For the first time since 2013, the IRONMAN World Championship Women’s Race did not include either Daniela Ryf or Anne Haug on the podium. Ryf retired from the sport earlier this season. Haug, who had been on every World Championship podium since 2018, had a mechanical shortly after coming out of T1 today. That, unfortunately, ended her day early. Defending champion Lucy Charles-Barclay was forced to pull out of the race on Saturday with a grade 1c muscle strain. With some big names taken out of the race, opportunity came knocking for the other top contenders. Germany’s Laura Philipp and Great Britain’s Kat Matthews took control of the race on the bike. They created a gap on the rest of the field and took turns at the front. They changed positions multiple times in the last few kilometers and came into T2 together. Matthews set a furious pace through transition, with Philipp closely following. Matthews got onto the run course first and gapped Philipp by about 100m. Both women set off at a furious pace, that was not going to be sustainable but would eventually separate the two.

Philipp pulled even with Matthews and the two would run stride for stride until the 7 mile mark. At that point, Philipp moved in front and would stay there until the finish line. Philipp is one of the best triathletes on the planet but wins at the biggest races in our sport have eluded her until today. Her best previous finish at the IRONMAN World Championship was 3rd last year. She has been 2nd at Challenge Roth and has made the podium at a T100 race. This is a big breakthrough for her. Matthews had had better run splits than her in their previous three head to head match-ups. Today, it was Philipp who ran 2:44:59 to Matthews’ 2:53:06. Philipp won by just over 8 minutes. She broke down her incredible day, “It was really one of those days. It was super tough. I have no idea about my swim time but I think it wasn’t too bad. I saw that I came out with Anne (Haug) so I thought okay this is not too bad. She was my clear favorite for this race course. So I thought okay from now, let’s just push the bike as hard as possible. And I definitely overdid it a little bit but I really wanted to catch the girls in the front and once I caught up with Kat and Marjolaine in the front I couldn’t get rid of them and then it was a bit of cat and mouse with Kat. So something I already got used to over some races in the past. And then yeah coming off the bike with her, yeah, I felt like okay this is going to be tough but, yeah, I just tried to believe that I could actually do it.” 

How the Race Unfolded:

Without Lucy Charles-Barclay to push the swim and with wetsuit legal water temperatures, ten women swam within 30 seconds of the lead. Fenella Langridge came out of the water first in 49:13. Marta Sanchez, Rebecca Clarke, Lauren Brandon, Lotte Wilms, Hannah Berry, and Rachel Zilinskas followed closely. Kat Matthews was just 30 seconds behind, grouped with Marjolaine Pierre and Chelsea Sodaro. India Lee came out 3:04 down. Maja Stage-Nielsen, Anne Haug, Julie Derron, and Laura Philipp came out next about 4 minutes from the lead. Jackie Hering and Alice Alberts were 6 minutes back. Ruth Astle and Penny Slater were more than 7 minutes back. Els Visser was almost 10 minutes down and Danielle Lewis 12.

With a large lead group heading onto the bike together, the neutral support car went with that group. Anne Haug heard a big bang about 200m out of T1 and needed help to fix a puncture. The support car was 5k down the road and Haug waited more than 25 minutes for help to come. By that point, she knew her day was over so she called it. This was a tough way to watch her World Championship podium streak come to an end. She did seem to be in good spirits, having no control over today’s outcome. Pierre was the first to make a big move on the bike. The Frenchwoman lives close to the bike course and built a nearly 3 minute lead. Matthews led the chase group. Zilinkas crashed out of the race and broke her collarbone. Matthews put in a big effort up Col de l’Ecre. Around that point, Philipp had biked through most of the field and was closing in on Matthews. Philipp made the catch and the two began to work together. They reeled in Pierre and continued to put time into the rest of the field. Around 89 miles, Philipp looked like she was going to drop Matthews on the descent. Matthews hung strong and the two would trade leads multiple times in the closing stages of the bike leg. 

Matthews and Philipp came into T2 together, with Philipp clocking the fastest bike split of the two in 5:02:25. Matthews set off at a fast tempo through transition, with Philipp right with her. Matthews would get onto the run first, with Philipp 100m back. Pierre came off of the bike next and then Sodaro after her. By 5k, Philipp had erased the gap and they were back to running together. Commentators had said that they were running 3:30 per kilometer pace. At an aid station near the 10k mark, Matthews took two cups from a volunteer and Philipp was left without another volunteer to help her. It was not an intentional move from Matthews. Aid stations are not always ready when the first elite athletes roll through. It seemed to get under Philipp’s skin a bit and she soon after put in a little bit of a surge. That move proved to be enough to decide the race. On paper, Matthews has been the stronger runner but today was going to be Laura Philipp’s day. Philipp broke 2:45 for the marathon on a day where temperatures settled in the seventies (Farenheit) with a 60 degree dew point. She would put 8 minutes on Matthews and comfortably take the win. This is the first major victory for Laura Philipp, having previously been on the podium at several high profile races but never on top step. Matthews had to walk aid stations in the back half of the marathon but hung on for second. Sodaro ran into 3rd but could not make up any more ground from there, showing how much this bike course can take away from strong runners. Pierre earned a strong 4th place finish and Nikki Bartlett was 5th.

2024 IRONMAN World Championships – Women’s Top-15

1. Laura Philipp 8:45:15

2. Kat Matthews 8:53:20 (+8:04)

3. Chelsea Sodaro 9:04:38 (+19:23)

4. Marjolaine Pierre 9:09:34 (+24:19)

5. Nikki Bartlett 9:15:47 (+30:31)

6. Marta Sanchez 9:19:08 (+33:53)

7. Penny Slater 9:21:47 (+36:31)

8. Lotte Wilms 9:23:28 (+38:12)

9. Jackie Hering 9:25:09 (+39:53)

10. Hannah Berry 9:32:13 (+46:57)

11. Danielle Lewis 9:33:50 (+48:35)

12. Jeanne Collonge 9:34:42 (+49:26)

13. Maja Stage Nielsen 9:36:34 (+51:19)

14. Merle Brunnee 9:38:58 (+53:43)

15. Gurutze Frades Larralde 9:41:01 (+55:45)

Quick Take #1: It feels like women’s triathlon is having a changing of the guard moment, similar to what has happened in men’s tennis over the last few years with some of the bigger players on the tour reaching the end of their careers. It has been more than a decade since a World Championship podium did not feature Anne Haug or Daniela Ryf. Laura Philipp has officially arrived and rising stars will continue to emerge over the next few years.

Quick Take #2: Laura Philipp 100% earned this win. People will say that Lucy Charles-Barclay did not start, that Anne Haug did not finish, and that Taylor Knibb was not at this race. They will be right but the reality is that we do not know how any of them would have finished in today’s race. We do know that Philipp put together a career defining performance. She rode 5:02 to Lucy’s (admittedly unchallenged) 5:16 on this course in June. She broke 2:45 for the marathon on a warm and humid day. That put 8 minutes between her and 2nd place. Kat Matthews typically gets the better of her on the run and that did not happen today. Further, 2022 World Champion Chelsea Sodaro was not able to gain on her on the run.

Quick Take #3: I am a big fan of the IRONMAN Pro Series and the T100. I am not, however, in love with IRONMAN making top finishers validate. I do not know how popular this opinion will be but these events are brutal. It is very possible that Charles-Barclay would have been on the start line if she did not have to do 140.6 Nice in June. On the flip side, it is also very possible that she would have been healthy if she was not trying to balance T100 events and focused on the biggest race of the year. IRONMAN benefits from getting athletes to race their biggest races. There is no real incentive for them to change their policy but I would think they would have wanted a healthy Charles-Barclay on this start line. After the Sam Laidlow validation controversy, we will see in future years if anybody tries to utilize the wildcard policy IRONMAN has at its disposal. I wonder how they would have reacted if Charles-Barclay did not race Nice but said she wanted to race at the World Championships.

Quick Take #4: The first women’s World Championship in Nice looked like a success from the outside. The allure of Kona is probably something that IRONMAN wants to live without but I liken that to the way people think about the Boston Marathon. It would be hard to just stick that marathon in a different city. The issue, however, is that Kona cannot accommodate full field sizes and that that actually should matter to a lot of Kona purists. Many amateurs strive for a World Championship qualifier. Many would not like it if qualifying was cut significantly to keep the World Championships in one location. Kona would not accommodate a two day format, or even two single day races spaced weeks apart. There is going to be plenty of discussion on what should happen moving forward. Today’s race was great, even if you would have liked it to take place elsewhere.

