There was plenty of talk ahead of the men’s final at WTCS Hamburg about the four ‘big guns’.

That was the one-two-three from the Tokyo Olympics – Kristian Blummenfelt, Alex Yee and Hayden Wilde – plus the rapidly improving Matt Hauser.

But based on this season’s form there’s a strong argument for adding Portugal’s Vasco Vilaca to that select group.

He was the man who ended up getting closest to race winner Wilde and he leads the latest WTCS overall standings.

‘This is where I want to be’

And afterwards he told World Triathlon: “Yeah, this year has been well, amazing. It’s way better than I could have expected. This is where I want to be for sure.

“I’m still missing that podium win but this is the third podium of the season and I’m very happy with it.

“Hayden did an amazing run in the end. And Kristian was killing my legs on the bike. I was really giving everything to try and not let him get away because I knew if he got away then – mentally – he was never going to let go of that lead.”

Vilaca had to hold off a charging Yee to hang on to the runner-up spot and he added: “I could see the shadow of Alex in that last finish chute and it was really like going into another dimension, just trying to keep the pace and trying to sprint to the finish line to get second place!”

Stamina-sapping

In common with many of his rivals, Vilaca underlined that while the race distance may have been a Super Sprint, the fact that there were three in relatively quick succession to whittle down the field made it a stamina test too.

He said: “I’m not sure you can call it short distance. In the end we were here three and a half hours.

“Sure, we got a break in the middle, but in the end it’s a long session, a long time to be under pressure, not only physically, but mentally as well. It was very, very intensive.”