2025 World Triathlon Championship Series French Riviera: athletes to watch
The 2025 World Triathlon Championship Series is heading into its second half, and Sunday’s French Riviera WTCS debut could prove pivotal in the title race.
Series leader Matt Hauser (AUS) arrives with two victories and two second places this season, though Brazil’s Miguel Hidalgo and Portugal’s Vasco Vilaça are still within striking distance.
New Zealand’s Paris 2024 silver medallist Hayden Wilde, back in form after an early-season crash, is chasing a rare T100-WTCS double, while reigning Olympic champion Alex Yee makes his long-awaited season debut following his marathon campaign in London.
With Hauser, Wilde and Yee lining up together in the WTCS for the first time this year, 1,000 points at stake, and with the Finals in Wollongong drawing closer, the battle for supremacy begins in the Riviera.
The women’s World Triathlon Championship Series is also proving impossible to call, with four different winners from the opening four rounds.
The spotlight in Saint-Raphaël-Fréjus will fall on Olympic and world champion Cassandre Beaugrand and Olympic bronze medallist Beth Potter, who arrive as favourites but face fierce competition.
Leonie Periault stunned Beaugrand in Hamburg and will be looking to repeat the trick on home soil, while Germany sends a powerful squad led by Abu Dhabi winner Lisa Tertsch. Other threats include Luxembourg’s Jeanne Lehair, who triumphed in Yokohama, and Britain’s Olivia Mathias, fresh from her first WTCS podium.