Stellar year for Rotorua triathlete Sam Osborne

Rotorua's Sam Osborne continued making a name for himself at Xterra events all over the world this year. Photo / File

He may have won the Xterra Asia-Pacific Tour and finished second on the European Tour, but for Rotorua triathlete Sam Osborne you just cannot beat a win at home.

Despite standing on podiums all over the world in 2017, Osborne said the highlight of his year was winning Xterra Rotorua in front of his home crowd.

"Anytime you win is a big moment, but you can't really go too far past winning at home. To win your home race in front of everybody - your family and friends - it was the first time Mum and Dad have actually both been able to get the day off work and watch a race, so that was pretty special.

"I don't know who was more happy, me or my mum. It's very cool because you spend all year travelling around racing and you really don't know anybody as such, you don't have a lot of support overseas," Osborne said.

He said winning the Asia-Pacific tour was his focus at the start of the year.

"I don't know if that was an ambitious goal or not, but I put it out there, I didn't make much of a secret of it. The way the tours work now, Asia and Europe cross over, so I didn't think it was ever possible to do well in Europe as well.

Sam Osborne - 2017 XTERRA World Championship

Sam Osborne won the XTERRA Asia-Pacific Tour and was 2nd on the European Tour. A win at the XTERRA World Championship would be the perfect way to end his season. #xterramaui

Posted by XTERRA on Thursday, 26 October 2017

"I guess, as it turned out, I had some quite consistent and big results and ended up second on that one too, which was good," he said.

He said "learning how to win" was important this year.

"When you're out there in a race there's a lot going on, it's probably not what people think it is. There's a lot of attacking and, I guess, proper racing going on. The way the style of racing is going now, it's so much closer, there's actual front groups forming, it's always evolving.

"Winning the first race is Saipan was a good confidence booster, to back myself and make good decisions under pressure. We've always said you've got one box of matches, when you burn them all out you're done. Choosing when to burn those matches is quite important to come away with the win at the end of the day."

Looking ahead to 2018, Osborne wanted to ensure he continued to learn and improve. He finished sixth at the Xterra World Championship in Maui in October and wanted to build on that result next year.

"You're always having to adapt. This year I need to do a lot of cycling and improve that, I see that as an area, not that let me down in Maui, but one I can improve on. If I'm going to win world champs I need to do that.

"I obviously want to defend the Asian title and I want to go back to Europe again. With committing to the Asian tour, I don't have too many expectations on Europe, it will just be trying to win races over there and get experience.

"Hopefully with everything I've learnt this year and hopefully will learn this coming year, that will put me on the podium at the world champs," he said.

The biggest lesson he learnt this year is "it's not over until it's over".

"A lot happens at the start of a race, the pace they ride at is quite horrendous, but you have to have faith and back yourself that it will settle down eventually. It's about making good decisions under pressure, you kind of just have to read the people making those attacks."