“Kristian gave me one of the toughest runs. Every time I go out I try to race my best, and he made me work. Maybe it was harder than it looked,” Mola said. “This race is another step forward. But until I cross the finish line in the Gold Coast in the next couple weeks, the race towards the World Championships is not over.”

Vincent Luis (FRA) and Jonathan Brownlee (GBR) lead out of the water with Marten Van Riel (BEL), Marco van der Stel (NED) and Tayler Reid (NZL) forming a lead pack on the six-lap bike course.  Halfway through the bike, the chase pack caught the lead, with Blummenfelt and Ryan Fisher working hard to bridge the gap and a massive group converged together moving into transition.

“I thought I had a chance on the run. I couldn’t stay behind him (Mola) I had to try and kick up the pace,” said Blummenfelt.  

Behind Blummenfelt was a cluster of runners including early leaders Luis and Brownlee. Fernando Alarza (ESP) and Aussie Jacob Birtwhistle ran with the group of men until the last 500 metres when Birtwhistle broke ahead to sprint himself into a third-place finish.

Birtwhistle said: “I knew it wasn’t over until I crossed that line. I wasn’t given a big gap at the end, but I had to try to use my kick. I would rather use it to challenge for the win, but today I had to try to use it to my advantage. There is so much that can happen, even in a sprint, it isn’t over until we cross that line.

 “I wanted to swim and bike to the best of my ability. I am pretty happy with where things are sitting (in the overall standings). I missed a few points early on in Bermuda and Leeds, so I am trying to backend my season to finish off well. I need to perform in the last two events.”

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There are two races left in the 2018 season: WTS Montreal and WTS Gold Coast which also serves as the Grand Final.

The Sultanate of Oman will host two new triathlon events in the coming year; the inaugural 5i50 Oman in November 2018 and the new Ironman 70.3 Oman on March 9, 2019. 

  Oman will also host its first ever 5i50 triathlon on November 18. The 1.5 km swim, 40km and 10k run is perfect preparation for athletes and beginners in the lead up to the main event, Ironman 70.3 Oman.

“It is with great pride that we announce the launch of Ironman 70.3 triathlon race in Oman,” said Sayyid Adil bin Mirdas Al Busaidi, Advisor on Tourism Affairs, Ministry of Tourism.

“It is our mission to make the Sultanate an obvious choice for international sports, as we believe the country has a lot to offer with enthralling beauty. Perfect weather awaits athletes as the warm desert heat is at bay during the cool season, leaving idyllic racing conditions that will entice both new and experienced triathletes. The country is well suited for holding events such as running, cycling, and swimming competition,.” 

For the 70.3 the athletes will pass through the beautiful capital city of Musca, as they complete a 1.9km (1.2-mile) swim, 90.1km (56-mile) bike ride and 21.1km (13.1-mile) run during the inaugural Ironman 70.3. The Arabian seas provide for a non-wetsuit swim, which will be held in the calm, clear waters beside the desirable suburb of Al Shatti in downtown Muscat.

Al Shatti is also the location of the bike transition, from which athletes will take on a bike route that passes through all major monuments of Muscat including the Royal Opera House, Muttrah Gate and Cornish, the Al Bustan Palace and the enticingly fast Wadi Al Kabir Road.

The single transition in Al Shatti provides convenience for athletes and a hot spot for spectators who will line the four-lap run course encircling the Royal Opera House and Intercontinental Hotel complex.

“We are more than honoured to host athletes from around the world to our beloved nation,” said Race Director and Chief Executive Officer of Triathlon Middle East, Mohamed Al Obaidani. “Triathlon is one of the fastest growing and most dynamic sports in the world, therefore, we want to bring the culture of triathlons and healthy lifestyle to Oman, aiming to make our nation prominent in this area,” he added.

Ironman 70.3 Oman will offer 30 qualifying slots for the 2019 Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Nice, France.

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General registration is now available at www.ironman.com/oman70.3. Athlete inquiries may be directed to [email protected]. For accommodation and travel services, visit www. https://goo.gl/bxzZxG

The races will start and finish in Odaiba Marine Park in Tokyo Bay, an urban resort with white sandy beaches overlooked by Tokyo’s high-rise waterfront buildings. This area is well-established on the triathlon scene, having been used as the venue for the country’s National Triathlon Championships for more than 20 years.

The triathlon swimming legs will take place in Odaiba Bay (top photo). The bike riding and running courses will wind their way in and around the park, and will incorporate a number of technical features. The course for individual events will also pass through the West Promenade district of Odaiba, featuring waterfalls and greenery. 

