After an exciting women’s race on Thursday, the attention turned to the men and the focus was on the two Norwegians, Kristian Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden. Would Blummenfelt retain his title? Could anyone upset them?
Swim – No advantage gained at the front
Leading into the race we expected the front pack of swimmers to be a group of around 10 athletes. From the gun two packs formed led by Sam Laidlow and Florian Angert, which came together after a couple minutes. There was a reluctance to really push the pace with the likes of Josh Amberger sitting in. This is becoming more common as the small advantage gained by breaking away from a group isn’t justified by the energy output. The Norwegians had to work hard to close numerous gaps in the opening stages but were both able to stick with the front group.
The pace settled as it become clear there would be no separation and a group of 16 came into transition together. Lead out by Angert and Laidlow, the group also included Iden, Blummenfelt, Collin Chartier and Max Neumann.
The next pack came out of the water with a 1:30 deficit and included contenders Magnus Ditlev and Patrick Lange. A further 3 minutes back came the weaker swimmer, strong biker pack featuring Joe Skipper, Cam Wurf, Lionel Sanders and Sebastian Kienle.
Bike – Laidlow unstoppable
Neumann darted through transition and was able to put in 20-30 seconds into most athletes. This gave him the advantage to breakaway early on the bike. He rode away solo while a big chase pack formed. Laidlow was reluctant to sit in and as we have seen in every race he has done this year he started laying down the power to bridge across to Neumann. This pair started working well together and through 16k had a 50 second advantage over the chasers. At this point the 14 strong chase pack had been joined by Ditlev who made light work of the gap he had coming out of the water.
This pack increased to 26 riders in a big pace line. However as in the women’s race multiple riders were hit with penalties. Four athletes including Angert were handed five minute penalties, they were joined briefly in the penalty tent by Leon Chevalier who had received a minute penalty. This split up the massive group and gave Ditlev, Iden and Blummenfelt the chance they needed to breakaway. Tim O’Donnell and Jesper Svensson tried to follow but were spat out the back of the group.
Ditlev proceeded to drop the Norwegians as he bridged up to Laidlow and Neumann, however they only lost 30 seconds and were able to make this back on the climb to Hawi. Laidlow picked up his special needs bag through Hawi and then began hammering the bike, building a minute lead over the next 30km. Further back Cam Wurf was leading a strong group of bikers featuring Chevalier, Skipper and Kienle.
Laidlow continued to put time into the chasers and would end up coming into T2 with over a six minute lead. Blummenfelt and Iden shared the bulk of the work back from Hawi and Ditlev was hit with a drafting penalty, forcing him to stop at the penalty tent before rolling into transition.
A record setting bike split for Laidlow, as he took four an a half minutes off Cam Wurf’s 2019 record, to come home in 4:04:36 . Wurf and Chevalier also broke the old course record but only by a matter of seconds.
Run – Iden breaks Blu and denies Laidlow
With the top 4 athletes all coming out of T2 around 5 hours the overall course record looked under threat. Laidlow set off steady but looked controlled. Neumann came out behind the Norwegian pair but quickly caught up and put in a surge to get past. You could see Iden and Blummenfelt look at each other at this point deciding whether to go with him, credit to Neumann for taking it to them. They closed the gap and from 5k gradually broke away.
By 10k they had cut Laidlow’s lead to just over 4 minutes and Neumann was dangling a further 30 seconds back. The Norwegian’s gradually chipped away at the lead and through half way had cut the deficit to 3 minutes, with Neumann still 30 seconds back. At this point Laidlow still looked in control but it looked effortless for Iden, meanwhile you could see Blummenfelt working to stick with him.
After the energy lab, around 29km into the run course, Iden was able to break away from Blummenfelt and really started to close in on Laidlow. Further back Kienle and Ditlev were running together fighting for 5th place, Skipper slight behind in hot pursuit.
Iden caught Laidlow around 36k, they shared clasp of hands and Iden charged away. He quickly put time into Laidlow and already had a 2 minute advantage over Blummenfelt. Blummenfelt got within a minute of Laidlow but ran out of real estate and would have to settle for third. Neumann came home in fourth a minute back. The top four all broke Jan Frodeno’s course record of 7:51:13 and both Iden and Blummenfelt went under Patrick Lange’s run course record of 2:39:45. Skipper was able to run through Kienle and Ditlev to round out the top 5.
Results
Iden claims another world title and extends his unbeaten record over long courses races. The last time he lost a middle or long distance race was 2018! Will he three-peat at the IM 70.3 World Championships in St George later this month?
- Gustav Iden – 7:40:24
- Sam Laidlow – 7:42:24
- Kristian Blummenfelt – 7:43:23
- Max Neumann – 7:44:44
- Joe Skipper – 7:54:05
Full results available here.
Looking at the potential impact to the PTO rankings. Blummenfelt will retain the top spot and Iden takes the #2 spot back from Ditlev. The superb performance by Laidlow moves him up from 8th to 4th, while Neumann flies up to 5th from 21st.
Triathlon Insights 
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