iRIDE Ambassador Christian's 2022 Tri Season

My season has now come to an end. It has been a fairly long season given covid postponements and events being pushed right out. This has been a big season for me, with plenty of racing and a lot of domestic travel.

The early part of the season came with a lot of racing and learnings which came with some great success. As the season progressed, the races became more important and with higher quality fields.

Due to my early season success, I was lucky enough to get a start at the three Commonwealth game selection races which were held as part of three Oceania Cup races. These three races were on three consecutive weekends starting in New Plymouth, then in Mt Maunganui, and finishing up in Taupo. Only a select few were able to get a start in these races and varied between 12 -16 of us in each race which meant a very small field, leaving people with nowhere to hide. Unfortunately for me, my swim wasn’t quite there, meaning I missed the bike groups and had to ride solo losing big chunks of time to the main groups. My running was competitive considering I rode solo in each race.

While these results were difficult to accept at the time because I fell short of what I went there to achieve, it's given me a very clear picture of what needs to change before next season. That is, my swim isn’t strong enough. This means a real focus on swim and strength will be required over the winter.

I am really excited for what is to come because I know that next season I will be well equipped to race at the highest level and compete at them, rather than just ‘getting a start’(which I do need to remind myself is still a good achievement in itself).

I would just like to say a massive thank you for everything Andrew and iRIDE have done for me in the past season and for helping me to also get on board with Specialized! Your support has been great and I have loved being able to rep iRIDE so much over the last season and riding these colours around Wellington. It's going to be fun getting into a range of stuff this coming winter and doing some different bits and pieces to keep things interesting and challenging!