Triathletes will complete the 1.5km swim leg in two laps of Odaiba Marine Park, with the 40km bike section split into eight laps and the 10km run comprising four laps of 2.5km.

The mixed relay—added to the Olympic programme for the first time—involves teams of two men and two women completing a short-course triathlon; each team member completes a 300m swim, a 7.4km bike ride and a 2km run before handing off to a teammate to take over. The Paratriathlon will consist of a 750m swim, a 20km bike ride and a 5km run.

The men’s Olympic triathlon will take place on 27 July 2020, with the women’s event being staged on the following day. The mixed relay will be staged on “Super Saturday”, 1 August, an action-packed day featuring 23 sports on which a number of medal events are scheduled to be held. The mixed relay, a dynamic event that sees non-stop action until the last second, promotes gender-balance, and fully addresses the IOC’s Olympic Agenda 2020 recommendations in this respect.

Marisol Casado, President of the ITU and IOC Member, said: “I am extremely proud of the courses that will stage the Tokyo 2020 Olympic individual Triathlon races, the mixed relay and the Paratriathlon races. We have been working hard with Tokyo 2020 to develop courses that will be exciting for the athletes and spectators alike. The location is perfect and it is incredibly exciting to be right in the heart of Tokyo at the Odaiba Bay. It is a great opportunity to showcase this amazing city to the whole world as the best triathletes and Paratriathletes on the planet compete among Tokyo’s iconic landmarks.”

“For ITU, it is key to provide courses that allow the best possible conditions for the athletes, the best viewing scenarios for spectators on site as well as watching on television, and that consider the sustainability and legacy after the Games, so we work closely with Tokyo 2020 to provide the best environment for the athletes, both now and in the near future. As it is always the case, we are extremely satisfied with the stages we have designed on which our athletes can shine in the summer of 2020, and we will work with Tokyo 2020 to improve those conditions further, where necessary and possible”, added the ITU president. “Tokyo 2020 will be unforgettable for triathlon with our new event added to the calendar. As the thrill and excitement of the mixed relay adds to that of the individual races, we are sure that, on these great circuits, we will all be able enjoy our best Olympic and Paralympic Games to date.”

Can the Brownlees medal again?

Download here the Mixed Relay Course map

 
Download here the Paratriathlon Course map

  
Download here the Individual Triathlon Elevation Map

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Download here the Mixed Relay Elevation Map
Download here the Paratriathlon Elevation Map

Having trouble watching it? Click here for the Norseman You Tube channel and enjoy this epic race from start to finish

220 Triathlon were in Norway this year to follow the race, with Editor Helen Webster helping present the live coverage (if you missed it, watch the full 13 hour broadcast by following the link here) and in the days leading up to the event, most of the talk was about one thing – the unusually warm water conditions. Usually maxing out at a cold 14 degrees C on race day, a hot early summer added to a lack of melting snow around race time had meant the fjord was a balmy(ish) 16-17 degrees by race day. 

Early Start

Boarding a car ferry at 4am in the pitch black is still a daunting experience though and as the athletes sat waiting for the ferry to reach the starting point 3.8km from Eidfjord, there was a quiet contemplation amongst the competitors who sat quietly stretching, meditating, or making last-minute adjustments to their wetsuits. Many were wearing thermal suits and full neoprene balaclavas and socks to help their bodies cope with up to two hours in the still less-than-warm black waters.

Taking that ferry jump this year were British athletes including 3x Kona finisher and 2018 Celtman champ Harry Wiltshire, 2017 Celtman winner Chris Sterling and Swissman 2018 winner Flora Colledge. They faced some of the toughest competition though, as in the men’s race two of the best Norseman athletes in the world were lining up: current record holder Lars Christian Vold and 2x previous winner Allan Hovda, both Norwegians familiar with the tough and technical course. In the women’s race, Norwegian pro triathlete Mette Pettersen Moe was sure to be competitive, alongside Finnish racer Heini Hartikainen and American pro and winner of Alaskaman Morgan Chaffin.

After a hosing down on the ferry to acclimatise to the water temperatures and avoid cold water shock, the athletes jumped into the pitch black water to swim to the race start line, marked by kayaks. Their goal? To follow the 3.8km course around the shore and spot a bonfire burning on the shore back in Eidfjord (a very Viking-esque course marker!) that would guide them to the solitary course buoy where they would turn left and come in to T2.