Photos: Slowtwitch

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After a two week break, SuperTri was back in London today. The small gap between races did not seem to affect the form of Great Britain’s Georgia Taylor-Brown and New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde. Both athletes claimed back to back victories in the series, after wins in Chicago. Taylor-Brown began the series with a second place finish in Boston. She now has wins in Chicago and London. She is the series leader on the women’s side, with two races to go (Toulouse 10/6, Neom 11/3). On her race, Taylor-Brown said, “Yeah that was really, really hard. You know, it gets to a point mid-race you’re like I don’t think I can push anymore and then somehow on the last run you find a little bit extra, and I needed that short chute today.” She could sense that France’s Cassandra Beaugrand was closing hard in the final stages of the race and knew she needed to sprint to the line. Wilde was the beneficiary of having one of the two short chutes out those in the main group heading onto the final run. He used it to get to the front of the race and was able to hold off Australia’s Matthew Hauser. Wilde explained the difficulty of London’s course, “It’s a tough course here. If you’re on the front, you’re going hard. If you’re on the second wheel, you’re going hard. Matt was pouring the pressure on today…man, they made me work today.” Wilde, similarly to Taylor-Brown, sits in prime position to go after the overall series title.

Women’s Race:

The women set off first in Canary Wharf. For the second time in three races, it was Brazil’s Vittoria Lopes leading out the swim. Lopes picked up the short chute for Podium Racing, with the likes of Olivia Mathias, Kirsten Kasper, Cassandra Beaugrand, Taylor Spivey, Georgia Taylor-Brown, and Beth Potter, in tow. London’s bike course is a difficult one, marked by sharp corners and changing terrain (pavement to cobbles). Mathias attacked first and went solo off the front of the race. Potter and Beaugrand began to move backwards. American Katie Zaferes was taken out of the race, after a crash involving Luxembourg’s Jeanne Lehair. Lehair ran with her bike past the mount line, similar to what she has done in prior races, but did not see Zaferes and the two made contact. Zaferes was sent into a barrier and came away with a bike mechanical. Mathias, clear of any danger, picked up the second short chute for Brownlee Racing. Taylor-Brown bridged the gap on the run and picked up the last short chute for Crown Racing.

Mathias pushed the next swim and, again, rode off of the front on the bike. She was followed closely by Taylor-Brown, Emma Lobardi, Spivey, and Kasper. Lehair and Beaugrand were a little further back but had used strong run legs to pull back some time. The top-5 women ended up riding together and featured three athletes from Stars and Stripes Racing. Kasper got onto the run first, with Spivey trying to maintain contact at the back of the pack. It was Lombardi who would end the run in top position and get into the water first for the final swim. Lehair and Beaugrand were only ten and seventeen seconds back, respectively. Mathias, as she had done all day, came out of the water first and began to push the final bike leg. Lehair and Beaugrand were successful in latching onto the lead group.

Mathias took a six second lead with her onto the final run. Taylor-Brown and Beaugrand were the last two of the lead group of seven out of transition. Lehair, Taylor-Brown, and Mathias all took their short chutes, leaving Beaugrand to play catch up in fourth. Taylor-Brown moved to the front and made her push for home. She was just able to hold off a late charging Beaugrand to get the win on home soil. Lehair finished third. Spivey was fourth and Lombardi was fifth. Mathias finished sixth but, if triathlon had a combativity award like the Tour de France does, she would have claimed most aggressive rider for her efforts on the day.

Men’s Race:

Chase McQueen was first out of the water and picked up the short chute for Stars and Stripes Racing. He thankfully did not have to trade blows with Matt Hauser, who took a more measured approach on the opening swim, to do so. McQueen’s teammate, Seth Rider, was right there with him and the two worked together on the bike to stay out in front of the main pack. Their efforts successfully blocked other teams, with stronger runners, from picking up the second short chute. Several of the main contenders including Wilde, Hauser, Kenji Nener, Vincent Luis, Leo Bergere, and Vasco Vilaca, moved up on the run. Great Britain’s Alex Yee was off the pace and would not factor into the race. Wilde picked up the final short chute, which only two athletes would be able to take on the final run. Wilde and Luis navigated the next swim and began pushing the pace on the next bike leg. Hauser, Nener, Bergere, Rider, and McQueen chased. A pack of six emerged on the run, which included Wilde, Nener, Luis, Bergere, Rider, and Hauser. The three podium spots would come from this group. 

Rider and Luis began to fall towards the back by the end of the run. Hauser pushed the pace on the final swim, perhaps doing a better job this week at conserving energy earlier in the race. Bergere, Nener, and Hauser, utilizing team tactics, pushed the final bike leg together. Rider, Wilde, and Luis would maintain contact and the pack would eventually come back together before the final run. Hauser got onto the run first and began to increase the tempo. Wilde had the slowest transition but, along with Rider, had one of the two available short chutes to take. Wilde moved into the lead after taking his short chute and Hauser did well to try to make up the immediate gap. In the end, however, the damage had been done and Hauser would have to settle for second behind Wilde. Bergere was third. Nener was fourth. Rider took fifth and Luis claimed sixth. Wilde should thank McQueen and Rider for their early race efforts, which prevented another team from gaining a short chute.

Photos: SuperTri

The post Georgia Taylor-Brown and Hayden Wilde Maintain Strong Form at SuperTri London first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

With IRONMAN World Championship Qualification having wrapped up after Frankfurt, let’s dive into who made it to Nice and Kona. We will then also look at (& try to make sense of) the Pro Series standings. Both the men’s and women’s IRONMAN championship fields are roughly composed of the same number of athletes ranked within the top-50 compared to previous years. Why is that significant? With more races to choose from, athletes are still prioritizing the IRONMAN World Championships. That means we will be treated to the stellar racing we have been accustomed to seeing!

The women’s side is led by some heavy hitters, like Lucy Charles-Barclay, Anne Haug, Kat Matthews, Laura Philipp, and Chelsea Sodaro. Several others, including Alice Alberts, Ruth Astle, Jackie Hering, Fenella Langridge, Danielle Lewis, Els Visser, and Lotte Wilms, will try to have an impact on the race. As you have probably heard by now, Daniela Ryf has retired and will not be competing. There are so many story lines to choose from here. Will Charles-Barclay make it to the start line healthy and ready to defend her title? Which versions of Anne Haug and Chelsea Sodaro will we get? Kat Matthews and Laura Philipp are two of the more consistent racers in the sport but are they ready to take the next step and beat a field of this caliber? 

The men’s field is equally impressive. Daniel Bakkegard, Kristian Blummenfelt, Magnus Ditlev, Sam Laidlow, Patrick Lange, Lionel Sanders, will all be gunning for top spot. Gregory Barnaby, Antonio Benito Lopez, Leon Chevalier, Trevor Foley, Matt Hanson, Ben Kanute, Menno Koolhaas, and Rudy Von Berg, add plenty of depth to this start list. Then you have wild cards like 2022 World Champion Gustav Iden. Iden is under-raced but is that really such a bad thing with the balancing act several of the top seeds have had to do this season? Could someone like Kieran Lindars come seemingly out of nowhere to challenge for the podium? Will Matthew Marquardt be able to swim and bike at the front of the race? Will Robert Kallin be able to ride through this field like he has done in most of his races this season?

As of today, Jackie Hering and Matt Hanson lead the Pro Series. We are going to attempt to do some math here. IRONMAN will count your three best full distance races and your two best half distance races towards your point total (or 3-5 70.3 races, 3 is the maximum for scoring full distance races). Many of the athletes in the top-10 in the current standings have already completed five races. They can improve upon those scores, sure, but that does not necessarily mean that they will still finish in those coveted spots. You can score a maximum of 5,000 points at IRONMAN events and 2,500 points at 70.3 events. The IRONMAN World Championship is worth 6,000 points and the 70.3 World Championship is worth 3,000 points. 21,500 points is the highest anyone could score if they won the two world championship events and won three other Pro Series races. We could very well see someone with no interest in the Pro Series win the championship events. The second they cross the finish line, however, the clock will start ticking for everyone else. Athletes doing well in the series now need to do damage control to limit their losses in these events. They ideally will finish within 16 minutes at the IRONMAN World Championships and 8 minutes at the 70.3 World Championships to be able to increase their current score totals. 

There is plenty of room for someone who has not scored in five races yet, but who will end up scoring in five races, to win the series. What about someone who does not complete five races like Kristian Blummenfelt if he were to win both championship races? That would leave him with 14,000 points, which would not get him the series win. Lionel Sanders gets a little more interesting at a maximum of 18,384, scoring with three 70.3 races (assumes winning both championship races). The reality is that it is a tall order for someone who does not score at three full distance races to win the series. I think 19,000 is probably the right threshold we should be looking at for the series win. Lange, Marquardt, and Hanson are all in strong positions on the men’s side, especially if scores are adjusted from IRONMAN Texas. Series regulars like Kallin, Barnaby, and Hogenhaug, all have a real chance. The current top-4 on the women’s side, Hering, Lewis, Stage-Nielsen, and Matthews, are all in great positions.  Daniela Bleymehl, Els Visser, and Lotte Wilms, are intriguing due to the fact that they have already bagged two full distance races. The women’s leaders look to be safer from someone new emerging towards the top of the standings. All of this is to say that championship season is going to be a lot of fun! We have great fields and the results will influence the final Pro Series standings.

