The heartfelt tributes flowed in from his rivals after French great Vincent Luis bowed out from short-course racing at the weekend in typically swashbuckling style.
The 35-year-old has been competing since 2005 and at the height of his powers he was twice world champion in 2019 and 2020 as well as dominating in the short and fast Super League arena.
But Sunday at the WTCS Grand Final in Torremolinos was his last Olympic-distance event at this level and he played a huge role in sparking the race into life as he helped drive a five-man front group on the bike, which also featured his French teammate Léo Bergere, who was bidding for world title glory.
They put over a minute-and-a-half into the rest and though Hayden Wilde and Bergere would make that count by finishing first and second, Alex Yee would close down Luis and the rest to seal third place and a first world crown to go with his Olympic gold medal.
‘Personality and class’
And everyone afterwards was delighted to have seen Luis shine again in his finale – even Yee, despite it making his own task all the more difficult!
In a mark of huge respect, Yee told us that the celebrations afterwards were more about marking Luis’ career rather than his own achievements.
Speaking to TRI247 the morning after the night before, Alex said: “It was Vince’s last short-course race, so the main thing was celebrating him and his success – he’s left the sport in a good place, so I think that was really, really nice.
“It’s been amazing to share the start line with him – from my first World Series in 2019 to now.
He’s always been somebody I’ve looked up to, somebody who I thought was cool, somebody who had personality and class.
“So it’s been great to be able to race with him and we wish him every success in whatever he does and I’m sure he’ll do it very well.”
That was echoed by Yee’s great rival Wilde, who added: “All of us look up to Vince and to see him have a race like that was really special.”
‘Only good memories’
The man himself though underlined just how high the current standard is thanks to the likes of Yee, Wilde and Bergere – not just the overall podium in Torremolinos but also at the Olympics in Paris.
Speaking to World Triathlon in the video embedded below, he said: “It’s time to move on, I guess. I’m just not fast enough anymore. I can say it with no shame. These guys are just too fast but I’m still going to follow what they are doing.
“I just hope I brought something to triathlon and now I have new challenges. I’m definitely not coming back. It’s way too hard for me now!
“[But] it’s only good memories. I’ve been lucky enough to witness the best of the sport with Alex, Hayden, the Brownlees and [Javier] Gomez and all these guys.”
Reflecting on his final race, which saw him finish in eighth after a huge shift helping Bergere, he added: “It was great. I managed to make the jump to join Leo. I knew my role was kind of to try to help him with Hayden in the group.
“Obviously we had to work to try and managed to get the gap on Alex. But Alex is still Alex, so he can run back a minute and 30, finish third and still win the title. It’s really impressive and I’m really happy for him. We had a great race for my last race, I couldn’t have asked for more.”
Are we in a triathlon boom, or hurtling towards burnout? Laura Siddall on the growth of the sport
