“I’ve just been solely focused on this.”
Reid, 25, pipped Portugal’s Ricardo Batista for second in a thrilling sprint finish to the 750-metre swim, 20-kilometre cycle and 5km run.
It was initially thought Batista had got there but further scrutiny showed Reid had edged him before both men collapsed in the finishing bay.
The pair were credited with the same time — 56 minutes 32 seconds — well adrift of Kiwi sensation Hayden Wilde (55.57), who, in front of his home crowd, blitzed the field in the run and was able to savour the last 50 metres to the finish line.
Wilde had to catch the leading bunch on the cycle after being 20 seconds behind the leaders at the transition stage from the swim.
Once he bridged the gap, he turned on the pedal afterburners over a challenging course as a group of eight riders, including Reid, carved out a substantial advantage on the chasers.
And when he quickly hit the front in the run, there was only going to be one winner. Even strolling the last stages to the line, Wilde’s time of 14.30 for the run was faster than any of the 57 finishers.
Wilde then stood on the finish line and cheered on Reid as he and Batista emptied their tanks in the duel for third.
Another New Zealander, Dylan McCullough, was fourth in 56.34.
Reid was delighted.
“I’m buzzing,” he said in the post-finish interview.
“1-2 baby (referring to New Zealanders finishing first and second). That was sick, eh. Oh man, that was a deadly sprint finish . . . tried to pull out really late because I knew there was a head wind to the finish . . . I was thinking, yeah, we could get all Kiwi boys on the podium and make Batista have to run around the two of us to go a little bit further.
“But I had to give it everything. I was full-venom five metres from the finish and then I had to keep going, and then I was looking for a good place to throw up.”
Wilde and the other Kiwis enjoyed plenty of local and whānau support.
“To have all my family and friends come out and watch us do a 1-2 on home soil and my girlfriend win the women’s (race) . . . I couldn’t be happier,” Reid said.
Reid’s partner, Nicole van der Kaay, won the women’s race in 1 hour 2 minutes 57 seconds, with fellow Kiwi Ainsley Thorpe second in 1:03.06.
Van der Kaay took control in the run to win her first world cup gold.
“This race is super special for me,” she said.
“This was actually my first world cup podium four or five years ago and I haven’t had a world cup podium since. So to get gold has made it super special.
“It was a goal of mine to get that gold but I didn’t know how I was coming in against some of the internationals.
“It’s a great feeling — and home crowd, even better. There was a lot of cheering out there for the New Zealanders.”
Reid pocketed nearly $10,000 for his second while van der Kaay and Wilde earned $12,000 apiece.
The World Triathlon Cup has been extended to 13 events in 2023 in a multitude of countries — New Zealand, Mexico, Hungary, Spain, the Czech Republic, Italy, China, Brazil, South Korea, Japan, Chile and Uruguay.
