A Russian dominated the swim; a Kiwi blazed the bike trail.

But it was a wily Brit who chased down both of them Sunday to win the $200,000 Hy-Vee ITU Elite Cup.

Tim Don, a three-time Olympic distance-running specialist, took over the race’s third stage and held off a determined multi-athlete challenge to take the gold in an unofficial time of 1 hour, 50 minutes and 20 seconds.

“Today was my day,” Don, who finished 4th in 2007, 8th in ’08 and 16th at last year’s Hy-Vee, said. “It wasn’t easy. I was tired. I had to hold on. But I did enough to win.”

The race started out a two-man event. Russians Dmitry Polyansky, rated second in the world, and countryman Alexander Brukhanov, ranked first, came out of Blue Heron Lake with a big lead that melted on the bike route as afternoon temperatures heated up.

New Zealander Ryan Sissons opened up a big lead on the bike—26 seconds at one points—but by the bell lap the entire field was basically knotted for first. That led to a wild transition that saw New Zealander Kris Gemmell and 4th-ranked Jan Fredeno break out to a slim lead.

That’s where the Londoner took over. Don, 32, ripped off a blazing 7-minute, 20-second first lap and didn’t look back until runner-up Gemmell (1:50.24) and Australian Courtney Atkinson made a final push at the end of the 10k run. But neither had enough gas in the tank.

Don walked through the tape, raised his arms in victory and let loose a whoop and a huge smile.

“I raced my heart out,” he said. “Hy-Vee is the best race out there. They put on an awesome show.

“And I won it.”