As the men’s field ran into the Tasman Sea, all eyes were on home favourite Hayden Wilde. Last time out in New Plymouth, Wilde had come away with a 4th place. While Olympic and WTCS medals have followed in the subsequent four years, a World Cup win has eluded Wilde. In front of home crowds, he now had a chance to tick that box.
A European double punch led the way in the water as youngsters Nicolò Strada and Ricardo Batista exited first in 9:01. Trent Thorpe was next out, 2 seconds behind.
Strada and Batista had stretched out the field, with lots of small gaps of 1 or 2 seconds appearing as the rest of the men came out in drips and drabs. Wilde emerged from the water in 19th, 20 seconds down on the lead duo.
Batista was quick to take out the bike hard and rode alone in the early stages. He churned out a big gear as a pack of six men tried to hunt him down. Among the chasers were New Zealanders Tayler Reid and Dylan McCullough.
Within the first lap, Wilde made the jump across to the leaders on the bike, showcasing his full array of skills. He would go on to log the fastest bike split of the day (31:02) to put himself firmly in control of the front pack.
By the end of the first lap on the bike a front group of ten had formed as they absorbed Batista.
On the second lap, that group lost a couple of members as Thorpe and Nicola Azzano were dropped. With Wilde then pulling a nasty turn up the hill, the rest of the lead group seemed happy enough to sit on his back wheel.
With no major attacks forming and no one able to throw off Wilde’s chokehold on the bike, the remaining eight stayed together for the rest of the course.
Ren Sato and Gregor Payet tried to lead the chase however were out-split by over half a minute by the front group. By the time the chase arrived in T2, they were over a minute down on the leaders.
Wilde led the field into T2 and once onto the run, the identity of the winner was a foregone conclusion. Strada was out first but Wilde quickly passed him and dropped the rest of the leaders. By the end of the first lap he was in a different post code.
To go with his race-leading bike split, he produced the fastest run of the day in 14:30. From further afield, Callum Mcclusky logged the second best run split with a 14:31. Mcclusky’s run has certainly fired this season and he will be one to watch going forward, not least as only eight men in total dipped under 15 minutes.
For a moment it looked like the New Zealand men were going to lock out the podium with McCullough and Reid in pole position. Batista, though, was still in the mix.
As Reid and McCullough tried to push, the Portuguese athlete simply floated alongside, biding in his time. In a madcap dash for the line, Reid out-duelled Batista by a hair-width. Batista actually out-ran Reid by 2 seconds on his way to a 15:03 split, but Reid’s positioning at the end of the bike and fast T2 compensated for those precious seconds.
McCullough came home in 4th, just 2 seconds back, and Brandon Copeland rounded out the top-5.
View the full results here.
