Hayden Wilde, the Olympic silver medallist and reigning men’s T100 world champion, will kick off his 2026 season this week at the New Zealand Elite Road National Championships.
The Kiwi is on the start list for both the time trial and road race which are taking place between February 5-7 in Cambridge, hosted by Te Awamutu Cycling Club.
Wilde completed one of the all-time great sporting comebacks in 2025 when he recovered from a horror bike crash to work his way back to fitness and win T100 London less than 100 days later.
That was one of six T100 victories as he completely bossed the series to claim the overall title in Qatar in December.
World Tour rivals
The National Championships will see Wilde lock horns with many of his country’s top cyclists and the overwhelming favourite for the 44.2km time trial, which takes place on Thursday February 5, is Finn Fisher-Black.
The 24-year-old rides for Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe on the World Tour and excels both in the mountains and in time trials and he heads back home looking to defend his national title.
There are 15 entries in total for the TT and 39 for the 188km road race, which will also feature Fisher-Black as well as a number of other pro riders.
Combining WTCS and T100
It will be a useful tune-up for Wilde ahead of the new triathlon season where he will resume his rivalry with Alex Yee and Matt Hauser.
Yee pipped Wilde to the Olympic crown in that memorable finish in Paris in 2024 while Hauser is the reigning WTCS champion after a perfect 2025 campaign.
Speaking on Sport Nation NZ, which is embedded in full below, he revealed a busy first half of the year.
He said: “The start of my season is actually pretty bulky. I start in Abu Dhabi, then Singapore, Yokohama and San Francisco.”
Wilde will be looking to repeat his victory last year in the WTCS opener in Abu Dhabi on March 28 and that’s followed by the first men’s T100 race in Singapore on April 25, WTCS Yokohama on May 16 and T100 San Francisco on June 6.
He added: “Then I’ll go back to Europe and sort of base myself there – I’ll race Quiberon in France (June 20), WTCS London (July 25) and all sorts.”
And Wilde’s hopes of fighting for both the T100 and WTCS titles this year have been boosted by what is a lighter T100 schedule in 2026, with just four men’s races (as opposed to eight in 2025) before the grand finale in Qatar.