First out of the water was Norwegian Eirik Ravnan in 00:48:08. A former competitive swimmer with 13 gold medals under his belt he didn’t have a clear break though, as GB Pro Harry Wiltshire, also an extremely strong swimmer and winner of this year’s Celtman race was just seconds after him. Ravnan strengthened his advantage with a super-fast transition though and went on to open up a small gap from Wiltshire as they rode through the tunnels and on to the Old Road, up into misty rainy conditions on the wide Hardanger Plateau. In the women’s race Mette Petterson Moe exited first in 00:53:53, less than 5 minutes after the leaders.

Into the Mountains

Above image by Torgeir Storflor Moen / nxtri.com

The Norseman bike route is infamously tough though and as Wiltshire told us in a pre-race interview: “This isn’t a race won or lost in the swim. It’s all about who’s still got enough left in the tank at Zombie Hill”. There were plenty of hills to take in before the final run up Zombie Hill though (more on that later) as five mountains culminating in the toughest of them all – Immingfell – needed to be navigated first in conditions that were getting increasingly foggy and slippery.

Ravnan kept the lead for the first part of the course, but the expertise of previous champions Vold and Hovda soon came through as they broke through to the front of the course and started to show what makes them so utterly unbeatable on a bike course that can quickly chew you up and spit you out if you don’t pace it accurately. They describe this race as the one where you can ‘find yourself all alone on a small bike on top of a big mountain plateau’ and watching the athletes string out alongs the course in the mountain fog, it quickly became apparent why. The landscapes are just huge in this race, although the views probably weren’t enough to distract those at the front of the race chasing the win.

Anything is possible at Norseman though and the sun broke though on the bike course, leaving athletes who had prepared for typically windy, cold and wet Norseman conditions baking in the sweltering heat. With Vold in the lead, the two athletes arrived at the 500m climb to Immingfell looking focussed. In an interview before the race as part of a panel interview led by 220 [follow link here], Allan Hovda revealed that himself and Lars Christian Vold had trained together on the course a couple of weeks previously and he’d identified that Vold had the edge on the technical descent at Immingfell, so he’d spent some extra time training on those roads. It really showed during the race too, as both athletes swept down the descent tucked down on their tri-bikes’ crossbars, aiming to get as aero as possible as they navigated the technical hairpins and treacherous descent.

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Zombie Running

Vold entered T2 first, but with Hovda hot on his heels it was clear we were in for a tense finish in the mountains. The Norseman run route is famous for its brutality. The first 25km are flat and follow a tarmac road, then after that you start to gradually climb with the infamous Gaustatoppen mountain peak – ‘Zombie Hill’ – rising up into the distance ahead of you like some great monster, as if to taunt you with the distance you have left to climb.

 

THIS is where @nxtri finishes

Ryf said: “Today, again, I’m happy with everything. The swim was good and on the bike course I was surrounded by men and could push the pace from the beginning.

“The run also felt good without any problems so I’m happy to have invested a lot in running recently.”

At the end of 2017 we named Ryf the 5th greatest female triathlete ever – could she rise higher at the end of 2018? What do you think?

  Daniela Ryf’s top 5 tips for racing and recovery 

Daniela Ryf’s 3 key Ironman training sessions

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The men’s race

Meanwhile, Ben Hoffman returned to racing at his hometown race Ironman 70.3 Boulder. The American had taken a four-month hiatus to recover from back issues after competing at the eight-day ABSA Cape Epic mountain bike race in a team for Ironman Foundation, as well as walking to a 21st place finish at Ironman South Africa two weeks later.

Hoffman’s return to form was evident as he steadily crept up the leaderboard after emerging from the swim in seventh. By the end of the bike leg he was in third place and within striking distance of the win. First place came down to the wire in a finish-line sprint, where Callum Millward beat Hoffman out by a mere two seconds.

Only a week after winning Ironman Canada, Brent McMahon put in a valiant effort to take 14th place at Ironman 70.3 Philippines.

Held since 2006, the Long Course version of the race (there’s also a ‘Short’ edition and duathlon on offer) swiftly became a bucket list triathlon to rank alongside Escape from Alcatraz, the Norseman and Challenge Roth.

It commences with a 2.2km swim in Lac du Vernay, the EDF-owned lake that’s opened once a year to swimmers for the event. The race then sends long-course athletes off on a 118km venture along roads etched in Tour de France history, taking athletes via smooth French roads over three steep mountain passes, before the pièce de résistance, the 21 hairpin bends on the ascent up the Alpe d’Huez.

