Hayden Wilde is looking to take on another impressive double in just over a week’s time, with the rescheduled WTCS Abu Dhabi event followed just 18 hours later by the rescheduled final regular-season men’s T100 event, now taking place in Dubai alongside the professional women’s race.

As Wilde said: “I’m looking forward to getting back to racing. I enjoy coming to Dubai to train and race, so next week will be no different. If there’s a chance to have a crack at both the WTCS Abu Dhabi and Dubai T100, then I’m all in. Doing the shorter race first should actually help. On the French Riviera last year it was the other way around. But we’ll see how we go.”

Looking back at 2025, Wilde went after a “daring double,” as it’s been referred to, on two occasions. The first was on the French Riviera on August 30-31, where he won the T100 before placing 11th in the WTCS sprint race. Then, on October 18, he finished first at T100 Wollongong but pulled out of the WTCS Olympic-distance race the following day after the bike leg.

If Wilde wins both races, he’ll cash in $50,000 for the 100km event (where he’s widely regarded as the favourite) and potentially another $19,000 if he can also win WTCS Abu Dhabi. This would bring Wilde’s earnings to more than $350,000 in prize money alone for the year. (And, as our previous article explored, he could surpass $500,000 if he dominates the remaining T100 races this year, as he did last year.)

T100 Men’s Race Preview

With Wilde best known for his performances over 100km (and this year adding the Ironman 70.3 World Championship crown to his middle-distance racing résumé), who are the other major contenders he’ll be up against in Dubai as he looks to defend his 2025 world title?

Wilde leads the series heading into this race with 96 points (35 points each for his wins in Singapore and on the French Riviera, combined with a third-place finish in San Francisco). Jake Birtwhistle arrives in Dubai second in the standings with 59 points from three races, followed by Lasse Nygaard Priester in third with 49 points from two races.

Priester is certainly an athlete to watch, having looked, for a moment, like the title might be his at the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Nice as he ran at the front alongside Wilde. He also placed second in San Francisco and recently secured fifth at the Ironman World Championship, so he’s certainly on our radar.

Then there’s Rico Bogen. He won in San Francisco and has overall had a strong year, with multiple middle-distance podiums alongside a third-place finish at Challenge Roth in his full-distance debut (where he recorded the fastest-ever full-distance time on debut). He also just wrapped up a training camp in St. Moritz.

Kyle Smith is another name to watch. Smith recently returned to the T100 podium with an emotional finish at T100 French Riviera and followed that up with a win at Challenge Barcelona.

And we can’t forget Mika Noodt. Noodt returns to T100 racing after a devastating crash at Ironman 70.3 Swansea in July. He started the season strongly with a third-place finish in Singapore. Over the 100km distance, he’s secured podium finishes in seven of his 11 races and also finished second overall in the 2025 T100 Triathlon World Tour.

As he put it on Instagram, “And just like that, it’s almost race week again. Stoked to announce that I’ll be back on a start line at T100 Dubai next week! While a little more training time certainly wouldn’t hurt physically, we believe that getting back to racing sooner rather than later is an important step in processing what happened and moving forward.”

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The Dubai T100 men’s race is scheduled for November 14 at 10:03 GST, while the women’s race will start at 10:08 GST.