Alex Yee out sprinted Kiwi rival Hayden Wilde to take a third win at World Triathlon Championship Series Cagliari with Hungary’s Csongor Lehmann joining them on the podium. Hugo Milner ran his way through the field to finish 13th with Barclay Izzard coming 32nd. Both Sam Dickinson and Max Stapley dropped out on the run and bike respectively.

Stapley took an early lead on the swim and at the halfway stage was still in first with a slight advantage to Alessio Crociani of Italy. Sam Dickinson was 12 seconds behind his teammate in 17^th. Yee sat 33^rd with Milner in 40^th and Izzard in 59^th.

During the second half of the swim Yee, Milner and Dickinson all made ground up on the leaders and started the 38km bike leg in 17^th, 29^th and 14^th respectively, in a large group that were chasing down run-away leader Alberto Gonzalez Garcia with Stapley alongside them. Izzard was a minute back in 59^th.

Lap one of the bike leg saw Garcia break clear but he was quickly reeled back in as Dickinson led the charge to create a 27 strong lead pack that also contained both Yee and Stapley, who had a 15 second penalty to serve due to an infringement in T1. Milner was dropped by the leaders and was in the second pack 23 second down the road while Izzard was still a minute off the lead.

New Zealand’s Wilde hit the front on lap three to try and break away with Dickinson joining him alongside France’s Leo Bergere. But the trio were pulled back in by the rest of the pack that now just included Yee and Dickinson from a British interest, with Stapley dropping out due to a mechanical issue. Milner was over 40 seconds back in 34^th while Izzard was climbing up the standings in 47^th. The lead group was continually shrinking and was down to 18 triathletes as the race moved beyond the halfway point as Dickinson and Yee were working hard to push the pace. With three laps to go Milner was 32^nd and over a minute off the pace, while Izzard was a further minute back in 48^th.

Yee was first in and out of T2 as he looked to set the pace while, Dickinson was fourth at the start of the 10km run. Milner started the run in 37^th with Izzard in 43^rd. Wilde and Yee then looked to leave everyone else battling it out for third as the duo put a seven second advantage back to Lehmann within the first lap. Dickinson quickly dropped out of the top-ten over the first 2.5km, before retiring from the race on lap two of four, while Milner began racing his way through the field.

Wilde and Yee continued to battle it out at the front of the race and stretched their lead to 17 seconds. Milner became the second highest placed Brit climbing to 18^th, following Dickinson’s retirement, with Izzard 41^st.

As he did last year in Cagliari, Yee kicked on in the final moments of the race to break away from Wilde to seal the win by just two seconds. Milner was the next Brit over the line in 13^th after another strong run. Izzard’s race ended with a 32^nd place finish.