The 20km run leg is a three-lap affair at high altitude, which takes place on a mixture of mountain paths and asphalted roads within the majestic setting of the resort of Alpe d’Huez.

The 2018 race was won by the 2013 Ironman world champion, Belguim’s Frederik Van Lierde, in 5:59:52, with Switzerland’s Emma Bilham taking the women’s title.

Alpe veteran and Goal Specific Coaching’s Fran Bungay is penning the seven page report for issue 356 of the magazine (out on 6 September) and described it as the “slowest and hardest Alpe d’Huez Tri ever, with crazy hot 35C temperatures and over 300 DNFs illustrating just how tough it was.”

Registrations will open on 17 September for 2019’s race (set for 22-26 July) at www.alpetriathlon.com/en.

Alpe dHuez Long Course Triathlon

2.2km swim/ 118km bike/20km run

MEN

1st – Frederik Van Lierde (BEL) – 5:59:52
2nd – Alberto Moreno (ESP) – 6:06:24
3rd – Timothy Van Houtem (BEL) – 6:08:14

WOMEN

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1st – Emma Bilham (SUI) – 6:51:21
2nd – Alexandra Tondeur (BEL) – 6:52:22
3rd – Carrie Lester (AUS) – 6:53:06

Short-course triathlons: the 11 toughest 
The 31 best triathlons in the world

In an afternoon filled with scattered showers, no one was surprised to see Slovakia’s Richard Varga exit the 1.5km swim in first place. Two laps around Strathclyde Loch proved brutal for most of the athletes, with only Jorgen Gundersen (NOR) and Germany’s Linus Stimmelwere able to follow Varga in.

Reigning European sprint champion Varga was first to mount his bike for the 40km bike leg, but was quickly caught in T1 by a group of eight more athletes, including crowd favourite Brownlee, Jonas Schomburg (GER), Pierre Le Corre and Marten Van Riel, among others.

The nine-man group tried hard to work together, building a lead of 1min by the halfway point over a big chase group led by Spaniard Fernando Alarza. A pre-race favourite, Alarza worked tirelessly to keep the gap at a run-surmountable distance.

On the first lap of the run, all eyes were on the two-time Olympic champ Brownlee, waiting for him to make his usual move to the head of the race. And while he flirted with the top three positions for the first half of the 10K, it soon became apparent that he still wasn’t up to full race fitness, slowly dropping back into the clutches of a fast-approaching Alarza, who made by the 4k mark was already in fourth place.

It was then that both Le Corre and Van Riel upped the pace and left the older Brownlee in their dust. Seeing his prey up ahead, Alarza used his considerable run strength to climb into a medal position. With petrol still in the tank, he then set about taking down Van Riel, who lost contact with the Frenchman on the final lap.

Le Corre managed to maintain his lead to the tape to claim his first European title, stopping the clock in 1:47:17, just 11secs ahead of Alarza, who was all smiles in the final few metres, knowing that his was not only the silver medal, but also the fastest run split, by far, of the day: 30:44mins, more than a minute faster than anyone else. Third place went to an exhausted Van Riel, while Brownlee took fourth place and Belgian Jelle Geens rounded out the top five.

“I feel really great,” enthused Le Corre post-race. “That was really tough today with Ali Brownlee. I was really scared of him as he is an opponent who’s really hard to beat. Alistair’s not in his best shape right now, I could see it. But he will be back and thanks for me he was not great today.”

Le Corre’s gold follows his compatriot Cassandre Beaugrand’s bronze in the women’s event yesterday. They will both now be hoping to collect another medal in tomorrow’s Mixed Relay event.

“I am super happy,” said Alarza at the finish line. “It’s my first medal at the European Championships. The swim was a bad swim for me, I had to fight a lot and the bike was very hard as well. But in the second transition I thought I could do this and take a medal but I did not know which colour. So I kept a cool mind. On the second lap of the run, when I passed Ali, then I thought ‘OK, a bronze medal would be good’ but finally Pierre was too fast for me. He was better than me. We are friends so I am happy for him and I am happy with the silver medal,” he explained.

Fourth-place Brownlee said: “I didn’t quite know what to expect today and I suppose that’s about where I was. I have been training really hard so I knew I was probably going to be a bit tired going into it as well. If I can put all my training together I know I can do well. It’s been an awful year and at times I’ve had to question what I’m doing. I’m just happy to be racing.

