“The swim and bike legs have always been Tayler’s strongest disciplines but by going hard out in those two he has come up short on the run.
“His decision to wait for a chasing group on the bike to catch up was the right decision and then he ran within himself before kicking away to win.
“Tayler’s run has been his weakness but he’s improving. He’s got natural speed and a good kick. In the past, top triathletes could be good at two of the three disciplines but not now. To be world class they need to be good at all three.”
Reid outsprinted New Zealand high performance teammate and strong runner Dan Hoy.
“When we’re not competing we’re good friends but once the race starts neither of us wants to lose to the other,” said Reid, who completed the 750m swim leg in 9mins 28secs and came out of the water second.
“Trent Thorpe was just ahead of me and we were the first two out of transition.
“When we looked around and saw that Dan and Sam Ward were not in the next group we decided to wait for the chasing group to join us, and then we worked hard to make sure we stayed away from Dan and Sam. It was a good pack, with everyone working hard.
“Sometimes you get a lot of yelling and screaming, with some happy to sit at the back and let others do all the work, but not this time, which was good.”
Reid completed the 16km cycle (10 laps of 1.6km) in 24.17.
“It was a tight and pretty technical course, which suited me."
On the 5km run, Reid was content to sit in the leading bunch and “run within myself” curbing his natural inclination.
“I was really comfortable in myself and felt that if it came to a sprint finish I could out-run Dan, who was closing the gap.
“I was getting split times from my grandparents (John and Margaret Reid), which was great. That kept me in touch with what was happening behind me. Dan caught up with one lap to go and then we basically ran that third lap together.”
Time for another one of those smart decisions.
Reid let Hoy “rev it up at various stages with attacks” but stayed on his shoulder.
“There was never more than a metre between us and then with about 600 metres downhill to run I knew I had him.
“We were both flying but with 40m to go I opened a gap of about 15m and went on to win in 50.10.”
Sheldrake said the win was a huge confidence boost.
“It’s almost a year to the day when Tayler was hit by a car when he was training and that took a lot out of him,” Sheldrake said. “He also had a few issues with his health last year but he’s starting to get back to where he was before the accident. I have to admit I wasn’t expecting a win at the weekend. That was awesome. It’s a step in the right direction.”
Reid, like Sheldrake, was not getting carried away.
“It was great to win but in terms of the rest of the year it’s not that important. I have some big races coming up, starting with the final race in the series in Kinloch in a couple of weeks.
“Ryan Sissons (two-time New Zealand Olympic triathlete) and some top Aussies will be coming over for that.
“I’ve also got the Oceania champs in Tasmania, the world cup and the world champs this year, all working towards next year’s Commonwealth Games.”
