Kyle Smith wins Ironman 70.3 Taupo: Race Report
Last weekend Kyle took another impressive victory at Ironaman New Zealand 70.3 in Taupo. Kyle has been using and racing the Parcours X Classified Disc² this season, proving the continued success of our technical partnership with Classified Cycling as he built on his win at IM70.3 Ireland earlier in the year. Check out Kyle’s race report below…
“I guess we'll do a little race recap. I Came home, what was it now? About six weeks ago. When I came home I was pretty unfair and coming back from an injury, I was still dealing with the Achilles a little bit. I got back into training and had a nice, consistent five week block.
The training block was pretty short with not much built into it so I agreed with my coach that we wouldn’t peak for this race, but I definitely wanted to perform.
So in the race, I had a good start and the swim got out fast, and got into the lead pretty early. I felt pretty good in the water. Javier came past and so I sat on his feet for the rest of the swim. When we came out we had a small gap which I think was about 45 seconds to the second pack of racers so that wasn't too bad.
When I got onto the bike I didn't feel great actually. Hitting out into the bike I felt quite flat and couldn't really get my heart rate up or push the power. But I just had to settle into it the best I could and finish the first lap. I then decided to try and do some openers to try and get my heart rate up. On the second lap I made some moves and then started to eek out my advantage to the chase pack a little bit more, but they still came with me. 
We then went onto the run and again I felt pretty flat, but pretty consistent. Like I felt like I was sort of stuck in, I dunno, I guess you could say like zone two. Almost all day I felt like I could go for a long time, but I didn't really have that massive punch.
None of the other guys dropped off so I was sort of banking on not cramping up and then made my decisive move with 5k to go. I really opened it up and the home crowd gave me a really big lift and that and the adrenaline carried me through to the finish which was pretty spectacular.
Obviously crossing the finish line with all my family and friends and the people I've grown up with was awesome. It was an amazing thing to win here in my hometown!”
It was an awesome end to this year's season for Kyle. We can’t wait to see what’s in store for 2024! 