{"id":795662,"date":"2026-10-08T06:52:32","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T06:52:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/795662\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T06:52:32","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T06:52:32","slug":"sam-laidlows-shows-his-maturity-and-tech-savvy-during-kona-lead-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/795662\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Laidlow\u2019s Shows His Maturity (and Tech Savvy) During Kona Lead Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Photos: Kevin Mackinnon<\/p>\n

Of all of the pre-race favourites heading into Saturday\u2019s race, Sam Laidlow has earned the right to arrive with a certain degree of confidence. His 2026 season kicked off with a bang thanks to a course-record-shattering 8:03 performance at IRONMAN Lanzarote. <\/p>\n

Renowned as the toughest IRONMAN race on the circuit, Laidlow\u2019s dominating performance saw him set a new bike course record along with the overall record. It sent a clear signal to Laidlow\u2019s competition that the Frenchman was in form and a man to be reckoned with this year.<\/p>\n

If Lanzarote sent a signal, Laidlow\u2019s performance in Roth amplified that. A huge win over Kristian Blummenfelt in a world-best time of 7:21:04 set the stage for the strategy that he\u2019d need to win on the Big Island \u2013 ride away from the Norwegian, then hang tough through the marathon.<\/p>\n

Laidlow\u2019s performance in Roth couldn\u2019t have been more exciting for his bike sponsor, Canyon \u2013 the company had just announced it\u2019s new Speedmax CFR<\/a>, equipped with a new aero cockpit, that helped Laidlow to a speedy bike split. <\/p>\n

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Canyon hosted Laidlow at a press conference yesterday, where the 27-year-old appeared relaxed and at ease just days before Saturday\u2019s big race. <\/p>\n

During the Q and A session Laidlow announced that he would be donating his prize money from this weekend to \u201c23 for the Future\u201d \u2013 an initiative where he\u2019s looking to help 23 athletes aged 10 to 16. He\u2019s guaranteeing at least 23,000 Euros to the initiative, even if he doesn\u2019t win that much prize money.<\/p>\n

During the session Laidlow was quite forthright about his early days in the pro ranks, where he was often outspoken. He said that the goal was to get himself noticed, and mentioned that he had warned his parents that they \u201cwere going to hear a lot of things that weren\u2019t me.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t long, though, before Laidlow\u2019s performances were enough to garner him lots of attention. His runner-up finish at the IRONMAN World Championship in 2022 was followed by the win at the inaugural men\u2019s only race in Nice a year later. <\/p>\n

In 2024, though, Laidlow suffered through the day and would end up spending hours in the medical tent. He now attributes the sickness he dealt with through the early part of 2025 to that effort.<\/p>\n

Since he\u2019s come back from that challenge, Laidlow has shown a maturity and calmness that belies his years. That was certainly on notice yesterday. Is that enough, though, to hold off the likes of Blummenfelt and Iden (to name just two of the many men with viable dreams of a podium finish here in Kona).<\/p>\n

Laidlow was quite clear that he has no intentions of \u201cworking with Marten (Van Riel),\u201d as many have predicted, to ride clear of the rest of the field. He feels confident that that would be a bad move for the Belgian, but if they were together starting the run, Laidlow feels confident he would be stronger on the run.<\/p>\n

It all seemed like a man who\u2019s confident, prepared and ready for a big day here on the Big Island. <\/p>\n

Gear Changes<\/p>\n

We specifically asked Laidlow about a couple of tweaks he\u2019s made on the gear front this year. He\u2019s moved up a size on the new Speedmax.<\/p>\n

\u201cSize-wise, I was between an L and XL, and I did some testing on both,\u201d he said. \u201cThe XL was slightly faster at higher yaw angles, and, with Kona in mind and the winds here, it made more sense for me to go with the XL.\u201d<\/p>\n

Laidlow was also very involved in the development of Ekoi\u2019s new aero helmet. <\/p>\n

\u201cMe and Luca (from Ekoi) worked on it quite a lot,\u201d he said. \u201cWe already had a very fast helmet, but I think for us it was important to have a helmet that was fast in a very aggressive position when your head\u2019s down. But, also when you\u2019re out of the (aero tuck) a higher head and more relaxed position, which makes it a very good helmet both for pros and age groupers. We\u2019re super confident that it\u2019s the fastest for me, but also for 90% of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here are a few shots of the bike Laidlow will be riding on Saturday:<\/p>\n

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\n Tags:Canyon<\/a>IRONMAN World Championship<\/a>Kona 2026<\/a>Sam Laidlow<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photos: Kevin Mackinnon Of all of the pre-race favourites heading into Saturday\u2019s race, Sam Laidlow has earned the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":795663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-795662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=795662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/795663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}