The post IRONMAN World Championship Qualifying + Pro Series Update first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

The last Pro Series race before the women’s and men’s IRONMAN World Championships took place this morning in Austria. Athletes got to sleep in a little, with an 11:00am local start time for 70.3 Zell am See-Kaprun. Conditions, however, were not favorable. Temperatures hovered in the mid-seventies Fahrenheit, with a fair amount of humidity. The two race winners put together master class performances. Caroline Pohle dominated a Pro Series races for the second straight weekend. After dismantling the field at the European Championships in Tallinn, Pohle lined up for a second consecutive weekend. She had company on the swim today but was able to build a cushion on the bike. Nobody would be able to catch her on the run. Pohle described her race, “I don’t know what happened today. I am super proud of myself because it was my first back to back racing so we have no experience about how my body reacted but I fared very, very, good today. Very strong, very confident about last week, and, yeah, I don’t know how it happened. My parents are here and they surprised me. I’m super happy.”

Germany’s Mika Noodt won the men’s race by more than four minutes. A large group came out of the water and got onto the bike together. Noodt used the first big climb on the bike to drop everyone except for Belgium’s Jelle Geens. Geens, however, could not stick with Noodt on the descent. Noodt built out an insurmountable lead from there that nobody could chip away at on the run. On his margin of victory, Noodt said, “I actually wasn’t thinking about it but yeah I just kept my own rhythm to the finish line and yeah that’s it super happy.” On his overall race, he adds, “Yeah the swim started okay-ish so I had a medium start but then we had a nice long way to the first buoy…out on the bike the first few k’s were a bit messy with all the guys…I relaxed for a bit and then I went towards the front and at the bottom of the climb I set my own rhythm…With 2ks to go (on the run) I was quite sure that I’m going to make it and could enjoy this finish line.” Noodt said that this might be the best bike course he has ever ridden. He has been training in the Alps, riding steep hills, and liked the rolling nature of the course. He is from Germany but said Austria feels like a second home. Noodt’s post-race interview was one of the better ones from this entire season. He gave thoughtful answers about his race performance and was very complimentary of all of the volunteers.

Men’s Race:

IRONMAN describes this swim course as “One of the most spectacular in all of European IRONMAN 70.3 racing. Swim to the backdrop of the glacier-covered Alps in a drinking water quality lake.” Austria’s Martin Demuth led out the swim in 24:07 on home soil. Demuth has made 117 short course starts (3 podiums) and is new to IRONMAN racing. He was followed closely by Magnus Manner, Jan Stratmann, and Florian Angert. Another 19 athletes swam between 24:40 and 24:59. That group included Jelle Geens, Mika Noodt, Nicolas Mann, Bradley Weiss, and Clement Mignon, among others. Arnaud Guilloux and Robert Kallin were a little further back. The long run into T1 allowed the group to come back together but put a lot of riders in close proximity to each other in the early stages on the bike on tight roads. This led to a few penalties being handed out. We have covered this issue at different times throughout the season. It is good to hand out the penalties but the reality is that more should have been handed out so a handful of athletes had their days ended, while others got off. I would still like to see more frequent penalties handed out with shorter durations. This race, however, was more fair within the current construct of the rules.

Fifteen men were within one minute of the lead at 15k. Eleven of those fifteen were German athletes! By the halfway point of the bike, Noodt had gapped everyone except for Geens. Nobody else could match his power on the climb. Noodt dropped Geens on the descent and used a 2:02:11 bike split to take a massive 4:45 lead into T2. In warm conditions, Noodt was able to maintain strong form on the run and coast to victory in 3:46:04. Geens held on for second. Gregor Payet finished 3rd, after starting the run in 9th.

TOTAL SWIM BIKE RUN

1 Noodt, Mike 3:46:04 24:43 2:02:11 1:14:09

2 Geens, Jelle 3:51:09 24:41 2:06:46 1:14:26

3 Payet, Gregor 3:51:59 24:57 2:08:48 1:13:12

4 Hug, Tom 3:52:18 25:25 2:09:28 1:12:07

5 Stratmann, Jan 3:53:34 24:21 2:08:12 1:15:42

Women’s Race:

Caroline Pohle had company on the swim today. Lauren Brandon, Lena Meibner, and Rebecca Clarke, pulled away with her from the main group. Ellie Salthouse swam in the chase pack a minute behind the leaders. Marjolaine Pierre, Grace Thek, Laura Madsen, Lisa Norden, and Els Visser, swam together more than 2 minutes back. Daniela Bleymehl was well back on the swim and later had to drop out due to cramping, hurting her Pro Series prospects. Pohle had company from Meibner early in the bike but that did not last long as she was soon dropped. Salthouse, Madsen, Thek, Visser, and Norden, all moved up in the race. By the halfway point, Pohle was in front by 2 minutes, and it would stay that way until the end of the bike. Pohle split 2:21:47 to lead by 1:54 over Madsen. Madsen pulled Visser and Meibner with her. Norden, Salthouse, Perterer, and Thek, grouped together 4 minutes behind Pohle.

Pohle, similar to last weekend, did what she needed to do on the run. She extended her gap over Madsen. It would be Thek, however, who would make a meaningful charge. Thek ran herself into 2nd place by the finish. She just ran out of room to catch Pohle who had done enough to win comfortably by 1:34. Madsen ran well to hold onto 3rd. Salthouse was 4th and Visser was 5th.

TOTAL SWIM BIKE RUN

1 Pohle, Caroline 4:17:24 25:23 2:21:47 1:24:45

2 Thek, Grace 4:18:58 27:39 2:23:27 1:21:43

3 Madsen, Laura 4:19:23 27:41 2:21:20 1:24:42 

4 Salthouse, Ellie 4:20:57 26:17 2:24:51 1:23:53

5 Visser, Els 4:21:29 27:49 2:21:19 1:26:25

Quick Take #1: Pohle made winning two Pro Series races in back to back weekends look relatively easy. She took down strong fields, utilizing the same playbook. She swam at the front of both races and then built comfortable leads on the bike. With her improved running, she has not been caught in two consecutive races. Pohle is not giving the uber bikers a chance to get on her wheel. It will be interesting to see what races she lines up for in the back half of the season and if she can replicate these performances.

Quick Take #2: Mika Noodt is quietly putting together an excellent eason. Noodt finished 6th and 5th at T100 Singapore and T100 San Francisco, respectively. He did not get a wild card for T100 London and had not raced again until today. He has not been dealing with any injuries. He said he took a season break even though he felt like he was in great shape and that nothing was bothering him. Noodt is focused on the remaining T100 races and the 70.3 World Championships. He was very good today against a strong field. It will be interesting to see if his less aggressive racing strategy pays off as we get closer to championship season.

Quick Take #3: We have now completed 16 out of the 20 Pro Series races. We are down to the three championship races plus 70.3 Western Australia. The Nice World Championships are just three weeks away! 

Photos: Getty Images for IRONMAN

The post Pohle Goes Back to Back, Noodt Dominates at 70.3 Zell am See-Kaprun first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

SuperTri kicked off its 1st of 5 races last week in Boston. Luxembourg’s Jeanne Lehair and Great Britain’s Alex Yee claimed victories. Lehair got redemption after a disappointing Olympic Games. Yee defeated his friendly rival, Hayden Wilde, in dramatic fashion, crossing his arms as he crossed the finish line replicating the same move Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappe is famous for. It looked like Wilde took exception to the celebration, although the two congratulated each other shortly after. Some in the triathlon community seem to have not liked the move either but I would welcome some more personality into our sport. You see players in major sports leagues celebrate for a lot less (sometimes for a routine play that takes a handful of seconds). Our athletes are incredible. It is okay to show some emotion!

Stop two on the SuperTri tour stayed in the United States, as athletes took to Chicago’s lakefront to do battle. The race paired with the Chicago Triathlon, which welcomed more than 8,000 age group athletes over the weekend. The women’s race came down to five athletes on the final run. Olivia Mathias and Taylor Spivey used short chutes to edge ahead and try to chase down the victory. It was Great Britain’s Georgia Taylor-Brown, however, who eventually caught the leading duo and would go on to take the win. Olympic Champion Cassandra Beaugrand moved up for 2nd. America’s Taylor Spivey held on for 3rd. Taylor-Brown said, “It’s really nice to be back on top. I forgot what it’s like to lift the tape. It’s a nice feeling but it’s so hot out here. All the girls did incredible.” Spivey added, “It feels so good. I always seem to get 4th place so just being in the top-3 is really satisfying.”

Short chutes and penalties were the story in the men’s race. Wilde and Vasco Vilaca separated themselves at the start of the final run, utilizing their short chutes, while two of Tim Don’s Podium Racing athletes had to serve penalties. Wilde encouraged Vilaca to take a turn at the front towards the end of the first of two laps. Vilaca, appearing to be at his upper limit, could not go to the front and Wilde carried on ahead of him. That move proved to be decisive, as Wilde built a small lead from there and crossed the line first. France’s Leo Bergere passed Vilaca late to finish in the runner-up spot. Vilaca rounded out the podium, after missing the time cut in last week’s race. Wilde was excited to get the win saying, “(I’m) Super stoked to be finally back on top. It’s been a long time.” He said he changed his tactics from last week & committed to a more conservative race strategy, with less time spent off of the front of the race.

