Kiwi Hayden Wilde continued his fantastic run of form this season as he took down a stacked field that included current WTCS champion Leo Bergere to win the second round of the French Grand Prix in Bordeaux.
Along with Britain’s Alex Yee, the Olympic bronze medalist seems in a different class to everyone else this season, with wins at WTCS Yokohama and the World Triathlon Cup New Plymouth indicative of his billing as one of the favourites for the gold medal in Paris next year.
Having opted to miss WTCS Montreal to focus on preparing for WTCS Hamburg and the Paris Test Event, Wilde took a small break from training to win in Bordeaux. However, according to the 25 year old, it wasn’t all plain sailing on race day.
“A tired body makes racing way harder”
Whilst it was all smiles at the finish line in Bordeaux as Wilde took the tape, leading his club Lievin Triathlon to third place in the team standings, the New Zealander admitted it took a lot to get his body ready on race day.
Writing on Instagram, he said: “Man, a tired body makes racing way harder, whilst also racing at 33 degrees celsius. Pre-race the body didn’t feel amazing, needed a very long warm up to start the engine but as the horn went the body reacted surprisingly well.”
Despite ‘only’ being a French Grand Prix race, the field in Bordeaux possessed some incredible quality, with the frantic tempo, especially in the swim, one thing that Wilde enjoys so much about the series.
“French GP is ruthless and that’s why I love it! Got smashed on the first buoy and did some breast stroke and had to reset. Was actually in a good position until then but lost a lot of time around that first turn. Got back into the rhythm, then sent it on the bike with Pierre Le Corre.
“Nearly got taken out by the motor bike in the last 100m of the ride, got into the run, felt good in the first 1500m then the legs started battling. Once again, a pleasure to race against the best French athletes in the world. There is so much talent in this country it’s kinda scary.”
Next, the World #3 will head to Andorra for a block of training, before then racing in Germany at WTCS Hamburg, which takes place in less than a month and also features the World Triathlon Relay Championships.
Triathlon’s mid-season report card: Tim Don on who’s raising the bar this triathlon race season
