There will be no respite for many of the world’s best triathletes after the WTCS Finals in Torremolinos as the Tongyeong World Cup comes knocking. The popular South Korean event has attracted a talented field with no fewer than eleven athletes out to impress for the home team. The race will be a standard distance affair consisting of a two-lap 1500m swim, a six-lap 40km bike, and a four-lap 10km run. Tune in on TriathlonLive at 11:00 local time (04:00 CEST) to catch all of the men’s action.

Learning from the past

On the surface, the lesson to be taken from the men’s history of the Tongyeong World Cup is that there is no lesson. In total, there have been sixteen previous editions of the event while Tongyeong also played host to a WTCS stop in the inaugural Series back in 2009. With events spanning a twenty year period, there has been plenty of variety in the racing.

Other than the 2022 race, this will be the first time the Tongyeong World Cup has been held over the standard distance since 2015. With that in mind, we can look at three clusters of events: those between 2021 and 2023 for a more recent insight and those from 2013 to 2015 for a greater emphasis on the standard distance. The point to be made is that Tongyeong is one of the few races that, despite seldom seeing great changes to the course, the racing tends to veer between outcomes from one year to the next.

In 2021 and 2022, a large pack formed in the men’s event, resulting in a running race. By contrast, in 2023 a smaller pack stayed away in the sprint distance event. In 2013 and 2014, breakaways were also present, with the 2014 breakaway determining the medallists entirely. In 2015, however, another running race arose from a large main pack. The different men’s race dynamics can also be seen by whether the fastest runner wins the race. In 2013, 2015, 2021 and 2022, the fastest runner won the race. The breakaway stayed clear until T2 in only one of those instances (2013). On the other hand, the fastest runner did not win in 2014 or 2023, reinforcing how the breakaways have equally paid off.

With the above in mind, the top contenders racing this weekend fall into two distinct groups.

Hoping the field stays together

An impressive Spanish quartet will be starting in Tongyeong. Fresh off claiming the World U23 title, David Cantero del Campo will be the most obvious threat for the win should the field stay together. As he proved in Torremolinos and with his victory at the Valencia World Cup, if Cantero is anywhere near the front out of T2, there are few that can keep up with him.

His compatriots Roberto Sanchez Mantecon, a WTCS medallist in Bermuda two years ago, and Esteban Basanta Fouz likewise have plenty of running speed to burn. Intriguingly, they will also be joined by Izan Edo Aguilar, a rising talent making his World Cup debut. Edo claimed a hat-trick of European Junior Cup victories earlier this year and while making his World Cup debut will be a step up it will be interesting to see how he will fare.

Other fast runners such as Louis Vitiello (FRA) and Aurelien Jem (FRA) will be present but on paper Cantero will be the man to beat in a running race.

Pushing for a breakaway

On the other side of the spectrum, there are those that will attempt to force a breakaway to stay clear. With two hills on each of the six bike laps, there will be scope for a group to stay away. At the same time, the record of Tongyeong shows there is no guarantee that a pack of escapees will be able to defend a lead.

Dylan McCullough (NZL) was part of the breakaway last year as he finished 4th place. Shortly after, he earned a maiden World Cup medal. The Oceania champion over the sprint distance is currently in form too, as shown by his 8th place finish at WTCS Weihai. Valentin Morlec (FRA) is another World Cup medallist that will look to push the pace in the water and on the bike. Morlec has been extremely consistent on the World Cup stage this year, with multiple top-8 finishes. Like McCullough, he is a quick runner but would likely favour a smaller front pack. 

Other athletes with plenty of swimming speed could also play a hand in breaking the race up early. Keep an eye on the likes of Nicola Azzano (ITA), the European champion over the super sprint format; Brandon Copeland (AUS), the bronze medallist at the Oceania Championships over the standard distance; and Takumi Hojo (JPN), a World Cup winner in Yeongdo last year. As adept as each is in the third discipline, they may possibly prefer not to go head-to-head with Cantero.

The men’s race at the Tongyeong World Cup could therefore go either way this weekend and the history of Tongyeong makes it almost impossible to know how proceedings might pan out. Stay up to date with all the action from Saturday’s racing across all World Triathlon channels and on TriathlonLive.