Tayler Reid and Ney brothers in eye-catching form

STRIDING OUT: Tayler Reid on the run leg of the male elite race at the Kinloch Triathlon Festival. Picture by Bruce Belcher

TAYLER Reid's fantastic season racing triathlon continued at the weekend, with a second-place finish in the standard-distance male elite race at the Kinloch Triathlon Festival.

Two other Gisborne triathletes — brothers Josiah and Matthew Ney — also showed out in the racing at Kinloch, in shorter-distance events.

Reid started the elite race strong, coming out of the water with a small gap after pushing the pace in the second lap of the 1.5-kilometre swim course to be the first on the bike.

As the leaders turned the corner for the second lap of the bike, Hayden Wilde had worked his way to the front, with Reid following closely behind.

Six kilometres from the end of the bike leg, Reid had mechanical trouble that left him unable to change his gear ring, and he lost crucial time on the downhill section of the course.

“I lost 40 seconds to a minute,” he said.

“I'm a bit heavier than him (Wilde), so I don't generally see him roll away from me on the downhill.”

Wilde is the top triathlete in the country and specialises in running, so the “damage had been done” after Reid lost a significant amount of time to his bike problems.

He finished the course in 1 hour 59 minutes 15 seconds — 75 seconds behind Wilde.

Reid said having a world-class competitor such as Wilde helped him gauge where he needed to be to compete against the best in the world.

“It's so important to be able to see the level for yourself and see the gaps. It's a great benchmark to have.

“I know going into it that Hayden (Wilde) is who I'm trying to beat. Going into the race that's what the goal is — to try to come off the bike with a bit of a gap.”

Despite knowing he couldn't make up the time he'd lost, Reid said he was pleased with how he raced.

“It was solid throughout, and I felt really strong the whole way through. It's the best I've felt riding out on the bike. I was able to smash out some really good power and get a good gap.”

Josiah Ney, in the 20-24 age group, won the sprint-distance triathlon in a time of 59m 48s . . . 2m 14s ahead of the runner-up, a competitor in the 25-29 age group.

Matthew Ney won the youth triathlon for under-16 athletes by 23 seconds with a time of 29m 57s.