Sam Laidlow, the 2023 IRONMAN World Champion, lines up for his first full distance race of the season on Sunday, as the Frenchman takes on IRONMAN Vitoria-Gasteiz.

The PTO World #14, who has endured a slow start to the year, will be the favourite to take the win and validate his slot for Kona in October when he takes on a top field this weekend.

Discussing his training leading into the event on his YouTube channel, the 25-year-old reported that things are moving in a positive direction after two tough races on the T100 Triathlon World Tour.

Moving in the right direction

After finishing ninth in his first race of the year at the Miami T100 back in March, Laidlow didn’t finish at the Singapore T100, and hasn’t raced since.

Finding silver linings, however, Laidlow said that he is coming into form at the right time, something that he struggled with at times last year.

“Training has been going quite well. My form has slowly been going up and I feel like this year I am peaking at a better time.

“Last year, I was in really good shape earlier on in the season, and then I encountered some issues, so now I feel like I’m on a good trajectory.

“I’m not at peak fitness yet, but I feel like I’m going in the right direction and hopefully in Vitoria I can validate with a good race, race to my numbers and see where that gets me.” 

Back to his roots

Returning to the full distance, Laidlow, who is coached by his dad Richard, said that it feels good to be back racing over the distance that he loves.

“I’m really excited to be back racing IRONMAN, that’s what I love to do at the end of the day and we have also got a good little team going here with Arthur [Horseau], so I’m just going to try and enjoy the trip [to Vitoria].”

Filming the YouTube video two weeks out from race day, the Frenchman gave some insight into his taper, which involves maintaining a steady volume of training without going over the top.

“Now it’s all about not doing anything stupid, I’m going to keep the volume up, but try not to do any muscular damage to the body and keep the volume up to make sure our metabolism stays efficient for such a long race.

“I find if you taper too much, you burn through carbohydrates like nobody’s business on race day, so it’s always a fine balance.”