Triathlon redefined. Hayden Wilde is happy to be the poster boy for the T100 Tour’s season II brand repositioning, come what may.
The world short course No.1 has vowed to come out swinging in his much-hyped step up in distance in Singapore and continue flailing all the way to Doha in the $7m ‘Race to Qatar’.
“Why should everyone watch me compete at T100 Singapore? Because I’m either going to absolutely smash it or absolutely blow my gasket off. You get one or the other, we’ll see what happens,” Wilde said with a laugh.
“I don’t want to go into the series to make [up] numbers. I’m not there to hide, to sit in the back and just wait for the last few hundred metres. I’m there to race hard and make everyone push their limits.”
Wilde not only wants to win the T100 title, he intends winning going away from the competition it seems. He might have admitted to “naïve” tactics in his runner-up finish to Jelle Geens at December’s 70.3 worlds in Taupo but that doesn’t mean the Kiwis talisman will be any less full-throttle in the T100.
“Hopefully I can be one of those guys that is influential in moving this sport [forward], you know, relatively hard.
“I just want to make the sport exciting. I don’t want to go to a race and win easily. I want to put myself into the hurt locker. I also want to try and find my limits as well.”
Wilde even insists he’s ready to ruffle feathers to get what he wants.
We’ve come to expect nothing less from the Falcon on the race track, but he’s comfortable taking things off course in what shapes as a mouth-watering slugfest with Geens, the Belgian’s title defending compatriot Marten Van Riel, Germany’s Rico Bogen, Dutchman Yuri Keulen, American showman Sam Long and quiet Kiwi achiever Kyle Smith too.
If you’re not entertained already, even before Sunday’s 8:15pm (NZT) hooter, you clearly haven’t been following along. Rumours of Wilde stepping up to the lucrative 100km series surfaced long before he claimed Olympic silver in Paris last July. The mind games haven’t stopped since.
Van Riel called out Wilde during a finishing chute interview after sewing up the inaugural T100 title in Dubai last November.
“If I can beat anyone, I hope it’s maybe Hayden Wilde, he’s one of the most interesting prospects. Probably next year there will be a couple of new guys that get thrown into the mix, whoever steps in the ring can get knocked out,” Van Riel said.
Wilde’s riposte? A video that went viral when the 27-year-old halted a training ride right outside Van Riel’s house in Belgium to announce his T100 ‘Hot Shot’ contract for 2025. “Yeah, I guess the mind games start now. Happy Christmas, Marten.”
That might have been nothing more than a bit of good-natured banter but there’s clearly some genuine feeling creeping into the T100 paddock. Morgan Pearson didn’t take Geens’ dig during a podcast appearance so well.
“I felt like he was kind of like [saying] ‘Morgan shouldn’t have been invited’ [with a Hot Shot contract]. I was like, dude, come on, like, it was kind of insulting to me,” Pearson said.
A fractured wrist might have ruled the American out of Singapore but rest assured, he’ll be out for revenge in San Fran and beyond.
Wilde seems to be revelling in off course “spice”.
“Yeah, with Morgan actually, I was quite surprised. The beef between Jelle and Morgan is, yeah, it’s interesting. Yeah, I think you can definitely make a little bit of beef out of this T100 series. I think it’ll be a bit of fun,” he said.
“I think triathlon is relatively PG and to get some character within the sport would be pretty sick.”
Wilde’s starring role in the PTO’s ‘Countdown to Singapore T100’ preview video then abruptly cut to a scene of the Falcon on a stationary trainer.
“Just waiting for the big boy to turn up. Pissed me off and made me pissed off in a good way. Might have woken up the one thing I kind of needed,” he said.
We’re not 100 percent sure of Wilde was referencing Van Riel, Geens or someone else but we do know the Kiwi is up for a scrap.
“Hey, if anyone wants to start some beef with me, I’m more than happy.”
“Everyone knows I get pretty aggressive, so we’ll see what happens.”
There seems to be mutual respect with van Riel who won three of his four T100 starts last season and finished second in the other. The PTO world No.1 who will race in Singapore just a week after finishing second at Ironman South Africa where he prioritised gaining a IM Worlds slot early in the season.
“I’m looking forward to racing Martin. He’s super complete,” Wilde said.
“He’s really aggressive on the swim. He’s really aggressive on the bike and he runs really well. It’s going to be really hard to crack him in a sense.”
Geens, the PTO world No.2, comes in after picking up where he left off in Taupo with victory at last month’s Ironman Pro Series opener at 70.3 Geelong. Indeed, Wilde knows he’ll take counter punches at every turn after watching last year’s racing.
“From the outside looking in, it looked like the swim was still super aggressive. You have to be ‘on’ on the bike, you know, they’re pushing like the minimum is 5 watts per kg. And then the running between that 3.06, 3.05, 3.12 pace for the 18k is pretty impressive as well.
“it just looks like it’s just full gas until one person blows up and then another person blows up and then the last man standing pretty much.
“Who I’m looking forward to racing in the T100 series is actually quite a lot of people. Morgan Pearson, for example, like a sniff on that run and he’s going to hunt you down. Marten will also try and do the same thing and then try and push on the bike and drop me as well. Jelle will be the run battle, I think.
“It looks like it’s going to be hard work, but I’m up to the challenge. It should be fun.”
