Photos: World Triathlon
By Kent Gray/Triathlon.kiwi
Nicole van der Kaay‘s confidence has been running at smelly fumes level the past year so her World Triathlon Cup Rome performance overnight couldn’t have been more timely or encouraging.
The Taupo 28-year-old has led home the five Kiwis at the Italian sprint with 4th place behind repeat winner Nina Eim (GER), Alissa Koing (SUI) and Jolien Vermeylen (BEL).
Van der Kaay and Eva Goodisson, who was an encouraging 15th as she continues her slow recovery from a neural back injury, took a cautious approach in the wet to survive the treacherous road conditions in Rome but Ainsley Thorpe and Brea Roderick weren’t so lucky, both taking tumbles during the bike leg.
Thorpe dusted herself off to finish 30th but Roderick DNF’d, likely with half an eye to the upcoming U23 race at the World Triathlon Finals in Torremolinos, Spain from Oct 17-20.
Van der Kaay’s partner Tayler Reid, meanwhile, was 5th in the men’s race won by late-surging Frenchman (another one!) Yanis Seguin.
Reid was in the mix on the 5km run before Sequin applied the after burners to gap Aussie favourite Luke Willian. With a limited taper after some big training weeks, Reid also backed off with Torremolinos his main late season goal.
Van der Kaay also savoured being at the pointy end of the race after a frustrating 2024 where her results haven’t matched the training effort. She was a disappointing 31st at the Paris Olympics and Rome eclipsed her previous season best 7th at World Cup Chengdu in April.
Post Paris, van der Kaay partnered company with Estonian coach Pablo Sousa but her rotten luck continued when she fell ill and was forced to withdrew after making it all the way to Uzbekistan for her half distance debut Challenge Samarkand in early September.
That disappointment only sweetened her result in Rome.
“It was a nice little confidence booster for sure,” van der Kaay told Triathlon.kiwi.
“I had next to none going into the race after an average year so far, with bad luck and illness. So, it was nice to be back in a race.”
Van der Kaay undertook a deep stock take after Paris and is starting to see results by simply “bringing back the joy into life and training”.
“I’ve changed a lot of what I’m doing since the Games, and even with a lot of time out with illness, this change has shown in racing.
“I’m getting external guidance until I find a long-term coach. The training [since January in Sousa’s Portugal-based squad] wasn’t suited to me, unfortunately, no matter how hard I tried to make it work.”
Van der Kaay might have struggled with her form in 2024 but what she doesn’t lack is race craft. That was evident in the Rome downpour.
“In the race, it wasn’t actually pretty, I was very cautious on the bike, spending more energy having my own space,” said van der Kaay who will close out the year at the World Championships, before some fun at the famed Noosa Triathlon and Laguna Phuket triathlons.
“That helped me miss four crashes in front of me. The run [16:22 for the 5km] felt like I was in 4th gear, I definitely built into it, so with a bit of extra speed work I think I’ll be right back where I want to be.”
Goodisson’s year continues to get better, the 15th in Rome coming off the back her 8th and 17th placings at European Cup Istanbul and at WC Karlovy Vary respectively.
The run with all that jarring continues to be a work on but the Gold Coast-based Kiwi was pleased with her 17:41 5km split – and surviving the “crazy” conditions.
“Yeah, overall happy with that despite the chaos! Staying upright on the bike ended up being the biggest win for most,” Goodisson said.
“I am frustrated for making a mistake on the swim early on which put me a couple spots back from the leaders, but still happy with top 10 out the water. We rode well and caught the front quickly – which also may have been because so many girls went down.
“I felt like I was a little cautious on the ride so wasn’t as well positioned in the bunch as I would have liked but finished with one of my strongest runs post injury. Crazy race but overall pleased with the result. I was guttered to see Brea and Ainsley go down but they have recovered well.”