“I got really beaten up on the first 100 metres [of the swim] and that was really tough. The performance itself is irrelevant, I’m just happy to be here competing again. I knew I was going to struggle today on the run, but I enjoy racing.” He has a few more weeks to prepare for his next race, the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in South Africa in early September.

xResults: Elite Men

1 Pierre Le Corre, FRA 1:47:17

2 Fernando Alarza, ESP           1:47:28

3 Marten Van Riel, BEL           1:47:40

4 Alistair Brownlee, GBR        1:48:12

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5 Jelle Geens, BEL       1:48:47

220: Congratulations on setting a new world record, how are you feeling after having swam 74 consecutive days at sea?

RE: Do you know what? Not too bad. All of the cuts and bruises and ailments and chafing, we kind of discovered how to manage all of those now. So, I actually feel good. It’s now almost a case of mentally celebrating a little bit, but knowing we’ve got so far to go as well.

What main challenges have occurred mentally and physically throughout your journey?

We joke a lot but probably one of the lowest points was when the chafing was at its worst – we called it ‘rhino neck’ –and I was waking up with chunks of my tongue on my pillow, I was just in absolute pieces. If you start getting any sort of wounds and cuts, they can just deepen and turn into sea ulcers. These get deeper and deeper until they reach the bone and tissue. So that was a concern.

Your shoulders were tight before starting, how do you rehab and recover on the boat?

Generally, you should look at your kinetic chain of how the muscles join and how everything works cohesively together. If you have a weakness, it will manifest itself over days, weeks, or in this case, months. So, it’s actually helped iron out a lot of bad habits that I’ve picked up swimming. With shoulder injuries, it was more about prevention than cure. So, I modified my swimming technique. Instead of being fast in the water like I’d want during a triathlon, I’ve had to become more efficient instead.  

Did you ever feel like giving up?

My thinking has always been: ‘Be so naïve that you start but so stubborn that you finish.’ Honestly, I didn’t quite realise just how hard this was going to be. But even in the darkest moments, I was thinking: ‘Well I’m not going to give up.’ Worst-case scenario is that I’m pulled out by a safety boat, best-case scenario is that I finish this and arrive at Margate!

What would you say has been your favourite moment so far?

A minke whale followed us for 5 miles across the Bristol Channel. We reckon that the whale thought I was an injured seal because it basically just guided us all the way to the Welsh waters. Another of my favourite moments was in Sidmouth. I was exhausted and the entire crew was asleep. Somebody came out to the boat. Realising what would make me feel better, they bought us fudge and cake. Seeing that we were all asleep, they just left a little note saying: ‘Keep going and all the best, didn’t want to wake you’. It was so sweet!

Tell us about your diet, you’ve mentioned gaining weight – Is that deliberate insulation or a fuelling miscalculation? 

Haha, it’s a bit of both. I knew that the Scottish waters weren’t going to be kind in terms of temperature. I thought look, if ever you’re going to put on a decent amount of seal blubber, now’s the time. With everything I was asking of my body, the least I can do is make sure I met its calorie requirements. Also, if ever you’re going to be able to eat 10,000 calories a day, swimming around the coast of Great Britain is probably one of those times. So I thought I’d just take that opportunity because I love my food! 

What have been your go-to foods for fuelling hard exercise?

Before I started this, I did quite like a curry or something spicy. But because of salt tongue, now I just want something stodgy and bland. It started with just porridge oats. Then I was like okay, get some chocolate sauce on that. Once you’ve done that, get a pack of biscuits and crumble them on top. Put it back in the pan to thicken up, and it’s just like cookie dough. That’s become my go-to.

How do you find swimming in the dark?

The night swims just don’t get easier, especially now in Scotland with the giant jellyfish. You’re putting on a wetsuit, it’s 2am in the morning, and you’re thinking: ‘I’m probably gonna get stung. I don’t know how many times. I don’t know when it’s going to happen. I don’t know what sort of jellyfish it is.’ Yeah, the night swims aren’t great…

What tips would you give someone just starting out and feeling the pull of adventure?

I believe that everyone has something unique that they can do. I’m not a fast swimmer, but one thing I am good at is just eating and floating very far every single day. Getting started, one of the first challenges I ever did was a marathon, pulling my own car. All I had to buy was a harness and some rope. You start small, with something that you don’t need any funding or support for, that you could do this weekend. It [doing extreme challenges] attracts like-minded people who want to get on board, that’s the beauty of it.

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Follow Ross’s Great British Swim journey via live tracker at RedBull.co.uk/GreatBritishSwim and tune in to weekly vlogs at youtube.com/redbull