Women’s Race

Temperatures approached nearly ninety degrees fahrenheit for today’s race. The water temperature was in the mid-seventies and some wind created choppy swim conditions in Lake Michigan. Competing on home soil, Kirsten Kasper led out the swim and secured a short chute for Stars & Stripes Racing. Beaugrand and Taylor-Brown, teammates, pushed the pace on a very technical bike course, traversing the lakefront path. Leonie Periault fell behind the pace early. Brownlee Racing picked up the second short chute. Mathias and Jessica Fullagar got onto the run first. Several of the pre-race favorites worked their way back into the main group. Beaugrand picked up the final short chute for Crown Racing and created a small gap heading into the second swim leg. Nine athletes were separated by ten seconds heading onto the second bike leg. Mathias, Beaugrand, and Spivey were given the short chutes by their team captains. Brownlee Racing had to decide between Beth Potter and Mathias.

A group of four athletes were all in contention on the final bike leg. It looked like the winner would come out of a group consisting of Mathias, Taylor-Brown, Spivey, and Fullagar. Mathias and Spivey took their short chutes to gap Fullagar and Taylor-Brown by a few seconds at the start of the final run leg. Beaugrand moved up into 5th place, leading the chase pack. Taylor-Brown quickly closed down the gap and moved into the lead. Mathias and Spivey tucked in and let her dictate the pace. The pace proved to be too much for the pair and Taylor-Brown moved clear of them. A hard closing Beaugrand came through for second but she ran out of the needed real estate to catch Taylor-Brown, who won the race. Spivey rounded out the podium in 3rd.

Men’s Race

Similar to last week’s opening swim leg, this week started with what we might call a full contact swim leg. Matt Hauser and Chase McQueen led out of the water and went back and forth several times, pushing and shoving each other, trying to get the first short chute. McQueen struggled to locate his bike in transition and Hauser took the first short chute for Podium Racing. One of the announcer’s remarked that “bumping is racing.” Vilaca picked up the next short chute after the first bike leg. Eleven men were within eight seconds of the lead. Notably, Alex Yee was not in that group. Wilde, wanting to keep things that way, pushed the pace on the first run and grabbed the final short chute for Crown Racing.

The second iteration of swim-bike-run saw Yee continue to fall off of the pace. He now trailed by more than twenty seconds. Tim Hellwig went down on the bike, into a hay bale, but was able to get right back onto the group. A large group of eight were all within contention heading into the final swim. Kenji Nener reached the bike first but the group quickly reeled him in. It was going to come down to a run battle. Tim Don expressed frustration with Crown Racing Manager Chris McCormack, who he accused of fixing Wilde’s bike chain in transition and tending to a bike shoe issue for a different athlete. Wilde, who had time to put on a Red Bull hat in transition, and Vilaca took their short chutes and gapped the field at the start of the final run. Wilde and Vilaca ran together for the first of two laps. It did not look so much that Wilde increased the pace but that Vilaca had reached his limit and dropped back. Wilde took the win. Bergere moved up to finish second. Vilaca rounded out the podium with a hard fought third place finish.

(Not so) Quick Take: Today’s race, just like last week’s, was entertaining. We are getting to see some of the best short course triathletes trade blows in a fast paced environment. The first two races have taken place in large US cities but, in general, away from where people live. The Chicago lakefront is actually somewhat difficult to get to. You have to cross a major highway (Lakeshore Drive) to get to where the race was. It can be difficult to find parking on the lakefront. The race course did not pass any residences. There seemed to be people around the start and finish but a lot of the course looked empty. I do not know what the fix is because there would not be a clean body of water to swim in other than Lake Michigan in Chicago proper. It looked like many age group racers passed on staying for the race. When you have professionals compete at the same time as age groupers you benefit from all of their family and friends attending the event. Watching today’s race I, again, thought to myself that this format is made for television and that a casual sports fan could watch on a summer in August, without a lot of other options to choose from. I watched it on TriathlonLive. There is still a sign-up requirement to watch through SuperTri directly. SuperTri can help grow the sport. It just feels like a little something is missing. More people should be seeing these incredible athletes racing like this right after the Olympics.

Photos: SuperTri

The post Taylor-Brown, Wilde Win SuperTri Chicago first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

The beautiful capital city of Tallinn, Estonia, played host to the IRONMAN 70.3 European Championships today. Stacked fields, consisting of athletes contending for the Pro Series and athletes transitioning from short course to long course, looked to make their mark on the race. Athletes were greeted by unseasonably warm temperatures that reached eighty degrees fahrenheit and winds that reached twenty miles per hour. This led to a healthy number of athletes not being able to finish the race. It was Greece’s Panagiotis Bitados on the men’s side and Germany’s Caroline Pohle on the women’s side who would prevail.

Bitados was a surprise winner but does have a pair of wins in 2024. After the race he said, “That’s the point for me to enjoy, to finish safe, and to push everything of my body, and for me I am happy for myself, and that’s the goal for me. So I am happy today.” He tried to do each discipline at a high level and was happy that his run came through today. Asked what comes next he added, “Training, and then training.”

Pohle was much less of a surprise on the women’s side but did well to hold off her challengers. Known as a strong swimmer, it was her bike and run that solidified her result today. She tells us, “I’m absolutely speechless. At the moment I think it’s just a dream. I worked so hard the last month and today it pays off the hard work the last month so, yeah, I’m absolutely speechless and happy and proud of myself.” Pohle continued, “I played my cards at the swim and at the bike. I tried to push hard from the beginning. I hoped for a good run and worked really hard on my run performance the last month.”

Men's Race Recap

Germany’s Hannes Butters led out the swim in 21:07. That was enough to put a small gap on the rest of the field. Great Britain’s Sam Dickinson, who you might know as Alex Yee’s sherpa for the Paris Olympics, came out of the water in second in 21:36. Dickinson was second at 70.3 Bahrain in 2022 in his only other start at the distance. Marc Dubrick, Jelle Geens, Panagiotis Bitados, Kevin McDowell, Kacper Stepniak, and Justus Nieschlag, all joined Dickinson up front. The main chase pack included names like Joao Pereira, Antony Costes, Peter Heemeryck, Leonard Arnold, and Robert Kallin. The Tallinn bike course is fast and flat. Butters maintained an early lead over the field. Kallin bridged up to the chase pack by halfway and then to the front of the race with 15km left to go. Kallin would only be able to gap Butters by thirty seconds heading into T2. The rest of the field, however, was much further back. Kallin had distanced them by four minutes.

Germany’s Leonard Arnold was the only person within three minutes of the leading duo. Arnold moved into the lead of the run early, with Kallin falling back. By the 10k mark, however, Bitados had moved all the way through the field and into the lead. Arnold was in second. Geens, one of the strongest runners in the field, was one minute back in third. From there, Bitados’ lead would only grow. He pumped up the crowd down the finishing chute, as he broke the tape in 3:36:09, splitting 1:09:18 on the run. Arnold and Geens would hang on for second and third respectively.

TOTAL SWIM BIKE RUN
1 Bitados, Panagiotis 3:36:09 21:46 2:02:49 1:09:18
2 Arnold, Leonard 3:36:45 23:06 1:59:58 1:11:04
3 Geens, Jelle 3:39:13 21:45 2:03:00 1:12:20
4 Stepniak, Kacper 3:39:52 21:50 2:02:53 1:13:04
5 Nieschlag, Justus 3:41:57 21:52 2:02:58 1:14:46

Women’s Race Recap

Germany’s Caroline Pohle took control of the race from the start and would lead wire to wire. She put approximately forty seconds on the main swim pack, which included Marta Sanchez, Kate Curran, Pamalla Oliveira, Sif Madsen, Lauren Brandon, Luisa Prat, and Grace Thek. You know that you swam well if you can put that much time into some of the strongest swimmers in the sport. Lisa Norden, Kaidi Kivioja, Kat Matthews, Maja Stage Nielsen, and Tamara Jewett were a little further back but still in contention. Pohle did not wait for anyone to catch her on the bike. She led by ninety seconds at halfway. Madsen and Matthews had broken away to form a small chase pack. Norway’s Solveig Lovseth rode in between them and a larger chase pack. Pohle’s lead would grow to more than two minutes, with only the three aforementioned women within striking distance.

The only question that remained was if Matthews could run Pohle down? Pohle maintained her lead early in the run and then her lead began to grow over the second half. Matthews was seen taking water and ice at pretty much every aid station. The conditions were clearly playing a role in deterring her comeback attempt. Pohle would not come under any pressure on the run, clocking a superb 1:20:17 run split in warm conditions to take the win. Matthews would have to settle for second. Lovseth rounded out the podium in third. Thek and Curran used strong runs to move up to take fourth and fifth place respectively.

