Welcome to The Full Send, Tri NZ’s Friday newsletter designed to send you into the weekend inspired, informed and entertained.
Below you’ll find:
• Reid v Stapley II – World Triathlon Cup Chengdu
• Goodisson, Wilde, Morgan – WTCS Alghero start lists
• Nicole van der Kaay – T100 Spain
• Kiwi women go wild in XTERRA
Read. Scorll. Read some more. Enjoy. Go forth and conquer the weekend.
Reid v Stapley II: The gloves are already off
World Triathlon Cup Chengdu
Saturday, May 9 – China
🇨🇳 Fun fighting talk. Standard fare from Tayler Reid, especially when the brash Brit Max Stapley invites himself into the pre-race conversation.
In a “China’s calling” social media post a week out from their mouth-watering rematch at World Triathlon Cup Chengdu on Saturday, Reid revealed he’d “finally got to pull out the @asicsnz meta-speed Rays” on a training run.
The reel elicited a response from Stapley, who edged an epic pre Paris Olympic Games duel in Chengdu 24 months ago, topping a podium that day featuring the German Jonas Schomburg and Reid who spent the final km or so of the run chundering through pure effort to keep his Paris hopes alive.
“It’s breakaway season,” Stapley wrote in a comment, to which Reid replied “@max_stapley lads are going up the road…”
No guesses re the Kiwi’s trademark intentions in China then as Reid continues his comeback from a rib injury suffered in a playfight with a mate.
The Gisborne 29-year-old will look to kick-on from his rusty 4th at the Oceania Super Sprint Championships at Runaway Bay on the Gold Coast in mid-April in a Chengdu field of 65 that includes three other Kiwis: Saxon Morgan, Joel Lange and Will Taylor. Amara Rae is the sole Kiwi in the female field, meaning Team NZL won’t be represented in Sunday Mixed Relay.
As it is for Morgan, Chengdu is a stepping-stone up into Europe for Reid and the key races that follow from the opening of the LA28 qualification window on May 18.
Morgan will be out to bounce back from DNF at Runaway Bay where his fast start to the season was stalled, the Cantabrian withdrawing with a sore throat as a precaution after comfortably negotiating the heats at the eliminator.
Reese Vannerson is the defending men’s champion in Chengdu while AIN (Individual Neutral Athletes) athlete Valentina Riasova is also back to defend the women’s title.
World Triathlon Cup Chengdu
Men (65 starters)
1. Luke Willian (AUS)
2. Tyler Mislawchuk (CAN)
3. Callum McClusky (AUS)
Also NZL
15. Saxon Morgan
21. Tyler Reid
42. Joel Lange
61. William Taylor
Women (65 starters)
1. Sian Rainsley (GBR)
2. Sara Guerrero Manso (ESP)
3. Franka Rust (GER)
Also NZL
39. Amara Rae
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Alghero a tough LA28 marker for Goodisson; Wilde, Morgan also on start lists
Reigning Olympic Games champion Cassandre Beaugrand and Paris podium buddy Beth Potter who has kicked on from her bronze to become current world No.1 and WTCS leader.
Reigning world champion Lisa Tertsch (GER). Defending T100 champion Kate Waugh (GBR). French stars Emma Lombardi and Leonie Periault, Germany’s Laura Lindemann, Jeanne Lehair from Luxemburg, the American Taylor Spivey and super Brit Georgia Taylor Brown. And the list goes on. And on.
If Eva Goodisson was looking for an early form marker in her bid for the LA28 Olympic Games, WTCS Alghero on May 30 will surely provide it.
Only two women have ever won a WTCS race in Sardinia. Beaugrand has reigned supreme in the last two editions (once in Cagliari and last year in Alghero), while Taylor-Brown was the Queen of Cagliari twice before that.
The stacked women’s field is matched by the men with Kiwis Hayden Wilde and Saxon Morgan on the just released start lists and set to square off with the likes of Matthew Hauser, Luke Willian (both AUS), Brazil’s Miguel Hidalgo, Portugal’s Vasco Vilaca, Frenchmen Léo Bergere and Dorian Coninx, German Henry Graf and the Brits Oliver Conway Max Stapley, Hugo Milner and Jack Willis.
Watch too for Canada’s Tyler Mislawchuk who will sharpen himself in Chengdu this weekend, along with former Kiwi James Corbett who is racing under a neutral World Triathlon flag in the mandatory standdown period before he hopefully qualifies for and races at the LA Olympics for Ireland.
Van der Kaay locked in for T100 Spain
Nicole van der Kaay’s name featured just one place from the top when the PTO released its start list for the second race of the women’s T100 Triathlon World Tour.
Such is the rise of the Queen of Kiwi short course triathlon in the mid-distances in the countdown to T100 Spain on May 23, marked by her 4th on debut in the 100km circuit on the Gold Coast last month. NVDK’s lofty ranking is partly due that result, and partly due the comeback of several stars, including reigning champion Kate Waugh who missed the GC with a calf strain.
Watch also for Paris Olympic Games silver medallist Julie Derron, the Brits India Lee and Georgia Taylor-Brown, Hayden Wilde’s Belgian finance Hanne De Vet and current top seed, Imogen Simmonds who finished 3rd ahead of NVDK on the Gold Coast. Winner Taylor Knibb and runner-up Jessica Fullagar are by-passing Spain.
Van der Kaay is coming off the successful defence of her Oceania SuperSprint title on The Gold Coast last month and will be back in short course, chasing early Olympic qualification points, post the T100 race in Pamplona-Navarra.
Spain T100 Triathlon start-list:
- Imogen Simmonds (SUI)
- Nicole Van Der Kaay (NZL)
- Bianca Bogen (GER)
- Sara Pérez Sala (ESP)
- Lotte Wilms (NED)
- Natalie Van Coevordan (AUS)
- Alanis Siffert (SUI)
- Julie Derron (SUI)
- Kate Waugh (GBR)
- Georgia Taylor-Brown (GBR)
- Holly Lawrence (GBR)
- Lisa Perterer (AUT)
- Hanne De Vet (BEL)
- India Lee (GBR)
- Taylor Spivey (USA)
- Lizzie Rayner (GBR)
- Daniela Kleiser (GER)
- Leana Bissig (SUI)
- Cathia Schär (SUI)
- Sophie Evans (GBR)
Kiwi women embracing the wild
Three Kiwi women. Three different journeys. One shared connection to the outdoors. From Wanaka trails to global XTERRA adventures, Arna Craig, Rebecca Speirs and Josie Sinclair reflect the spirit of Kiwi endurance culture — grounded in community, resilience and a love of wild places. Check out their story, penned by XTERRA and shared by SlowTwitch.
