New Zealand cyclist Aaron Gate of XDS Astana Team, 2025. Photo: YANG GUANYU / AFP
New Zealand cyclist Aaron Gate won't defend his four Commonwealth Games titles this year, but the 35-year-old is hoping to tick off a first in 2026.
Four years ago, Gate made history by becoming the first New Zealander to win four gold medals at a Commonwealth Games.
He won three on the track (team pursuit, individual pursuit and points race) along with the road race.
Gate has just completed his first full season with a World Tour road team, XDS Astana, and impressed so much that the Kazakhstan-registered outfit has signed him on for another two years.
He admitted a lot would have to change before he would consider competing in Glasgow this year.
"It would have been nice to go back and do another Commonwealth Games but you have to pick your battles sometimes," Gate told RNZ.
"The team (XDS Astana) has been very supportive of me so far so I'm going to give them my unwavering support for the season and just focusing on the road and doing that job."
New Zealand cyclist Aaron Gate with his four gold medals from the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Gate hasn't competed on the track in over a year but felt that the (track) team New Zealand was preparing was very strong.
Besides, he jokingly admitted that it would have been hard to trump what he achieved in Birmingham in 2022.
"I guess in some ways it is good to quit while you're ahead and I may be getting a bit old for the next Commonwealth Games (in four years time), but you never know."
What he did have his sights set on was the greatest race in cycling - the Tour de France.
Having only joined a World Tour team for the first time in 2025, the opportunity to ride the Tour de France had never come up before, but his team earmarked him for the race in July.
Gate watched it often and spoken to many people about it.
Aaron Gate tour winner of the New Zealand Cycle Classic 2024 Photo: PHOTOSPORT
"It is one of the craziest experiences you can do as an athlete with all eyes on everything at all time.
"Having been to the Olympics (2012, 2016, 2020 and 2024) on the track it is a similar high pressure environment where you need to perform at that moment and there is a lot riding on it .
"The Tour de France is like that but the difference is there are 180 guys in the bunch and so it is going to be very stressful and at times not enjoyable but it's the achievement of doing the job well."
For now, Gate will compete in the Tour Down Under and Cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race this month before heading to Europe to prepare for the northern season in February.
Gate finished second in the Cadel Evans race in 2025.
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