TOTAL SWIM BIKE RUN
1 Pohle, Caroline 3:59:40 25:10 2:11:50 1:20:17
2 Matthews, Kat 4:02:39 26:20 2:12:46 1:20:55
3 Lovseth, Solveig 4:05:56 27:12 2:12:44 1:23:23
4 Thek, Grace 4:08:23 25:54 2:18:55 1:20:42
5 Curran, Kate 4:09:35 25:49 2:18:44 1:22:28

Quick Takes

Quick Take #1 – Caroline Pohle was excellent today. It is not easy to go wire to wire and beat someone as good as Kat Matthews by three minutes. Matthews will not be happy not being able to take full points in the Pro Series. This looks to be Pohle’s best run result of her career. It also came on a warm day, not meant for personal bests. Pohle will only be harder to beat moving forward if she is able to replicate this kind of a run performance. It is not easy to run well, after being off the front of the race all day.

Quick Take #2 – Panagiotis Bitados is ranked 101 by World Triathlon. He was 8th at the Hong Kong World Cup earlier in the year, one spot ahead of Matthew McElroy. He is now three for three this season at the half distance, winning Challenge Walchsee and 70.3 Kraichgau earlier in the year. He took down some strong competition in those races utilizing a similar blueprint. He is a front pack swimmer and excellent runner. If his bike keeps him close enough to the leaders then he is going to be a threat in any race he enters. We do not know what is next for him except for, of course, more training.

Quick Take #3 – Let’s not be quick to anoint short course Olympians at long course. Geens and Lovseth both took 3rd today. McDowell was 19th. Dickinson was 20th. Bitados is more of a hybrid athlete, crossing over into both formats. This is not meant to put short course athletes down but to simply acknowledge how good long course racing has gotten. The bike is so difficult now that it does require specific training to figure out how to put a good run together. It will be interesting to see how more athletes perform who make the move after this Olympic cycle.

Photos: Brit Maria Tael for IRONMAN

The post Bitados and Pohle Take 70.3 European Crowns in Tallinn first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

The Olympics are over and SuperTri is back. The four teams have been rebranded as Brownlee, Crown, Podium, and Stars and Stripes Racing. Today’s race took place in Boston, Massachusetts, paired with a longstanding event that saw age groupers race earlier in the day.

Sixteen athletes took to the start line in the women’s race, which consisted of three “mini” triathlons back to back to back. It was Luxembourg’s Jeanne Lehair who emerged victorious. The race came down to four women, Georgia Taylor-Brown, Kate Waugh, Taylor Spivey, and Lehair, on the final run leg. Lehair blazed ahead of the others just past the 50:00 mark. Lehair was a DNF at the Olympics and said after the race that “It was a bit of frustration from Paris in my run today.”

The men’s race, similarly, came down to a run battle. Just like a couple weeks ago in Paris, Alex Yee and Hayden Wilde ran neck and neck in the closing minutes of the race. Wilde had a small lead on Yee early in the final run leg but Yee worked his way back to the New Zealand athlete to move into the lead. The race leader would change again just 30 seconds later. Wilde stayed on Yee’s shoulder and passed him back. Would Yee be able to respond? The answer was a resounding yes, as 20 seconds later Yee would hit the lead again and sprint to victory. He crossed the finish line with his arms crossed, which left Wilde visibly upset. After the race Yee said that, “We want SuperTri to be exciting.” Today’s races definitely checked that box. Wilde, when asked about being so close to victory, immediately cut in and said, “Close isn’t good enough.”

Women’s Race:

Brazil’s Vittoria Lopes led out the women’s race and picked up the first short chute for Podium Racing. For those new to SuperTri, short chutes are awarded at different points in the race to the leaders’ team. The team captain (manager) can then pick any athlete on their team who can cut a small part of the run course later in the race. Most of the 16 person field stayed together through the first bike leg, with American Katie Zaferes being the only one to fall off of the pace. Brownlee Racing picked up the second short chute. A small group of 5 edged ahead on the run, leaving Olympic Champion, Cassandra Beaugrand, with the chasers. Georgia Taylor-Brown was the main aggressor, pushing the pace at the front of the race. Taylor-Brown and compatriot Kate Waugh led out the second swim, with Lehair closeby. American Taylor Spivey also bridged up to the front pack. The lead group whittled down to 5 on the second bike leg and then down to 4 after the second run leg.

The winner was going to come out of the lead group consisting of Taylor-Brown, Waugh, Spivey, and Lehair. That group would come out of the water together on the final swim. Lehair was last to get on the bike, opting to run with her bike a little longer before hopping onto it to avoid the tight first corner coming out of transition. The two Crown Racing athletes, Taylor-Brown and Waugh, attacked on the bike right as Spivey went for a sip from her bottle and opened up a small gap on her and Lehair. Lehair looked to be falling off of the back. Spivey managed to hang onto their wheels and emerged in first after the final transition. Taylor-Brown and Waugh were right behind her. Lehair was 6 seconds back but had a short chute to use. Taylor-Brown moved into the lead. It looked like it could be her day but then Lehair, utilizing her short chute, pulled even with her. Lehair made a hard move at the 50:00 mark and the race was effectively over. Taylor-Brown looked behind to see where Waugh and Spivey were. Lehair, possibly running on some anger after her disappointing Olympics, pulled away and even had time for some high fives at the finish line. Taylor-Brown finished in 2nd. Waugh was 3rd and Spivey was 4th. France’s Leonie Periault, who had been running great all day, moved up to take 5th. Beaugrand finished well off the pace in 8th.

Men’s Race:

The first 100m of the swim made triathlon look more like a combat sport instead of an endurance event, with athletes jostling for position. Matt Hauser beat Max Stapley out of the water to pick up the first short chute. The first bike leg went to plan for most athletes, with 14 of the 16 starters within 6 seconds of the lead. The first run started to break the field up a little, as Hayden Wilde and Alex Yee hit the front of the race. A group of 7, including Yee, Wilde, Hauser, Vincent Luis, Tim Hellwig, Dorian Coninx, and Sergio Baxter, emerged from the next swim leg in the front pack. Wilde made the next bike leg difficult on the others and, at first, dropped two riders. He could not find any solidarity among the other leaders, as nobody else wanted to take a pull at the front of the race. That allowed the two dropped riders, Hellwig and Hauser, to latch back onto the group. Hauser would lose contact with the group on the next run leg and then the race was down to six athletes.

Coninx picked up a 5 second penalty for not putting his goggles into his box at the end of the final swim leg. Wilde was definitely trying to inject some pace into the final bike leg but he, again, had no takers to share the work and the pack was content to let the final run leg decide things. Yee had a bad transition, struggling to rack his bike, and came out of the final transition in 6th. Coninx used his short chute to move into first but still had to serve his penalty, which he did take halfway through the run. That dropped him from 1st to 5th. Wilde took over the lead. Yee had moved all the way up from 6th to 2nd. At the 48:00 mark, Yee pulled even with Wilde. The two would trade blows from there to the finish line. Yee went ahead of Wilde first but that move was only good for 30 seconds. Wilde passed back and injected more pace into the run. It was not enough to shake Yee, as he would be passed 20 seconds later. Yee charged to the finish and seemed to let up a couple steps before the finish to cross his arms in celebration. The two shook hands shortly after but Wilde seemed unhappy with the celebration choice. Wilde said after the race that it was a shame that some of the other boys did not want to share the work and that he has been seeing too many silvers in the last couple of weeks. It would be nice to get gold in Chicago. We will see if he can do one place better next weekend.

Not so Quick Take: I have been covering a lot of different races for SlowTwitch this summer and SuperTri, perhaps, seems like one of the most compelling formats to take to mainstream viewers. I do not know why today’s race was buried on Triathlonlive or a sign-up link on the SuperTri website. SuperTri racing is exciting from start to finish. Its fast and furious racing style, with real time statistics and tracking, should appeal to casual fans. You can shut down a small area of a major city and really put out a great product. Obviously Formula 1 is not a fair comparison for triathlon but my mother-in-law, who is not the biggest sports fan, watches it and is fascinated by all the little things they detail for their audience, like tire pressure and type of tire. There is no reason a stream like this cannot dive into equipment selection that casual fans would understand. Are athletes using clear or tinted goggles? Are they wearing a wetsuit? What tire pressure are they using? What kind of tires do they have on their bikes? What super shoes are they wearing?

My mother-in-law is also a huge fan of the Olympics. This window that we are currently in only exists once every four years. A lot of people just watched Yee and Beaugrand win gold. There is no reason a series like this cannot have a Sunday afternoon time slot on a real network at a time of year when some of the major sports are in their offseasons. I would love for everyone to sit down and watch an 8 hour IRONMAN with me but it is much more realistic to pull folks in with a race like this. Both races were full of excitement today. Both gold medalists were on the start line, racing right after the Olympics. There has to be some sort of pathway to get more eyes on the sport. I think there is an opportunity in front of us, right now, with SuperTri.

