For a while on the bike it looked as if Alex Yee‘s World Championship hoodoo might be about to strike again in Torremolinos.
For the last three years the Brit had gone into the WTCS finale with a strong chance of a maiden world title.
And never more than this time, with the added confidence of having won the biggest race of all with his Olympic gold in that epic race in Paris.
‘All’ he needed to do in Andalucia was finish in the top six. But with an uber-strong breakaway bike group of five athletes – including his title rivals Léo Bergere and Hayden Wilde – having distanced the rest, things suddenly looked in real jeopardy.
But Yee didn’t panic, reset and then used his strongest suit of the run to make the world title a reality as he reeled in three of the five on the run to take third place and overall glory.
Playing to his strengths
Speaking afterwards on the BBC broadcast he said: “That was a hard race and it was definitely exciting! Fair play to Hayden and Léo and the guys at the front, they made it a hell of a race and I’m just proud to be part of that and be a part of this amazing season.”
Asked what put him on the wrong side of the split on the bike, he explained: “Maybe I wasn’t in the best position. I probably just didn’t have the best legs going out of T1. I think Matt Hauser might have unfortunately had a crash and then maybe a little gap went. I was probably a little bit too far back to even be able to react to that.
“And these boys, they’re the strongest in the game and if they go, then, you know, you’re in danger. So I just had to play to my strengths, work as hard as I could on the bike and run as hard as I could.
“We did everything we could [in the chase group], but these guys are so strong. When the motivation goes out of the group, that’s when, you know that me by myself – or anyone by themselves – aren’t going to make a difference.”
‘With hard work, anything can happen’
But he regrouped and wasted little time in moving into the all-important sixth place on the run before whittling down the advantage of those ahead of him and making the finale a little less stressful.
Asked about the pressure he felt, he added: “There’s always going to be pressure within these races, but I think I wanted to treat it as a standalone race and enjoy it. The Olympic Games was the big goal so it was just about coming out here and racing with a smile on my face – pressure makes diamonds!”
Yee becomes only the second man after Kristian Blummenfelt to win a world title in the same year as an Olympic gold – even the great Alistair Brownlee never managed it – and he said: “I’m very proud. This has been something which has evaded me for the last three years and I think this makes it even all the more sweeter.
It’s probably been something that’s haunted me day in, day out.
“I had to just treat it as its own race, as a standalone one and remember why I came here. I wanted to have fun. I wanted to put on a show for everyone. I wanted to put a smile on people’s faces.
“I’m now world champion and I couldn’t be prouder of this season. And hopefully it just shows people that with hard work, anything can happen.”
