in the end,” Wilde said after the race in Boston. “It was a nice sprint finish in the end, he had to keep checking over his shoulder.”

Paris 2024 Olympic Games by Wagner Araujo (@wags.photo)

Despite the face at the line, Wilde was quick to congratulate Yee for a great performance, as he was at the Games in Paris.

“We’ve been racing each other for the last six years … and we push each other every single day,” Wilde said. “I was just stoked for him, stoked for myself. You have to show kudos to the to the winner. I just got outclassed that day, I just look forward to another good race.”

With four races still to go in the supertri League series this year, Wilde will have lots of opportunities to try some different race tactics to get ahead of Yee. The Kiwi will also look to compete for the world title later this year, too, before setting his sights on the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Taupo, where he was born.

In other words, we have lots more exciting finishes to look forward to in 2024, even post Olympics.