Photos: SuperTri

The post Lehair Gets Paris Redemption, Yee Over Wilde at SuperTri Boston first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

For someone coming off of the Olympics simply hoping to validate for the IRONMAN World Championship, Kristian Blummenfelt had himself a day in Frankfurt. The Norwegian superstar was coy in his pre-race remarks about his chances of winning today’s race. Blummenfelt said: “Last week we had a mixed relay in Paris. So, it's like almost 10 days ago, and that's like a 20-minute race versus seven hours, 40 minutes or eight hours – it's a completely different energy system.” It was not unrealistic to think that Blummenfelt would have his hands full with such a strong field assembled. As the race progressed, however, Blummenfelt was always near the front. The strongest swimmers in the field were not able to get any separation, as he came out of the water in the lead group. Uber-biker Kristian Hogenhaug built a small lead in the back half of the ride. Blummenfelt was in a perfect position in the chase pack and would run into the lead before the 10k mark. From there, the only question was if he would set the fastest marathon split ever recorded in an IRONMAN. In the end, he would clock a 2:32, good for the 3rd fastest split all-time, only behind two marks held by Patrick Lange. Blummenfelt crossed the finish line in 7:27:21, setting an IRONMAN Frankfurt course record.

After his stellar performance, Blummenfelt said, “I’m quite surprised. I felt I came in with really not much preparation, really lack of riding the TT bike, barely done any long runs. I was realistically thinking go out as normal and expect the wall to hit me quite early on the bike.” Blummenfelt would go on to say that at the 160k point of the ride he realized he was towards the front of the race and could run for the podium if he was feeling good. It was clear that that was the case, as he reached the lead quickly and went on to win by nearly 5 minutes over a class field. Kieran Lindars, donning bib number forty-eight, was a surprise 2nd. Gregory Barnaby came 3rd. Blummenfelt reasoned that he might have trained a bit too heavy on the aerobic capacity side of things heading into Paris versus training his speed. He can now put his Olympic campaign behind him and look forward to trying to win for the first time in Kona – maybe the only thing missing from his very impressive resume.

Race Recap

The European Championships attracted a strong field, looking to secure Pro Series points at the final full distance race on the calendar aside from Kona. An $87,500 prize purse and 6 Kona slots were on the line today. Germany’s Wilhelm Hirsch led out the swim in 45:51 on home soil. Pristine conditions at Langer Waldsee did not allow the stronger swimmers to build any sort of lead heading into T1. Hirsch towed another 15 competitors with him to the front of the swim. Plenty of big names were in the main group including Menno Koolhaas, Braden Currie, Kristian Blummenfelt, Gregory Barnaby, and Kieran Lindars. The chase pack, led by Robert “The Wolf” Wilkowiecki was 2:00 in arrears. That group included Paul Schuster, Kristian Hogenhaug, and Clement Mignon. Patrick Lange, Pro Series Leader Matt Hanson, and Jackson Laundry were 4:00 back. Sam Long and Trevor Foley were 7:00 back.

By the halfway point of the bike, Kristian Hogenhaug had reached the lead and had begun to put time into everyone else. Hogenhaug was in control of a Kona Qualification deep into IRONMAN Vitoria-Gasteiz just a month ago, before seeing the slot slip away in the closing kilometers of the run. Would he be able to better hold things together this time around? He played the card he had and made the bike difficult on the chasers. He would increase his lead to 2:00 by 112k and to nearly 3:00 at the bike finish. He split a 3:57:09 for the 180k ride. Ruben Zepuntke came off the bike next, 2:44 behind Hogenhaug. Blummenfelt led the main chase group off next, close to 5:00 behind Hogenhaug. Blummenfelt’s group included Barnaby and Lindars. Koolhaas was nearly 10 minutes down. Lange and Hanson were 12 minutes back. Long rode a surprising 4:09:05, 25th fastest in the field, to come in 17 minutes behind the leader. Foley was more than 24 minutes back and eventually DNF.

The 4 lap run course was perfectly flat. Temperatures reached 70 degrees, with some humidity. Conditions were far from perfect but Blummenfelt looked like he might break 2:30 halfway through the run. He caught Hogenhaug before 10k and did not look back from there. He would go on to run 2:32 and set a new Frankfurt course record. Lindars ran into 2nd place. You could see the raw emotion on his face in the closing kilometer and how much this performance meant to him. Barnaby rounded out the podium in 3rd. Hogenhaug would hang on for 4th and earn that coveted Kona slot. Koolhaas ran 2:35 to move up to 5th. Lange wound up 8th but importantly finished ahead of Hanson in 14th. The two were running together at the 25k mark, before Hanson fell off of the pace. This result could have major implications in the Pro Series standings.

Top 5 Results

TOTAL SWIM BIKE RUN
1 Blummenfelt, Kristian 7:27:21 46:06 4:03:14 2:32:29
2 Lindars, Kieran 7:32:14 46:29 4:03:26 2:37:05
3 Barnaby, Gregory 7:33:44 46:15 4:03:33 2:38:53
4 Hogenhaug, Kristian 7:35:32 47:57 3:57:09 2:45:13
5 Koolhaas, Menno 7:35:51 45:55 4:08:36 2:35:54

Quick Takes

QT #1: Kristian Blummenfelt is my favorite for Kona. He might have sand bagged a bit before this race but he still took down a class field by 5 minutes and should only get better with a couple months of specific training. We might get to witness something truly special in October when we add in a few other big names into the mix. Rumors have been swirling about a move to professional cycling for Blummenfelt. Kona is the one thing he has not won in triathlon. He is going to want to win there before moving on (if that’s what he chooses to do).

QT #2: Be honest, where would you have slotted in Lindars pre-race? Maybe top-20 or top-30? Very few would have put him in the top-10, let alone 2nd to arguably the best long course triathlete of the last few years. Lindars had some strong results last year, including a 2nd place finish at the prestigious full distance race Challenge Almere, where he more or less crawled to the finish line after pushing it to his upper limits. He had not found the same success this season but showed up to this race with a great attitude. He spoke post race about not having the same resources as some of the top guys. He couldn’t escape the rainy season to go train somewhere warm and took the morning rain as a sign that he was ready to perform in these conditions. He talked about how he has assembled a team of volunteers who guide and support him. He started with bib number 48 and is now heading to Kona. What a ride!

QT #3: Gregory Barnaby has been quietly putting together a strong 2024. He was 3rd at 70.3 Mallorca, 8th at IRONMAN Cairns, and 10th at T100 London. Add in today’s 3rd and he has been a model of consistency this season.

QT #4: It was great to see Kristian Hogenhuag bounce back today after losing a Kona slot late at IRONMAN Vitoria-Gasteiz just a month ago. The Kona bike record is officially on watch.

QT #5: Max Neumann was unfortunately a DNS so he has not qualified for Kona. Will IRONMAN exercise its Wild Card Policy on Neumann or anybody else this cycle?

QT #6: We will do a story on the IRONMAN Pro Series next week. Today was the last race to score points at the full distance, outside of Kona. Lange finishing ahead of Hanson is significant. Foley’s DNF is significant. Long finishing 22nd basically takes him out of contention. Look for a deep dive into the Pro Series standings and how we see things shaking out as we approach championship season.

Photos: Getty Images for IRONMAN

The post Blummenfelt Validates with Big Win in Frankfurt first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

Things finally came together for Trevor Foley in his 4th attempt at the 140.6 mile distance. His debut came at IRONMAN Texas in 2022, where he finished 6th. He followed up that race with a DNF at IRONMAN Des Moines and then was 16th at IRONMAN Texas in 2023. After more than a year away from the full distance, Foley has figured something out. He was dialed into his race plan today, which allowed him to overtake Matthew Marquardt with 5k to go on the run. Foley’s season got off to a late start, after being struck by a car in a hit and run incident this spring. He was 3rd at 70.3 Chattanooga in May without being able to run his normal volume prior to that. He then went on to win 70.3 Boulder in June. Foley is now the IRONMAN Lake Placid champion, setting a new course record on his way to victory today. He also gained invaluable points in the chase for the IRONMAN Pro Series. Describing the biggest race performance of his life, Foley said, “This exceeds all expectations. I was hoping to be the 4th Kona guy today and I was blessed enough to be the 1st guy across the finish line and have the absolute race of my life and my fiancee is here to witness it and it was an amazing day. All the stars came together.” It was evident how much this race meant to him. He appeared to be holding back some tears as he embraced his fiancee immediately upon crossing the finish line.

Early in the day, one of the race commentators said that Danielle Lewis could not win this race. The commentator assured the viewers that they were not rooting against Lewis but did not see her overcoming her swim deficit. Lewis did swim 1:05:41, but then moved up well in the field on the bike, clocking the fastest split of the day of 4:57:38. She was able to do that, even with a fall where, thankfully, everything was okay. Lewis began the run in 5th place, around 11 minutes behind 1st place. Although she could not have possibly heard her chances at victory being counted out, Lewis set off at a blistering pace on the run. She moved up into 3rd place before the halfway point and was less than 5 minutes out of the lead. The two women in front of her quickly fell off and Lewis was there to pick up the scraps. She took over the lead after the 30k mark and did not look back, splitting a 2:52:23 marathon. That’s the fastest run split on this course by about 5 minutes. Similar to Foley, Lewis has had mixed results at the 140.6 distance. This was her 6th attempt at the distance. In her previous 5 tries, she has only been on the podium once. Lewis said that being called the Lake Placid Champion “hasn’t sunk in yet.” She went on to break down her race, “The swim was fairly standard for me…I’m still aiming for that 1 hour mark…I knew that I still had a real fighting chance because the course really suits me in terms of the hilly nature of the bike and the run. I just wanted to go out and ride really hard and I did.” Lewis believes that she can be a contender in Kona, adding, “The sky is the limit.”

