🦅 Six days. That’s all the recovery time Hayden Wilde has afforded himself between becoming Ironman 70.3 world champion in Nice and going again on the Côte d’Azur, this time in the shorter, sharper currency of T100 Triathlon World Tour racing.
The Kiwi talisman has given himself even less time to celebrate arguably the highlight of his career thus far, certainly in the mid-distance realm. No ticker-tape parade back home made famous by other sports, no national fluffing of the Falcon’s feathers beyond a few social media posts and a motorway billboard or two.
Just a short journey down the Côte d’Azur and straight back to defending the French Riviera crown he won 12 months ago, with the express goal of the “top step again” and strengthening his grip atop the T100’s ‘Race to Qatar’ standings.
It’s chapter three of Wilde’s ridiculous September. Runner-up to Matthew Hauser in Supertri Jersey, a maiden 70.3 world title, and now a gearbox change back into 100km racing, before the hunt for a much-needed Olympic Games rankings boost at the WTCS Grand Final in Pontevedra on Sunday week slams the door on a month where Wilde has already achieved more than most do in a career.
Racing gets underway in Saint-Raphaël-Fréjus at 6:05pm NZ time Saturday (8:05am local time) over the standard T100 format: a 2-lap, 2km swim, a 4-lap, 80km bike and a 6-lap, 18km run.
WATCH LIVE: Sky Sport 4. Also YouTube – @T100Triathlon – and Triathlonlive.tv – all from 6pm NZ time Saturday. Check listings
The reigning T100 world champion and current Race to Qatar points leader arrives to be confronted by a field including eight other of this season’s top 10 contenders. Australia’s Jake Birtwhistle sits second overall and heads the chasing pack, with Germany’s Rico Bogen — fresh off winning June’s Sokin T100 San Francisco — also among the favourites. Jelle Geens completes the headline group, the Belgian returning to T100 action for the first time in 2026 having finished third in last year’s overall standings, and just those six short days after taking bronze behind Wilde in Nice.
Asked about his approach heading into Saturday, Wilde conceded he’s focused on the present, while already looking forward with motivation to make amends for a moment in history.
It all stems back to T100 San Francisco in early June, where Wilde was still shaking off a virus that had forced him out of WTCS Alghero the week before. He stumbled into T1 44 seconds down, watched Bogen build a lead of nearly five and a half minutes on the bike, and salvaged third in what he later called a “sufferfest.”
With each athlete’s best three T100 results across the season plus the Qatar World Championship Final — worth up to 55 points for the win, rather than the usual 35 — counting toward the overall T100 Triathlon World Championship title in December, Wilde is keen to add further wins in Saint-Raphaël on Saturday and Saudi Arabia on November 28 to his season-opening romp in Singapore in April.
That would set himself up nicely for the season decider in Qatar on December 11 and back-to-back T100 titles with the associated US$100,000 champions bonus.
“I want to try and get some early points on the board [in Saint-Raphaël] and then I can go to the race in Saudi and try and switch that third place [from T100 San Fran] into a first place as well. So there’s many things that could reap the rewards after this race,” Wilde said.
First things first is the US$50,000 on the line for victory in Saint-Raphaël. Confidence, as you’d expect, is not in short supply.
“I want to come back here and try and get that top step again. I think I just have to play my cards right and just be patient again.
“Get myself into a good position early on and then just play my cards throughout the race and just do enough to try and be competitive and be willing to fight for the win. Just do as much as I can to get as many points heading into the final two rounds.”
Britain’s Sam Dickinson — third on his T100 debut in Saint-Raphaël last year and back from a foot injury — expects the front of the race to be decided on the bike rather than the run.
“You’ve got Hayden, Jelle [Geens] and Lasse [Priester], and myself all from the top 10 in the T100 Race To Qatar rankings. Certainly those three in front will be able to run super fast, and that might be a really interesting run battle if they all come off the bike together.
“I’m sure Rico [Bogen] is not gonna want that to happen, so he’s going to be pushing the race on from the front on the bike like he did when he won in San Francisco.”
The difference between San Fran and Saint-Raphaël? Wilde is back to full fitness and flying with confidence. If he can back-up Nice six days later – which would be no small feat in the circumstances – the Halberg Sportsman-of-the-Year clammer will only grow more compelling.
While the focus is understandably on Wilde, Kiwi fans will also be cheering for Kyle Smith. The Taupo 29-year-old has endured a tough year on-and-off the race track but gets his chance with a wildcard entry for French Riviera.
Smith has plummented to 354th in the latest PTO world rankings but is clearly a much more dangerous threat than the ranking indicates. It wasn’t so long ago that he was challenging for the T100 title and he’ll be looking to eclipse his 2026 results: 11 at Ironman NZ, 13th at T100 Singapore and a DNF at Ironman 70.3 Elsinore in his last start in Denmark in June.
