Professional triathlete Jamie Riddle heads into next month’s Ironman World Championship in Kona with a different belief in what he can achieve after his seventh-place finish at the 70.3 World Championship in Nice.
The South African matched his position from last year, but insisted the performances were “not even comparable”, having stayed in the fight against some of the biggest names in the sport before producing a 1:10:11 run.
More than the result, it was what Nice told Riddle about his own potential that has changed his outlook ahead of the October 10 showdown in Hawaii.
“I feel like for the first time I discovered what I’m capable of, I feel like I’ve closed a little bit the gap to the top,” Riddle said in a recent YouTube upload.
He believes the key is narrowing the gap between his fitness and his ability to express that fitness when racing.
“I want to reach a period in my career where my fitness and my output are equal, and then I’m able to express my true potential.”
That is what makes the Nice performance particularly important heading into Kailua-Kona, where the demands of the full-distance race will be significantly greater.
Riddle has struggled to express his running ability late in Ironman races before, but his experience in Nice has given him renewed confidence that he can change that.
“It’s double the distance, and it’s not only double the difficulty, but it also gets exponentially harder,” he said about his previous race struggles.
“But now I’m confident with this result and maybe with a little bit more training by the time I arrive in Kona.”
His immediate focus was the wind tunnel in Belgium, where he wanted to find a more aggressive position on the bike after previously concentrating on efficiency.
“If I want any chance of reaching my goal, my dream goal in Kona, which is a podium, I have to take a risk,” he said.
“I have to go into the wind tunnel and find a position that is extremely aggressive so that my CDA can come closer to those of the likes of Casper and Gustav and Sam, who have incredible CDAs.”
Coefficient of Aerodynamic Drag (CDA) measures how aerodynamically efficient a cyclist’s position and equipment are — the lower the CDA, the less air resistance they face.
Riddle knows that approach carries its own risks, but believes he has little reason to play safe if he is serious about challenging the front of the field.
The seventh place in Nice has also given Riddle something more valuable than a result: renewed belief in a dream that had begun to feel increasingly distant.
“You dream of goals, but on that journey to achieving them is a series of losses and failures,” he said.
Nice, however, pulled him back towards that belief.
“It just made me believe that I can do this, and I should hold on to that faith and just keep chipping away,” Riddle said.
Now, with Kona approaching, the belief has to be matched by the work.
“I have to do everything I can to put myself in an even better position to compete with the best in our sport,” Riddle said.
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