Taupo (December 13, 2024) – Hayden Wilde’s rivals for the Ironman 70.3 World Championship title can’t say they don’t know what he thinks it will take to win in Taupo. Not when the the Kiwi favourite has so very publicly crunched what he considers to be Sunday’s critical number.
The Andorra-based, Whakatāne 27-year-old says he’s trained to run a sub 65 minute half marathon off the bike in the town of his birth. If he can stay in contact out of Lake Taupo, push his trademark wattage on the 90km bike without red-lining, then, well, watch out.
“Yeah, I went out and said I want to run a 65,” said Wilde who eased off to a 68:01 run en route to winning Ironman 70.3 Melbourne in November 2012 to secure his slot for Taupo.
“I’ve gone on this course [Taupo] a few times and was able to do a few training sessions and able to hit those numbers and yeah, it’s courageous for sure. And I know that in Melbourne I was on more or less that time. It was a lot flatter course, but it was the same wind direction.”
The difference between Melbourne and now is that Wilde has been specifically targetting targeting Taupo ever since achieving the first of his four goals for 2024 – the supertri title in NEOM.
A silver medal at the Paris Olympics and third place overall in the WTCS season standings meant he fell just short of his two earlier ambitions but the current short course world No.1 is a short priced favourite for Sunday.
He’s led into Taupo with victories at the WTCS season finale in Torremolinos and at build-up/training races in Laguna Phuket and at Tinman in Tauranga, and could easily achieve half of his four lofty 2024 goals given the home town support in Taupo.
“I felt like I’ve trained a lot more into this race since my Melbourne race last year. And it all depends on, I guess how the race goes,” Wilde said.
“I know watching these lads race, the bike’s been full on, so you might not have those legs. But, you know, if I am smart on the bike and can come off feeling good, you know, 65, I’ll definitely aim for. If I blow, I blow. But I’ll gave it a good crack.”
Consider the gauntlet very much thrown down.
With the likes of Frenchman Léo Bergère, defending champion Rico Bogen of Germany, Belgian Jelle Geens and Italian Ironman Pro Series pole-sitter Gregory Barnaby in the field, Sunday will be no cinch.
But for the home crowds, it’s hard to get past the mouth-watering prospect of a Kiwi mano-o-mano between Wilde and home town Taupo favourite Kyle Smith.
Smith edged Wilde at Ironman Taupo 70.3 in 2019 but both are very different swim, bike and run beasts now. While Smith looks to put the finishing touches on a breakout year of T100 and Challenge racing, Wilde is undoubtedly one of the world’s best triathletes. Full stop.
“He [Smith] raced awesome that year [2019] and I knew that when he transferred to long course he was going to be extremely dangerous,” Wilde said of his mate.
“He’s an animal on the swim and on the bike and then he can hold himself really well on the run and yeah, it’s really cool just to see Kyle just excel extremely well in the long distance. I’m a big fan of him and I think it’s really nice for both of us to be racing at home and yeah, it’s going to be exciting.”
While Smith calls Taupo home when he’s not based in Girona, Spain, Wilde lays claim to being born in the lake resort town. Neither will lack for sideline encouragement.
“Yeah, it’s awesome,” Wilde said of the chance to race for a world title on home soil.
“I’m based in Whakatane on the east coast but I was originally born here in Taupo. So yeah, it’s super special. Friends, family, grandparents and everyone’s coming over to watch. And yeah, it’s at the moment not just in triathlon in New Zealand, but just sport in general, is having a huge spike in New Zealand.
“So yeah, there’ll be people from all sorts of sporting codes just coming to watch. They say there’s going to be 26,000 people including participants and their families, but I feel like there’s going to be a lot more coming in.”
Getting back to the race, Wilde had one last warning for those who haven’t raced in New Zealand before and, no, he wasn’t referencing the heavy road chip that often catches out to European and North Americans used to smooth roads.
The forecast for the weekend promises partly cloudy skies to break, nor to nor-westerly winds and temperatures up to 26 degrees Celsius.
“It’s going to be hot through the day and it’s going to be humid. So, yeah, hopefully everyone’s acclimatised to the humidity because that’s the one that’s going to destroy everyone.”
