“I knew if I got to the swim (with the pack), I could get away from them.”
On the afternoon of the first day, Reid also won a 2km swim against a tough field.
He said it was a race to see who would stand up first to exit the water, with only a short sprint to the finish.
“I was really stoked. It was good tactics — really controlled in the first 1600m, then I put my foot down in the last 400m.”
On Sunday he contested a sprint triathlon — a 750m swim, 16km bike and a 5.5km run to the finish.
Reid finished third, behind Janus Staufenberg and the winner, Hayden Wilde, the highest-ranked New Zealand triathlete.
Both the winner and runner-up had not competed in the previous day’s racing, so for Reid it was just a matter of staying on course.
He said he was more focused on his performance in the race than winning the overall title.
“Wilde beat me again (after the Tinman Triathalon). But, I feel like I’m getting closer and I’m still happy.”
The lead pack had a significant lead on the peloton in the bike leg, but with the chasers illegally drafting by using the slipstream of people in front of them, it was a close race.
“There’s supposed to be a 12m gap, but there was a huge pack of guys working together.”
The format of the weekend was unique and demanding, Reid said.
He is preparing to start winding down his racing year in New Zealand. He has two events scheduled through to March, when he hopes international racing can begin to reopen.
A large portion of his income comes from racing, which is far more lucrative in the overseas markets, he says.
“I’ve missed a year of my racing career . . . it’s a big financial loss.”
Reid, an Olympic hopeful, is waiting to hear whether he will be competing in Tokyo this year.
The selection process has finished and he expects to know within the next month whether he has earned one of the two spots in the team.
At 24, he believes he has a lot of racing left in him.
The peak age for performance is 26 or 27, but competitors can race well into their thirties, he says. Famously, Hamish Carter won an Olympic gold medal when he was 33.
Reid believes he’s in with a “good chance” of making the team.
But with the Tokyo Olympics delayed a year, if Reid were to miss out on selection, he would have only a three-year wait for the Paris Games in 2024, by which time he will have reached the age of peak performance.