Men’s Race:

One of the strongest swimmers in the sport, Josh Amberger, led out a big front pack of 11. Amberger split 24:16 at the Aussie exit, as athletes had to come out of the water to then begin their second lap of the swim course. Most of the usual suspects, such as Matthew Marquardt and Justin Riele, were in the front group. Braden Currie was surprisingly 52 seconds back. France’s Arnaud Guilloux was 1:15 back. Recent training partners, Jackson Laundry and Matt Hanson, were back 1:33 and 1:38, respectively. Trevor Foley was 1:45 back. Pre-race favorite Lionel Sanders was 2:27 back. 2023 defending champion Joe Skipper was 3:14 back. The professional field had to navigate age group racers on lap 2. Amberger led into T1, splitting 48:27. That was enough to drop some who had latched on through halfway. Marquardt was fastest through T1 to get onto the bike in 1st. From there, Marquardt would be off the front of the race right up until the finish line. Riele tried to go with him early but eventually settled into his own rhythm. By the halfway point of the bike, Foley, Sanders, Laundry, and Riele, made up the chase pack. Marquardt still had more than 5 minutes on the group and his lead continued to grow. Sanders, maybe recognizing how much distance Marquardt had on the group, surged around the 100 mile mark. Foley matched him. Laundry and Riele had to back off.

Marquardt split 4:16:53 to enter into T2 on his own. Did the field give him too much of a buffer? Sanders and Foley came off next, 8:30 in arrears. Foley had a strong T2, while Sanders opted to change into a running kit. Laundry came off of the bike in 4th, hoping to hold things together well enough to secure a Kona slot. Madsen, Leiferman, Guilloux, and Riele, came off of the bike next. Pro Series leader, Matt Hanson, rode 4:33:39. That put him 14th and 21:46 behind Marquardt. Could his strong run ability help him improve his position and bag another full distance performance? Conditions warmed up on the run to about 70 degrees fahrenheit. While warmer than ideal for a marathon, the dew point stayed in the 50s which meant that the humidity was not as bad as it could have been. Early on in the run, Foley looked like he was jogging at sub-2:40 marathon pace. Marquardt looked to be holding it together. By the 10 mile mark, Marquardt led Foley by 5 minutes and Sanders by more than 6. Hanson had moved up into 8th place. At 25k, Foley was 3 minutes back and looked like the only person in position to challenge for the win. Sanders had fallen back by 7:00. Guilloux was 10 minutes behind and Chris Leiferman was 11. At the 7:34 mark of racing, and with about 5k left to go, Foley made the catch. In a class move he gave Marquardt a fist bump as he went by. Marquardt had to walk shortly after he was caught and should be credited for making Foley work for the win. Foley crossed the finish line in 7:55:23. Marquardt hung on for 2nd. Sanders rounded out the podium in 3rd.

TOTAL SWIM BIKE RUN
1 Foley, Trevor 7:55:23 54:49 4:18:51 2:36:31
2 Marquardt, Matthew 7:57:14 48:30 4:16:53 2:46:28
3 Sanders, Lionel 8:05:39 54:21 4:19:07 2:46:16
4 Guilloux, Arnaud 8:07:46 51:14 4:26:23 2:44:33
5 Leiferman, Chris 8:10:50 53:28 4:24:50 2:47:17

Women’s Race:

Former collegiate swimmers Lauren Brandon and Rachel Zilinskas set a fast and furious swim tempo. Starting with a couple minute buffer behind the men’s field, they moved past a good portion of them by the time they reached the Aussie exit. Lotte Wilms was 29 seconds behind them. Sarah True was 2:44 back and Jackie Hering was 3:53 back. Brandon and Zilinskas came out of the water right at the 50 minute mark. They would’ve been in the top-10 in the men’s race. Wilms came out next. True was in 6th. Hering was in 7th. Alberts was in 8th. Danielle Lewis came out in 14th place but was over 15 minutes behind the leaders. Zilinskas, similar to Marquardt, went to the front of the bike and stayed there until the run. Wilms rode solo for much of the bike leg. She was closing in on Zilinskas but could not catch her and eventually slid back in the field. Zilinskas split 5:02:29 to enter T2 in the lead. True came off the bike next, 4:30 behind her. Alberts was 3rd, trailing by 6 minutes. Wilms, Hering, and Lewis were next.

Zilinskas stayed in the lead until True caught her at the 7 mile mark. Alberts was 3 minutes back. Hering and Lewis were closer to 6 minutes back. Wilms fell off the pace. By the halfway mark, True had opened up a significant gap on the field. Lewis was in 2nd by 5 minutes, with Zilinskas and Hering closeby. It looked like True was on her way to victory until she hit the wall around the 30k mark. Lewis moved into the lead and did not relent. She was able to put almost 5 minutes on Hering, who had to walk around the 22 mile mark, by the finish. True’s day, unfortunately, came to an end as she needed medical attention. Lewis capped off an incredible comeback with a 2:52 marathon. Hering hung on for 2nd. 2023 defending champion Alberts was 3rd.

TOTAL SWIM BIKE RUN
1 Lewis, Danielle 9:01:54 1:05:41 4:57:38 2:52:23
2 Hering, Jackie 9:06:26 57:43 5:03:52 2:58:09
3 Alberts, Alice 9:10:36 57:44 5:00:38 3:06:21
4 Zilinskas, Rachel 9:17:51 50:05 5:02:29 3:19:17
5 Hollioake, Regan 9:21:06 55:29 5:08:07 3:11:29

Quick Take #1: Trevor Foley and Danielle Lewis deserve all of the attention they get from their wins here. Both athletes have been looking to put together complete 140.6 races and have now done it. They’re both going to get even better in the sport, as their swims improve. Kona is a course that will suit both of them on the bike. Their swim deficits will matter more there but they have to be considered podium contenders after today.

Quick Take #2: The Pro Series standings are starting to take shape. Foley and Lewis can both make runs at top spot. Kat Matthews is going to feel good that Hering was not able to take full points today. Hanson, the men’s series leader, was a respectable 6th place but will not like his deficit from the winning time. Athletes like Sanders and Laundry still need to put some more scores on the board to see where they can finish. The race for top spot in the women’s series seems a little more clear. The picture on the men’s side will change after Frankfurt in August. Championship season feels like it will have a significant impact on final standings at this point.

Quick Take #3: The 2,436 day drought since his last IRONMAN win continues for Lionel Sanders. This is not meant to be taken seriously. The number was put out this week by Sanders’ content creator Talbot Cox. That statistic is misleading because Sanders was 2nd to Cody Beals at Mont Tremblant in 2018 and in 2019. He was 2nd 4 times in 2021 – Jan Frodeno beat him at the Tri battle, Cam Wurf in Copenhagen, Joe Skipper in Chattanooga, Gustav Iden in Florida. Sanders was also 2nd to Kristian Blummenfelt at the 2022 World Championship. He has had a couple of tough races mixed in there but that looks like a pretty good resume to me. He overcooked it in training before Kona in 2022 when he was trying to train like the Norwegians and trying to keep up with a training partner taking EPO. Trust your track record Lionel. You can still win big races. Being on the podium today and punching your Kona slot shows that you can be in the mix.

Quick Take #4: Pour one out for Matthew Marquardt and Rachel Zilinskas. It is incredibly challenging to race off of the front for as long as both of those athletes did today. They should be proud of their performances.

The post It All Comes Together For Trevor Foley and Danielle Lewis at IRONMAN Lake Placid first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

It was not until the 29 kilometer mark of the run that Antonio Benito Lopez hit the front of the race for the first time. Robert Kallin came off of the bike with a nearly 6 minute lead over Kristian Hogenhaug. Lopez trailed by 13 minutes in 5th place. That did not seem to affect the Spaniard, who set off on a mission on the run in front of his home crowd. He moved up into 3rd by 10k, still more than 8 minutes back. By the halfway point, however, his gap was down to 3:00. Lopez soon overtook Hogenhaug, who had passed Kallin, and did not look back. He expanded his lead over the last 10k, would win by nearly 5 minutes, and take the course record.

Through an IRONMAN translator, Lopez said that his main goal was to get his Kona slot. He felt good during the race and it became clear that it was going to be his day. Lopez took time at the end of his interview to shoutout Spanish tennis superstar Carlos Alcaraz, who is playing at Wimbledon today, and the Spanish National Team, who is playing England in the European Championship Final tonight. It is certainly a strong day for Spanish athletics.

The United Kingdom’s Stephanie Clutterbuck used her unmatched swim speed to come out of the water more than 4 minutes over all other competitors. That set up a long and lonely day for Clutterbuck, who would not see another racer until after the 100 kilometer point of the bike. Kat Matthews swam in the chase pack and would be among the group of women to catch Clutterbuck on the bike. Matthews worked with Ruth Astle to break away from the others to reach T2 and get onto the run first. From there, Matthews would not be challenged. She increased her lead all the way to the finish line and went on to win by 8 minutes.

