Kiwi triathlon star Hayden Wilde has again fallen victim to his aggressive racing style, run down by Belgian Jelle Geens within sight of the Ironman 70.3 world crown at Taupō.
Wilde, who was chased down by Brit Alex Yee for Paris Olympic gold in July, made a bold bid for victory coming off the bike leg and opened up almost a minute on his rivals through the first half of the run, but quickly succumbed to Geens, who was obviously biding his time for the run home to the biggest win of his career.
Geens eventually clocked 3h 32m 09s, finishing more than a minute clear of Wilde (3h 33m 22s), with Frenchman Leo Bergere (3h 35m 08s) third and Kiwi Kyle Smith (3h 37m 51s) fourth.
"I put a big ambition out there and I went out there," rued Wilde. "I was naive, but I really wanted to give it a go.
"I did the training and I felt like I rode appropriately. I know these roads like the back of my hand and I knew, when you hit View Road, there's the potential for opening a gap.
"I got that gap and felt really confident. It's weird to say — and I think the short course guys can say this — it's hard to slow yourself down in the first 10km and I just couldn't do it, I was too excited.
"I went out probably too hard and that's learning."
Local favourites Wilde and Smith were part of an eight-strong group that emerged from the 1.9km lake swim together and opened a margin over their nearest rivals early in the bike. Those contenders also included Geens, German defending champion Rico Bogen, Olympic triathlon bronze medallist Bergere and South African sprint exponent Henri Shoeman.
The leaders rotated the pace throughout the 90km bike and were largely still together approaching the transition, when Wilde made his move, opening 13 seconds into the zone and quickly into the run, as his opponents took their time. His smooth change added another few seconds to his advantage, giving him a lead of 100 metres.
Wilde's 1h 58m 51s bike split was the fastest of the day, with the top six all breaking two hours.
During the race build-up, Taupō-born Wilde had predicted a fast half-marathon (21.1km) run of 1h 5m that had many scoffing at his bravado. One of the strongest multisport runners in the world, he took off at that pace, grabbing more seconds from his pursuers.
"I'd say in short course distance racing, you have to be stressful in that situation, but I knew it was a long race," said Geens. "I wanted to not tire my legs out too much at the end of that bike ride — I knew it was still a long run.
"I've struggled in the second part of these runs before, so I knew I had to do my own pace at the beginning. It was easy to run really fast and I wasn't making any time on Hayden, so I knew I would only catch him if he really cracked."
Geens chased hardest, with Smith settling into third and Bergere chasing. Fellow Frenchman Mathis Margirier had to serve a 10-second penalty for drafting on the bike and slipped out of the top 10.
Smith had finished runner-up in the world T100 championship and grew up locally at Kinloch, but his podium challenge ended about 4km into the run, when Bergere cruised past.
Wilde clocked 30m 59s through 10km, now 55 seconds clear of Geens, and reached halfway in 34m 31s, behind his target.
Geens held his deficit at less than a minute and then started nibbling away at the gap, as Wilde's pace began to slow slightly. With a little more than 5km remaining, the difference was down to 41 seconds — 750 metres later, it was just 25 seconds.
A kilometre more and Geens was two seconds back, and Wilde had nothing left, as he sailed past. Geens produced 1m 07m 34s for the run, while Wilde's 1h 09m 05s was well short of his prediction.
"Crazy day," reflected Geens. "I've been in this sport a long time, I've been ITU a long time, and it's really had its ups and downs.
"I would say the last one-and-half years in short course racing has been really tough for me mentally. To step up to middle distance racing and in my first try become world champion, it's incredible."
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