Spirig was making her first appearance on the ITU circuit since winning gold at London 2012.

Spirig battled from 29 seconds back after the swim to see off American Sarah Groff and Lisa Perterer of Austria, in the searing Mexican heat.

"It was very hard, but it was amazing," said Spirig, who went seemingly unaffected by the scorching temperatures.

"The crowd was amazing, not just for the Mexicans but for me and the other athletes. It was a great experience,.

"I trained here a little bit before, so I think I was a little bit used to it [the heat]."

Spirig led a superb chase on the cycling leg to close the gap by the end of the second lap.

German Rebecca Robisch, Britain's Natalie Milne and Perterer joined Spirig in leading the chase back to the main group while the remainder of the group fell two minutes back.

"I'm very thankful to Spirig, who pushed very hard on the bike so we could reach the first group," Perterer said.

"The fans, being on the podium at a World Cup.

"It's an amazing way to end the season."

A group of 16 women entered the run together however by the end of the first lap with Spirig, Groff, Perterer and hometown favourite Claudia Rivas pushing the pace.

Spirig made her move with 2.5 kilometres left, breaking off from the group to finish with a time of 57min 53sec.

Switzerland's Nicola Spirig won her first race since winning the gold medal at London 2012

In the men's race, Javier Gomez collected his 14th World Cup title with an impressive win over Frenchman Aurelien Lescure and Russia's Dmitry Polyanskiy.

"It was a very tough race" said Gomez.

"It was extremely hot out there.

"I was dead on the run.

"The last kilometre I tried to hang on and give my all the last 100 metres.

"I was sick for a few days this week, so I wasn't really sure, but I'm happy to win."

The swim did little to break up the athletes with a massive group of men forming on the bikes.

This group continued to swell over the bike course until Germany's Gregor Buchholz, Mexico's Carlos Arcadia, South Africa's Travis Johnson, Brazil's Fabio Carvalho and Colombia's Oscar David Preciado made a break on the third lap.

The break did nothing to stop Gomez, who shot off as soon as he racked his bike in transition.

Polyanskiy and America's Jarrod Shoemaker did their utmost to keep with the Spaniard, with France's Aurelien Lescure battling his way through the field behind them.

In a surprise burst of speed, the Frenchman flew past Gomez going onto the blue carpet; however the London 2012 silver medallist cranked up the gears and gunned past his opponent to finish the season exactly as had had started it, winning in 53:26, two seconds ahead of Lescure.

Gomez pushes hard in the run to seal 14th World Cup title

 "I worked to beat Gomez at the end, but he was too strong - the best in the world," Lescure said.

"I'm not so good at sprint finish, so I tried to make the gap earlier in the race."

After finishing just off the podium in his last two races, Polyanskiy engaged in a down to the line battle with Shoemaker.

In a photo finish, it was determined Polyanskiy earned bronze.

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