Sam Gardner is the country’s most successful off-road triathlete ever, with 9 XTERRA Championship titles to his name and many more podium performances from an amazing career in the sport. Sam was in racing action last week in New Zealand and against a top field he came away with a very creditable 7th overall. Made all the more impressive against the context of a new born baby joining the Gardner family!

We caught up with Sam for a post-race interview.

Hi Sam, congratulations on your 7th place at XTERRA New Zealand. Can you tell us a bit about how the race panned out and how you attacked it?

With my limited training and only 4 days to get over the jetlag it went better than expected.

I had a reasonable swim (my first real swim in my new Xterra Vendetta wetsuit) and came out of the water in a pack in 25th place and not too far behind the leaders. Onto the bike and it just took a lot longer than usual to start catching people, which is just a sign of needing some race fitness.

I struggled keeping up with some of the local athletes on the trails that they obviously ride every day and know all the lines. The run was pretty uneventful and I didn’t see or pass another athlete and I felt I paced my effort and judged my nutrition well.

What was the course and racing like out there?

The course is amazing. The lake is gorgeously clean with a stunning backdrop of mountains. The bike course is very hilly with enough fire road to stop bottle necks but with a technical single track climb and 2 amazing single track descents which are as much fun as I’ve had on a bike anywhere. The run circumnavigates the lake twice. It is fairly fast going and gains elevation at one end of the lake with some steps to climb but the views keep your mind off some of the pain.

I was amazed with the general standard of competition. Lots of very competitive pros and fit looking age groupers. The racing scene in NZ looks healthy.

Did your XTERRA Wetsuit perform well?

I have always had trouble with neck chaffing in wetsuits, especially new ones. This suit is the first one I’ve used where this hasn’t happened. It fitted great and felt fast straight out of the bag. No rips or tears and it came off fast in T1. Not much more I’d ask of in a suit!

How was your prep for this race - as a new father I suppose you might have had a bit of a struggle maintaining fitness over the winter?

New Zealand has always been a place I wanted to visit and a race I wanted to do.

I booked the flights last year before Zach was born. Little did I know, that unlike my daughter who slept for 8 hrs from the day she was born, Zachman was to be a little more hard work. I lost the plot with training (partly due to designing, manufacturing and launching the Velovault Bikebox) and also through lack of sleep and didn’t do one training session for 6 weeks. When I say that this was on 5 weeks training it is totally true.

What are your remaining race plans for the year? I thought you had retired from international racing!

I retire and come back every year. No one seems to take much notice any more!

Basically I pick my races around places I want to visit and locations we want to go as a family, rather than series points. The new Xterra Mauritius, Xterra Greece, Xterra Ireland, Xterra Italy and the Scandinavian races are on the short list currently. Xterra England is a definite and I am hoping to be heavily involved in the whole festival again. It’s going to be bigger and better than ever. My next race is Xterra Malaysia though in 2 weeks.

As the country’s most successful off-road triathlete ever, what is your assessment of the health of this aspect of the sport in this country in terms of new events, infrastructure and talent coming through? Are you encouraged?

I don’t think that the UK is taking to Xterra like the rest of the world. In the US it’s huge and in countries such as the Philippines and Malaysia we are getting bigger fields than England. People looking for a slightly different challenge to ITU and Ironman need to realise what what fun it is and give it a go.

As for talent, we have a new crop of athletes just about to break through on both the men’s and women’s side. Jacqui Slack is getting better all the time and more consistent and new girls like Emily Iredale and Lou Fox need to work on their weaknesses and get the experience and will do the same.

The men’s top 10 at Xterra England had new faces in Greg Shrosbree and Stephen Ferguson, who took down some scalps of seasoned Xterra campaigners, if they choose to concentrate on this branch of the sport they will go far.

What kind of swim training will you be doing next and do you have any top open water swim tips?

Today I will mainly be heading to Lake Taupo for an open water swim, I’ll be trying to swim in a pool still as Malaysia will be non wetsuit which is a slightly different action.

I need to test out my Xterra swim skin before Malaysia too.

Sam Gardner is sponsored by XTERRA Wetsuits and will be wearing the new XTERRA VENDETTA suit in 2014. You can pre-order your XTERRA Vendetta suit with 40% off until the end of April. Visit www.xterrawetsuits.co.uk.

This interview is courtesy of XTERRA Wetsuits UK.