Hayden Wilde says he is “super happy” with where he is at this point of the year having competed at the New Zealand Elite Road National Championships this week.
The reigning T100 world champion and Olympic silver medallist began what promises to be a packed 2026 schedule by taking on his country’s best cyclists.
He missed a podium spot by just four seconds in the time trial, a one-lap 44.2km on the roads around Cambridge, south of Auckland on New Zealand’s north island.
And he then coasted home in 43rd as the last finisher in the 188km 20-lap road race.
Solid show in TT
The clear favourite for Thursday’s time trial was Finn Fisher-Black, who rides for Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe on the WorldTour and was looking to defend his national TT title.
And the 24-year-old did that in style as he stopped the clock in 52 minutes and 24 seconds.
Second was Glenn Haden at +1:11 back and then third at +2:02 was Ben Oliver, with Wilde fourth at +2:06.
One of those behind Wilde was George Bennett, who now rides for NSN Cycling and is a two-time Olympian.
Big win for Bennett
But two days later on Saturday (February 7th) it was Bennett who came out on top as he soloed to an emotional victory.
Explaining why, he told reporters: “I’ve had a really rough 18 months so this means the world.
“I am really proud to win this and take the jersey back to wear on the WorldTour. My big target is the Tour de France this year so to be able to wear the jersey there would be special.”
Wilde meanwhile was happy with his day’s work, saying on Instagram: “Big day in the saddle at the @cyclingnewzealand nationals.
“Pulling and coving attacks in the first few hrs isn’t the smartest. But Just wanted to get out there and test myself and see where the body was at.
“160km the lights went out last 2 laps was a good warm down 😅
“Massive respect for these lads and what they do. Nice to be apart of it 😎
“Super happy with where I’m at a month into the NZL block 😎”
Top women triathletes lead the way
Wilde claimed recently that he had been made a number of offers to join the pro cycling ranks.
He has trained with Bennett in the past and plenty of other pro cyclists from his European base in Andorra and speaking on the Sport Nation NZ show [14:25 into the embed below] he said: “I was thinking to go professional cycling if I wasn’t able to swim again after my crash [last year in Japan].
“Even before the crash I was offered potentially a few contracts with some pro teams. And just to have a sabbatical off tri and have a few years in the peloton I thought it would be quite fun.”
Wilde is one of the strongest male cyclists in triathlon and impressive as his fourth place in the NZ TT was, he still has some way to go to match three of the sport’s best female triathletes.
Paula Findlay is a multiple Canadian time trial champion, Taylor Knibb represented Team USA in the time trial at the Paris Olympics as well as taking silver in triathlon’s Mixed Team Relay, while Dutch athlete Maya Kingma landed a pro cycling contract last year and is going to focus on cycling in the first six months of this year.