On being told that she smashed the course record, Matthews said, “Oh, cool, course record, yeah, didn’t know, wasn’t aware, great.” On her race, she added, “Honestly, I had a bad swim. I felt really disconnected. I felt like I was having fun on the bike…I thought it was just so fair, so honest, such a great course, and then the run it was a bit of a just get through it day.” Matthews sought redemption after being disqualified at IRONMAN Hamburg in early June and certainly got it. She earned full points for the second time at the 140.6 distance, bolstering her position in the Pro Series standings.

Men’s Race Recap

Former ITU star and Slovakian Olympian Richard Varga led out the swim (45:23), putting 1 minute on the rest of the field. A chase pack of more than a dozen athletes formed behind him. Sam Laidlow, David McNamee, Antonio Benito Lopez, James Teagle, Robert Kallin, and Bradley Weiss, were all in that group. Kristian Hogenhaug was another minute back. Robert Wilkowiecki, Cam Wurf, and Arthur Horseau were gapped even further. Kallin quickly went to the front of the bike and began putting significant time into the rest of the field.

Right before the 70k mark, reigning IRONMAN World Champion Sam Laidlow was handed a drafting penalty. He failed to serve the penalty at the next penalty tent and was subsequently disqualified* (*more thoughts on this in our Quick Takes at the end of the article). Kallin led by almost 6 minutes over Hogenhaug at T2. Kallin did well to protect his lead over Hogenhaug early into the run. At the 10k mark, Hogenhaug was only able to chip into his lead by a minute, but others were charging up to both athletes. By the halfway point of the run, Kallin’s lead was down to a minute over Hogenhaug. McNamee and Lopez were sitting just 3 minutes back. Hogenhaug soon passed Kallin but his time in the lead was short lived. Lopez made the catch at 29k, and extended his lead from there.

He broke the tape in 7:36:38 to set a new course record and put together a 2:37:57 marathon on a day where temperatures reached more than 80 degrees fahrenheit (26 celsius). McNamee was a clear 2nd, finishing almost 5 minutes later. The battle for the remaining places was on after that. Hogenhaug was clinging onto 3rd and the last Kona slot late into the race. Weiss and Wurf passed him after 7:30:00 of racing. Wurf was able to separate from Weiss in the closing stages of the race to round out the podium.

TOTAL SWIM BIKE RUN
1 Lopez, Antonio Benito 7:36:38 46:30 4:07:53 2:37:57
2 McNamee, David 7:41:20 46:29 4:08:40 2:42:03
3 Wurf, Cam 7:43:16 50:29 4:03:15 2:44:41
4 Weiss, Bradley 7:43:51 46:37 4:07:55 2:45:11
5 Hogenhaug, Kristian 7:44:36 47:36 3:59:49 2:53:23

Women's Race Recap

Stephanie Clutterbuck exited the water (50:40) with a more than 4 minute lead. Kat Matthews (55:07) led a chase pack of 7 women including Els Visser, Simone Mitchell, Elisabett Curridori, Ruth Astle, Daniela Bleymehl, and Katharina Wolff, out next. Gurutze Frades was back in 11th in 58:27. Clutterbuck rode off the front of the race for more than 100 kilometers, before being caught by Visser, Matthews, Bleymehl, and Astle. Visser was impressively coming off of a 3rd place performance at Challenge Roth just last weekend.

Matthews began attacking around the 110k mark. She was able to break away with Astle heading into T2. Bleymehl and Visser were around one minute back. Clutterbuck faded by another couple of minutes. Nobody else was within 14 minutes of the lead. Matthews immediately went to the front of the run and Astle held onto 2nd place early. Visser was able to catch Astle shortly after 10k and the pair would run together for several kilometers, until Visser was able to pull away. Matthews was never seriously challenged on the run and would win in 8:24:23. Visser claimed 2nd. Astle hung on for 3rd, after having to walk several aid stations in the last 10k. It was encouraging to see Astle finish, after injuries prevented her from beginning her 2024 season until now.

TOTAL SWIM BIKE RUN
1 Matthews, Kat 8:24:23 55:07 4:30:07 2:54:40
2 Visser, Els 8:32:29 55:08 4:31:04 3:01:41
3 Astle, Ruth 8:38:07 55:11 4:29:54 3:08:24
4 Bleymehl, Daniela 8:41:12 4:30:41 3:10:30
5 Mitchell, Simone 8:41:39 55:09 4:44:21 2:56:35

Quick Takes

(Not so) Quick Take #1: Let’s talk about drafting!
This isn’t a new issue. We’ve seen stars, like Lionel Sanders, get disqualified at the biggest races in our sport. We saw a blue card (5 minute penalty) get handed out at IRONMAN Cairns. Today, we saw IRONMAN Champion Sam Laidlow receive a drafting penalty. Once the penalty is issued, the athlete has no direct recourse. Laidlow failed to stop at the next penalty tent and that meant he was disqualified. He should know the rules so this is 100% on him. He was, however, reportedly not notified until T2 of his disqualification and he continued onto the run, planning to protest it after the race. The issue here is that he did not serve the penalty during the race. He stayed in the pack he was in, received the disqualification, and the panel that heard his protest after the race affirmed his disqualification.

My main concerns are that 1) penalties are not handed out regularly, 2) the length for drafting penalties effectively end your chances at a podium/pay day, 3) you cannot serve penalties in transition – it has to be at the next penalty tent (although I do hear the argument that if you did the thing you’re accused of doing then you shouldn’t get to stay in your group but then I’d go back to point 2 as you have no chance of ever catching back up once you come to a stop), and 4) communication- Laidlow should have been told of the DQ (maybe he knew the rules?) before T2 so that he could have chosen to save his legs for another race. My understanding is that the length of time to serve a blue card penalty is meant to deter people from drafting. If you were to just receive a 30 second or 1 minute penalty then it would encourage people to draft the entire time. The reward would be greater than the risk.

That logic follows until you add in Race Ranger. For now, referees still have to see the drafting violations – Race Ranger cannot penalize an athlete on its own. Riding into a draft zone does not initiate a penalty on its own but theoretically Race Ranger is collecting that data and there must be a way to see that in real time. If there was a way to find some balance here I think that could be best for everyone. Maybe Race Ranger (or just referees on their own) could trigger smaller penalties that could be taken in transition or at a penalty tent of the athlete’s choosing. That way, if someone is pushing draft zones throughout the ride they would pick up penalty after penalty. Maybe have a certain number of those violations trigger a disqualification. If someone enters into a draft zone one time but is known as a clean racer and does not do it again, maybe they don’t deserve a 5 minute-end your day-kind of penalty. What do you think? I am certainly against drafting but it seems like penalties like this are harsh in a sport that does not allow a lot of athletes to piece together a comfortable living. Laidlow has a PTO contract and still has to validate for Kona. Will he get to race on the big island? Is that what IRONMAN wants?

Quick Take #2: Okay, back to the fun stuff. Is Lopez a serious Kona contender? It feels like IRONMAN racing has turned into an event to see who can hang on the best on the run after a monster bike split. Lopez is a part of an almost dying culture in the sport, where you’re an athlete where your run is your strength and you can use it to secure a late race victory. Kona is the great equalizer (bike/run balance) race where the conditions do allow runners to excel. While it wasn’t humid in Spain today, it did get warm on the run and Lopez was comfortably under 2:40. In his last 10 races, between this year and last year, Lopez has had the fastest run split on 7 occasions, even beating out Belgian superstar Martin Van Riel’s run split in one of those races. In his 3 other races, Lopez had the 2nd fast run split twice and the 3rd fastest run split once. Over his career, he has not always chosen races with the strongest competition. This was probably the strongest field he has faced and we caught a glimpse of what he is capable of. I’d pencil him in as a Kona contender.

Quick Take #3: I’m not even going to ask if Kat Matthews is a Kona contender. My question is if she is the Pro Series favorite. Matthews has now taken full points at 2 full distance races. She is going to need to put together a pair of strong 70.3 performances to stay ahead of someone like Jackie Hering. If Hering wins Lake Placid next weekend she would also have full points at 2 full distance races. She also has 2 strong 70.3 performances banked. Matthews has a PTO contract to honor but plans on racing 70.3 Tallinn. She has an auto qualifier for the 70.3 World Championships at the end of December too. It would be exciting for Year 1 of the Pro Series if the women’s champion is crowned based on who has the better result in the last race of the season. It looks like that’s where we could be heading.

Quick Take #4: I just wanted to give some quick appreciation to Els Visser’s race schedule. She was 3rd at Challenge Roth last weekend and was 2nd today. This was her 10th race of the season. She has 3 wins, 8 podium finishes, and the furthest back she’s been is 5th.

The post Lopez Victorious in front of Home Crowd, Matthews Masterclass at Vitoria-Gasteiz first appeared on Slowtwitch News.