Reid, on his Tayler Reid Triathlon Facebook page, said: “hugely disappointed and angry with myself because I believe I was capable of another great race.
“I guess the good ones don’t taste as sweet without the bad ones.”
It was a double blow for 26-year-old Reid and teammate and partner Nicole van der Kaay, who looked on track for a top 10 finish of the woman’s race held earlier only to be clipped by teammate Alice Betto on a cycle section.
Van der Kaay was sent careening, face planting into the safety fence and crashing to the road.
She was able to continue but dropped a chain and was eliminated due to the rule of falling 90 seconds behind the leader during any stage.
As horrific as van der Kaay’s crash looked, she later confirmed she and Reid were OK.
“No injuries. Just grazed. We are both fine,” she told Triathlon.kiwi
Only the week before, Reid started the series brilliantly with a third-placing in the London opening race of the quickfire series featuring races in London, Toulouse and Malibu, then finishing with a grand finale in Neom, Saudi Arabia.
Reid’s crash meant he failed to bank any points from Toulouse and dropped to 10th overall on 13 points — 15 behind leader Jonathan Brownlee, of Great Britain, who made it consecutive second placings.
The Toulouse race was won by Frenchman Leo Bergere from Brownlee and South African Henri Schoeman while London race winner Alex Yee did not compete.
New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde, in his first race of the series, placed fourth after a controversial final stage of the triple mix format in which the three triathlon disciplines are mixed up over nine legs.
Wilde was leading the race but got confused over a last-lap bell rung for a back marker and started on an extra lap. He quickly backtracked but lost a lot of time and was penalised five seconds for riding across the dismount line.
Bergere, who was just behind Wilde, also crossed the dismount line while on his bike but was not penalised.
A furious Wilde remonstrated with the race director at the finish and an appeal by Wilde’s Scorpions team was dismissed by the race jury.
In a statement, Super League Triathlon said: “The jury found that although Léo Bergere rode over the dismount line, an officiating error meant he was not given a five-second penalty by the race referees. As he did not have a five-second penalty to serve, there is no cause to disqualify him from the race.
“Super League Triathlon will investigate this error and support our race officials with the same innovation we bring to our racing to try to ensure this mistake is not repeated in the future.”
All is not lost for Reid and Wilde, who, along with van der Kaay, are members of the Scorpions team — one of four teams in the Super League series vying for points and money on top of the individual rewards.
In this year’s series, athletes count their top two results from the London, Toulouse and Malibu races, along with the points from the grand finale in Neom.
But it means Reid and 11th-placed Wilde, who did not compete in London, must finish strongly in the remaining two races.
The Malibu leg is at the end of the month but a week before that, the Kiwi triathletes have the World Triathlon Championship finals in Pontevedra, Spain.
Wilde is second in the elite men’s standings of the series headed by Briton Yee while Reid is 28th.
Van der Kaay is 16th in the elite women’s rankings.
Super League standings
Elite men, top 10
Jonathan Brownlee (Britain) 28pts
Henri Schoeman (St Africa) 22
Daniel Dixon (Britain) 21
Roberton Sanchez Mantecon
(Spain) 18
Leo Begere (France) 15
Chase McQueen (USA) 15
Alex Yee (Britain) 15
Kengi Nener (Japan) 14
Max Stapley (Britain) 14
Tayler Reid (NZ) 13
Also: Hayden Wilde (NZ) 12.
