They Said It: What the Top 5 Women Thought of the Race in Nice

Saturday kicked off the first of two days of racing at the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Nice, France. The women had the honour of going first, and the pros put on quite the show. American Taylor Knibb flew to her fourth 70.3 world title, followed by Switzerland’s Julie Derron in second and Alanis Siffert in third. Fourth and fifth place went to Norway’s Solveig Løvseth and French hometown hero Marjolaine Pierré. Those top five women sat down for a post-race press conference just hours after crossing the finish line. Here’s what they had to say about an incredible day of triathlon.

Marjolaine Pierré

Ahead of the race, Pierré said she had ridden the bike course in Nice many times. According to her, her boyfriend had said she would be unbeatable if she rode the course’s challenging climb and blazing descent the way she had been in training. He was half-right. Knibb didn’t give anyone a chance to ride with her from the moment she hit the first climb, but when it came to the descent, Pierré was the best on the day.

Her measured, tactical descending allowed her to jump to second as she hit T2. She faded a bit in the run, but she still held on for an impressive and well-deserved fifth place in front of friends, family and French fans.

“It was really [special],” Pierré said after the race. “Like a second Christmas for me. I would like better gifts than fifth place […] but I gave everything.”

She continued, saying she had gone to altitude with the hope of peaking for Nice. By the end of the race, she said she didn’t feel it had timed out as planned.

“Maybe it will be for Kona,” she said.

Solveig Lovseth

At the pre-race press conference on Thursday, Løvseth said she would be happy with a top-five result. She was sixth in Marbella, Spain, last year, so anything better would be a success. She was ultimately spot-on with her goal-setting, as she crossed the line in fourth. She was in sixth and more than eight minutes back of Knibb when she started the run, but a spectacular 1:16:03 half-marathon (the second fastest run of the day) lifted her into the top five.

“Up until 15 or 16 km, I was gaining all the way,” she said. “I started believing, ‘Oh, maybe [a podium] is a possibility.'”

Eventually, she said the splits she was being given remained “stuck” at 40 seconds. That was about where she finished behind Siffert, just off the podium. Ultimately, she wasn’t too upset to miss out on the top three.

“I’m really happy with fourth place,” she said. “It feels like a win today.”

Alanis Siffert

Siffert put the triathlon world on notice in July when she won Challenge Roth. She also Alpe D’Huez triathlon, which features a brutal climb on the bike. With both of those wins under her belt, she was noted by many as a threat to lay down a big result in Nice.

She was in the mix the entire race. She had a great swim that put her with the leaders on the bike, and from there, the only woman to get too far away from her was Knibb. She got to T2 just off the podium. She eventually ran her way to second, and although Derron caught her, she gritted through the closing stages of the half-marathon to hold onto third.

Siffert said at the press conference that her result had yet to fully sink in.

“I think I’m just starting to realize it,” she said. “It was just an amazing race […] from start to Finish. I couldn’t wish for better.”

In fact, she said she genuinely didn’t wish for better ahead of the race.

“I knew I had good fitness coming after Challenge Roth,” she said. “But it was not the goal to be on the podium.”

She ended up surprising herself — and many onlookers — on route to a career result.

Julie Derron

Derron truly came out of nowhere to finish second in Nice. Ahead of the race, she was a podium pick for many people, but when she got off the bike in 11th and almost nine minutes back of Knibb (four and a half from the podium), it didn’t look like she would have the space to do much.

Then she started running — and fast. Derron picked off athlete after athlete until there was only one more to go. She ran fearlessly, reaching the line with the fastest run of the day — a 1:13:04 split. When asked if this was in or around a time goal she had set for herself before the race, Derron said no.

“I never aim for a time to run,” she said. “I aim to run as fast as I can. It never crossed my mind to run a 1:13.”

She continued, noting that she is still happy with the split and adding that it means she is finally getting “back to running form.”

Taylor Knibb

Knibb was the pre-race favourite for a lot of people, but she didn’t seem sure that she would be the one to break the tape when discussing things before the event. She called her race schedule (which is a mix of cycling events, short-course triathlon and middle- to long-distance racing) an “experiment.”

Well, the experiment seems to be working. She didn’t just win in Nice — she dominated. She opened up a six-minute lead by the top of the climb on the bike, then gave up only a third of that on the return downhill to T2. On the run, she didn’t just maintain her lead — she extended it on almost everyone behind her. She was stellar right from the gun to earn the fourth 70.3 world title of her career.

She said Saturday in Nice was “probably one of the best performances” of her four world championship-winning races, but she added that “the enjoyment was very low.”

Elaborating on that, Knibb said she was “a little bit on edge the whole race” due to the significant depth of the pro field. When she likened the run from the Nice Airport to the Energy Lab in Kona, she was asked if she thought Saturday’s performance would help her exorcise any demons hanging on from the disastrous end to the IRONMAN worlds last year.

“I think those demons will be there until that intersection,” she said, referring to the spot on course where she collapsed while leading the race. “We’ll see if we can surpass them [in Kona].”

Moving forward, she said not much is going to change. She has the cycling world championship time trial in Montreal, Canada, next weekend, then Kona just a couple of weeks later.

“[The preparation] stays the same regardless, you just have to get ready,” she said. She certainly looked ready for any kind of race on Saturday, so it should be quite a fun time on the Big Island next month.

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