Matt Hanson’s Chile warm-up before heat is turned up

Matt Hanson starts his season off again at Challenge Puerto Varas this Sunday and then it’s Championship races all the way.

The American was second to Sam Long in the inaugural edition of the Chile race 12 months ago and is looking forward to returning.

Speaking on his YouTube channel recently, embedded below, he said: “I am excited to head back to Chile to start the year. It’s always a tough time of the year, especially when I’ve been doing so much training indoors.

“But it’s a beautiful race and I really enjoyed my experience there last year.”

Texas the first big target

He’ll be up against the likes of Tom Bishop, a fine second at CLASH Miami last Friday, and the event will be a stepping stone to a carefully picked schedule of races, no doubt partially influenced by bigger PTO world ranking points for the higher tier events.

Hanson is currently #17 in the standings and he added: “I do like to race at least one time before heading into the high-priority race of the first build and the first one of those will be IRONMAN Texas, definitely a race with a lot of great memories.

“It’s a Championship race [the Americas] and you’ll hear that theme throughout my whole schedule this year.

“Then I will plan to head to the North American 70.3 Championship at St George which will be my one and only shot to get a slot at the 70.3 Worlds. I’ve raced pretty well there the last couple of times, I guess training in Colorado now I’ve been able to manage the hills a bit better.

European adventure

“Then I’m throwing in a bit of a curveball as I’m planning to race Challenge’s THE CHAMPIONSHIP in Slovakia. I think that really is a course that does suit me well – it’s flat and really exposed to the wind and I’ve obviously raced there at the Collins Cup.

“Then the plan is to stay in Europe for a few weeks and maybe spend a little bit of time on the IMWC course in France and possibly head to the UK to see Matt Bottrill and Drag2Zero.

“And then I’ll end my stay in Europe with the European IRONMAN Championships in Hamburg. So it’s a big first half of the season and after ‘PV’ they are all Championship races. Those are the types of races that really motivate me, I like stacking up against really solid dudes in the field and seeing how the cards shake out.”

One of the ‘solid dudes’ also scheduled to line up in Hamburg is none other than modern-day GOAT Jan Frodeno in what is his “last year of full professional racing“.

Hanson will then take a bit of a break before the rest of the campaign which at present is planned to take in the PTO US Open in Milwaukee, then back to Europe for the 70.3 Worlds in Finland and of course the first-ever IMWC in Nice.