World Championship Series
Coverage: Watch the series final from Budapest on 11 September on BBC TV and the BBC Sport website (UK only)

Briton Stuart Hayes produced a shock victory at the sixth round of the World Championship Series in Kitzbuhel.

But world champion Alistair Brownlee was 40th in his first race since his collapse at Hyde Park three weeks ago.

Hayes, 31, was part of a five-man breakaway group on the bike and then clung on to deny Spaniard Javier Gomez a hat-trick of successive race wins.

"The only way I can win is to get away on the bike, otherwise I've no chance," said Londoner Hayes.

"Either I get away and it works or I end up near last place because I gave everything I had trying to get away. That's the way I like to race."

With one race of the series remaining, in Budapest on 11 September, Germany's Jan Frodeno leads the overall standings by 231 points from Gomez after he finished third in Austria.

Brownlee's title defence ended earlier in the year after he missed races in Seoul and Sydney through injury.

Russian Dmitry Polyansky set the early pace when he swam into the lead in Schwarzsee Lake.

Hopefully that will make the bike more of a factor in the future Stuart Hayes

He was unable to maintain his advantage at the beginning of the six-lap, 43.8km ride before Hayes, Americans Matt Chrabot and Greg Bennett, and Germans Christian Prochnow and Maik Petzold sped away from the bunch on lap four.

"I'm trying to change the mentality of the pack," Hayes said of his bold tactic.

"A lot of guys just like to sit and wait for the run, but I'm trying to change that by biking as hard as I can. Hopefully that will make the bike more of a factor in the future."

By the time they reached the second transition, the quintet were a minute and 43 seconds ahead of the chasing bunch.

And at the next transition, Hayes immediately pulled away and was never caught as he won in a time of one hour 52 min 32 sec.

Gomez was penalised by 15 seconds for not stowing his helmet properly in the second transition but admitted it had no bearing on his failure to catch Hayes.

Britons Tim Don placed 12th in the 65-strong field and Will Clarke was 23rd but Oliver Freeman did not finish.

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