Alex Yee and Vasco Vilaça face off again in Rome after five races with the Portuguese rider ahead
Alex Yee and Vasco Vilaça will face off again this Saturday, October 3, at the Rome World Cup, just six days after the WTCS Grand Final in Pontevedra. Since the Briton became world champion in 2024, they have met five times in international competitions, with the Portuguese rider finishing ahead in every one.
The new duel will bring together the Paris 2024 Olympic champion and the newly crowned 2026 WTCS world champion in a sprint race that is scheduled to start at 11:00 CEST.
The race comes just six days after Vasco Vilaça clinched the world title in Pontevedra . The Portuguese rider finished second behind Matthew Hauser, while Yee completed the podium just four seconds behind the winner.
Five races with Vilaça ahead of Yee
The recent history between the two reveals an unusual statistic considering the Briton's track record. According to World Triathlon , since Yee became world champion in 2024, the two triathletes have competed in five international races, and Vilaça has finished higher in all five.
It's not necessarily about five direct duels for the win, but about five races in which both were at the start and the Portuguese crossed the finish line ahead.
The last time was precisely in Pontevedra. Vilaça finished second in 1:39:31 and Yee was third in 1:39:35 after recovering a good part of the difference during the run.
Yee comes in after running 29:16 and 28:46 in his last two WTCs
Two weeks before Pontevedra, Alex Yee had already shown his speed at the WTCS Karlovy Vary.
There he started the running race with approximately 2:10 behind the leader, clocked a split of 29:16 and finished second, just ten seconds behind Dorian Coninx.
In Pontevedra he was even faster. Yee completed the 10 kilometers in 28:46 and recovered 46 seconds on Matthew Hauser , going from arriving late at the second transition to contesting the leading positions in the final stretch.
Rome now changes the scenario. The race will be a sprint distance race and will finish with only 5 kilometers on foot , so any time gaps accumulated before T2 will leave fewer kilometers available to make them up.
Vilaça returns to the place where he already won in 2023
Rome is not a new setting for the Portuguese athlete either. Vasco Vilaça won the first edition of the World Cup held in the Italian capital in 2023, finishing ahead of Arnaud Mengal and Simon Henseleit in a race that Triathlon News covered at the time.
The new world champion also comes after a season in which he achieved his first WTCS victories, with wins in Samarkand and Alghero.
World Triathlon also points out that she faces Rome after achieving four consecutive second-place finishes in international competitions . Her last international victory was precisely the one she achieved in Alghero at the end of May.
Rome World Cup schedule and route
The men's race of the Rome 2026 World Cup is scheduled for Saturday, October 3 at 11:00 CEST.
The race will be a sprint format, with 750 meters of swimming, 20 kilometers of cycling and 5 kilometers of running.
The swim will consist of one lap in the lake, followed by a 250-meter run to the first transition area with a 6% incline. The cycling leg will be divided into five laps of four kilometers each, with each lap including a 400-meter section at a 5% gradient. The run will be completed over two laps of 2,5 kilometers each.
The entry list also includes names like Manoel Messias, João Nuno Batista, John Reed, Connor Bentley, Arnaud Mengal, and Nathan Grayel. Among the Spanish entrants are Roberto Sánchez Mantecón , who finished eighth six days ago in the Pontevedra Final, and Pelayo González Turrez.
The race can be followed via TriathlonLive and will allow us to see if Yee manages to finish ahead of Vilaça for the first time since they both began this streak of five international matches in 2024.
This content has been created with the support of AI tools and reviewed by the Triathlon News editorial team.
