Kiwi superstar Hayden Wilde admits he will be heading into the ‘unknown’ next month as he faces up to four huge races in as many weeks – three of which are major finals.
Despite suffering from a debilitating lung issue, the reigning T100 world champion has confirmed that he will line up for the Tour’s next race on the French Riviera, despite already committing himself to Supertri, IRONMAN and WTCS events in September.
His crazy schedule starts on September 6 with the Supertri Pro Series Final in Jersey, moves on to the 70.3 World Championships in Nice a week later on the 13th, and then finishes with the T100 on the 19th and the WTCS Championship Final in Pontevedra on the 27th.
Quartet of quick-fire races in September
After his superhuman recovery from a career-threatening bike crash last year, Wilde has endured something of a stop-start 2026, with illness meaning he now faces a real battle to challenge for honours in a season-defining quartet of quick-fire races.
Announcing his intention to compete on the French Riviera, he told T100 that he is looking forward to returning to the venue where he won last year and hopes to replicate the result as he builds points toward the final in Qatar.
Two of his four major races this campaign have at least enabled him to gather crucial T100 points, with his win in Singapore and a battling third – while clearly not at his best – in San Francisco seeing him top the table with only two regular-season events and the final to come.
“The problem with my lungs has affected my training over the last few months,” he said. “It is a bit of an unknown where my form will be at. Having a respiratory issue in endurance sports is never ideal, but I feel stronger than I was in San Francisco, where I ended up on the podium.
Looking to go ‘back-to-back’ in France
“I am excited to be back in Saint-Raphaël and Fréjus. The stunning Estérel Côte d’Azur course holds so many special memories for me from last year. The goal is to go back-to-back; that would be incredible.”
After finishing in San Francisco, he revealed that while he was still struggling with the lung issue, he wanted to pick up crucial points in the defence of a title he won in such incredible style last December, having failed to win only one of the races that he started on the Tour.
A win on the Côte d’Azur would boost those chances.
“I wanted to come respect the race, and I knew that if I didn’t turn up, it was going to be hard to defend the title,” he said. “So honestly, I’m actually pretty happy with the podium. I wasn’t expecting too much today, and it puts me in a good position here to get to the Qatar final, and I can’t complain about that.”
Three finals will test him to the limit
Wilde will be racing against the best professional male triathletes in the world when he lines up in France, with nine of the top ten in the T100 standings joining the start line – including Mathis Margirier (FRA), Rico Bogen (GER) and Jake Birtwhistle (AUS) – while Jelle Geens (BEL) has also been named.
By then, of course, Geens will know whether he has made history by becoming the first male athlete to win three 70.3 world championships in a row, with the Nice showdown held a week before the T100.
Having missed out on 70.3 glory in 2024 – when Geens beat him late on – Wilde clearly still harbours dreams of winning a first major IRONMAN title, but this will be his toughest task of the four in terms of both distance and opposition, with a stacked field lined up against him.
On either side of those T100 and 70.3 races are two further challenges over two very different distances.
Four races and four different distances
He kicks off his mega month at the Supertri Pro Series Final, where he will take on great friends and rivals Alex Yee (GBR) and Matt Hauser (AUS) as they do battle for a share of triathlon’s biggest single-day prize purse of $800,000.
Last but not least, the WTCS Final in Pontevedra will see the Kiwi once again line up against the likes of Hauser and Yee in what promises to be a short-course battle for the ages. The difference this time, however, is that Wilde has no hope of actually winning the series.
His fitness issues mean he will not have the requisite number of results to count toward the final tally and thus will only be racing for the honour of winning the final itself. While this is still a worthy reward to chase, it remains to be seen what impact three consecutive weekends of fierce multisport competition will have had on Wilde’s body and mind.
If it were anyone else, you’d probably write off his chances here and now… but this is a man who, 16 months ago, wasn’t even sure if he would ever compete again before astounding the world with his monumental T100 Tour success.
If anyone can do it… Hayden can.
