Bogen Untouchable at T100 San Francisco as Wilde Takes Third – Slowtwitch News

Well, it turns out that the answer to the question we posed in Thursday’s preview – “Can anyone beat Hayden Wilde at T100 San Francisco?” – is a resounding “yes.” After having to pull out of the World Triathlon Championship Series (WTCS) Alghero event last weekend when he spent five days in bed fighting a vicious bug, it’s reported that Wilde was a questionable start for today’s race in San Francisco even after he arrived in California a few days ago. So, it shouldn’t have been much of a surprise that the Kiwi wasn’t ever really in the mix for the win.

Wilde being sick doesn’t take anything away from the performance of the man who did take the win – Rico Bogen. The German successfully defended his T100 San Francisco title using the same tactics he did a year ago – blasting clear on the bike and then putting together a solid run for a comfortable win.

The German was so dominant that Wilde was quick to point out that he would have been hard to beat – regardless of everyone else’s fitness.

“It was a tough day out there,” Wilde said after the race. “(I was) just battling all day, but honestly, to be fair, full respect to Rico — I think even on a good day it would have been damn hard to beat him today. He was pushing it up there on the front and there was not much I could do out there. The only thing I could really do is just be smart and get as super aero as possible, because I just wasn’t pushing the power I wanted to. I actually turned around and had a good run, but the whole day was … a little bit rough.”

It was anything but rough for Bogen, who came out of the frigid water just a couple of seconds behind swim leader Morgan Pearson. The down-current swim from just off of Alcatraz island to the swim finish was as quick as ever and, as usual, didn’t provide a lot of separation between the athletes. Jason West was ninth out of the water, just 16 seconds down, and there were only two minutes separating Pearson from the last man out of the water, Marcel Bolbat.

It was apparent that Wilde wasn’t on his game from the start – he would begin the long run to T1 44 seconds down.

Once on the bike it quickly became the Rico Bogen show. After finishing third here at the inaugural race, then winning last year, the 25-year-old considers this “his” course, and wasted no time to let the rest of the field know he wasn’t playing around.

“I had to push really deep on the bike,” Bogen said after the race. “I thought, maybe I’m destroying myself — I pushed even harder than last year.”

It might have been a risky move, but the dominant bike leg put Bogen in a seemingly unsurmountable position for the win. Fellow German Lasse Nygaard Priester, making his T100 debut, was the only athlete even close coming in to T2, and that gap was still 2:24. (And, in reality, the gap was closer to three minutes as Priester would be given a 30-second equipment penalty – reportedly for leaving his socks in transition when he decided not to pull them on.) Wilde was next in to T2, sitting 5:35 down and just ahead of France’s Leo Bergere, who had also had to serve a one-minute penalty, but still managed to ride himself back up to the chase group. A few more seconds back came a group that included Estonian Henry Räppo, Aussies Kurt McDonald and Jake Birtwhistle, followed by Brit Will Draper another minute behind.

Out on the run course there really was no touching Bogen, who, as he put it, “had good run legs.” The German felt good through the first two of the four laps of the 18 km run course, and admitted after the race that the last lap “was quite tough – my legs were completely destroyed, but I could hold it.”

While Nygaard Priester was putting together an impressive run, Bogen took solace in the news that his countryman had a penalty.

“I heard on the third lap that he had a penalty, and I thought — I have a one minute thirty gap and he has a thirty second penalty, so I think the gap is big enough,” Bogen said.

Bogen would cross the line in 3:17:25 after posting the day’s fastest bike split (1:55:34). Nygaard Priester was thrilled to finish in second.

“I had the penalty in T2 for not putting my socks back in the box — I realized it about 200 meters later,” Nygaard Priester said. “But, in general, I’m very happy with the race, especially the bike. I did everything I wanted. I really tried not to hide and just go for it. It’s almost a little unreal — two Olympic medalists (Wilde and Bergere were silver and bronze medalist at the Paris Games) behind me. At one point I was looking back and realising the gap was getting bigger, so starting the run I felt quite in control of second place … I’ve never biked that hard — it was a new experience. I felt like my run isn’t where it’s been this year, but the whole race from start to finish was quite on.”

Wilde would hold things together enough to take a solid third-place finish, while Pearson would take the top US spot in fourth, with West just 20 seconds back in fifth.

Here are a few more notes from the day’s racing:

• Sam Appleton also had an equipment penalty which he served on the run.
• As mentioned, Bogen had the days fastest bike split, Pearson would have the day’s fastest run (58:15), which was a couple of seconds ahead of West.
• West gained nine places on the run on his way to fifth.
• Leo Bergere struggled on the run, losing six places. The Frenchman appears to still be dealing with the injury issues that plagued him through much of 2025 – a benign tumour on his sciatic nerve and Achilles tendon problems.
• As if his bike dominance wasn’t enough, Bogen also had the day’s fastest T2 time of just 30 seconds.
• Pearson led the swim and also had the day’s fastest T1 time – 2:48. (There’s a long run from the swim exit to the bikes.)

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T100 Triathlon World Tour