Hayden Wilde Wins 70.3 World Championship in Thrilling Finish

New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde won the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Nice, France, on Sunday, two years after narrowly missing out on a world title on home soil. After exiting the water with a big lead group and riding at the front of the race for much of the trip between T1 and T2, Wilde flew to the win on the run course, posting an overall time of 3:50:51. Norway’s Kristian Blummenfelt barely missed out on an incredible comeback with a 1:05:12 half-marathon, but he had to settle for second. The two-time defending world champion Jelle Geens of Belgium rounded out the podium in third.

A Tight Swim

A massive group of men swam together to kick off the day. There were various leaders throughout the 1.2-mile swim in the Mediterranean Sea, but by the time the first group hit the beach, it was American Seth Rider to touch land first. He climbed out of the water in 23:28, followed by a long string of men that included South Africa’s Jamie Riddle, Belgians Marten Van Riel and Geens, Germany’s Jonas Schomburg and many more.

The long run to transition saw the lead shaken up once more, with American Morgan Pearson jumping to the front and first to his bike. Wilde (who was reportedly the only pro man to pass on wearing a swim-skin in the wetsuit-illegal swim) was a bit further back in the lineup, making his way into T1 27 seconds off the lead.

Not too far behind Wilde were Norwegians Casper Stornes and Blummenfelt. Their training partner, Gustav Iden, was in the next group of men, setting out on the bike 1:17 behind the leaders.

A Tight Bike

The opening six miles of the bike are flat before leading into a slight uphill section (with much steeper and longer climbs still to come up the road). Over the course of that flat section, there was still a large group of 21 men within 30 seconds of the lead.

When the serious climbing began at around the 17-mile mark, the lead group had shrunk significantly. By then, there were five men (including Schomburg and Riddle) within 15 seconds of one another, followed by a gap to sixth-place Rico Bogen of Germany and seventh-place Geens, who were both more than 30 seconds behind. Wilde sat in eighth, 40 seconds down, and Stornes found himself 54 seconds off the lead pace.

After that, there were a number of big names who were more than a minute behind the front riders. Van Riel and Iden were about 80 seconds back, while Blummenfelt was 1:34 behind. After leading the race into T1, Pearson (a fearsome runner) was 2:31 down, and another American who can throw down a blazing run split, Jason West, was five minutes behind the leaders.

By just about the halfway point on the ride, three men — Italy’s Michele Bortolamedi, Australian Josh Ferris and Bogen — were at the front. Germany’s Lasse Nygaard Priester wasn’t too far, sitting 11 seconds behind with Riddle. Over the course of the climb, Wilde had cut the gap to the lead by more than half, and as he started the descent, he was just 14 seconds down.

Stornes, too, made up significant time on the ascent, although as he began the downhill to T2, he still had 26 seconds to fully close the gap. Schomburg faded out of that lead group as he climbed, but he was only 29 seconds back, still within striking distance of the lead.

Geens, Iden and Blummenfelt all struggled (compared to the top men, at least) on the uphill, as they were all more than a minute behind the lead (with the two Norwegians around two full minutes back).

As we saw in the women’s race on Saturday, the descent provides athletes with a big opportunity to make up time. Knibb had a six-minute lead by the time she hit the top of the climb, so she was pretty safe for the trip down, but she still gave up two minutes to Marjolaine Pierré and several other women.

Following the women’s example, the men took advantage of gravity as soon as they started the downhill. After a little over seven miles into the descent, Wilde had moved into the lead, followed four seconds later by Bogen, then Bortolamedi and Priester another couple of seconds back. Riddle, who opted for a road bike (most of the pros went with TT bikes), was losing time, but not too much, as he did have a TT setup on his ride. Still, he was 19 seconds back with a lot of descending to go.

Further back, Iden had made up a big chunk of time in the opening miles of the descent, moving from close to two minutes down to just 1:17. Geens was two seconds behind him. Surprisingly, Blummenfelt was still two minutes back, his gap to the front unchanged in the first section of the downhill.

Blummenfelt is of course a phenomenal runner, but a two-minute deficit heading into the half-marathon would be a lot to overcome in a world championship field. (Blummenfelt did have a huge comeback at 70.3 Geelong earlier this season, running a mind-boggling 1:06:39 half-marathon to erase a 93-second gap to the front.)

At the 50-mile mark, Wilde led in front of Bortolamedi, Bogen, Ferris and Priester. That was the top five, with Iden following in sixth and Stornes in seventh, both around half a minute back. Iden had a tremendous descent to claw his way back into contention. Well back, Blummenfelt had still made no headway, as he remained stuck with a two-minute gap to the lead.

Riddle and his road bike had faded to 50 seconds behind Wilde, although the slower pace was in part due to the fact that his aero bar padding came off mid-ride. He was forced to deal with that (while descending at high speeds), which certainly contributed to his being passed by multiple athletes.

After struggling for a while on the ride, Van Riel, too, made up time to get within 90 seconds of the front, while his compatriot Geens had dropped a few seconds behind him.

That lead group of five separated a bit in the final push to T2. It wasn’t Wilde or Bogen who led into transition, but Bortolamedi, who hopped off his bike in first. Wilde and Bogen were next, 11 and 16 seconds back, respectively, followed by Priester and Ferris, both about 20 seconds behind.

Stornes and Iden had been around 30 seconds back with just three miles to go on the bike, but a surge from the men at the front left them about a minute back alongside Riddle, Schomburg and Sam Dickinson of the U.K. (After moving through the field, Iden posted the quickest bike split of the day, riding 2:16:43.)

Geens entered transition 1:55 back, followed by Van Riel 2:03 behind. Blummenfelt had dropped to 2:29 off the lead, meaning he would need a monster run if he wanted a shot at the win.

A Monster Run

Going into the half-marathon, it looked like Wilde could run away with the win. It only took the Kiwi a kilometre to catch Bortolamedi. Although Priester was more than 20 seconds back of Wilde when they left to hit the run course, he didn’t let him get away, instead reeling him in over the first two and a half miles. Soon enough, they were running together, swapping in and out of first place over the coming miles.

After 10K, Priester was still running alongside Wilde, but a little over a mile later, the breakaway stuck. Wilde pulled 10 seconds clear of the German, and from there his lead only continued to grow. Priester made a valiant effort at challenging for the world title, but Wilde proved to be too strong.

Further back, the big movers on the course were Geens and Blummenfelt. Both more than two minutes behind Wilde, they had a lot of work to do, but they didn’t shy away from it. After four miles, Geens had cut the gap down to 1:14, while Blummenfelt had brought it to 1:52. At the 10K checkpoint, they had identical run splits and had both climbed into the top five, Geens 54 seconds and Blummenfelt 1:23 back.

At 10 miles, those two men had caught and passed Priester, then Blummenfelt jumped ahead of Geens. At that point, Wilde had put some time into Geens, who was 1:01 behind, but Blummenfelt was continuing to gain on the Kiwi, just 54 seconds back.

With 1.2 miles left, Wilde’s lead was down to 30 seconds. Both men were running around 4:50 per mile, setting up a thrilling finish. Blummenfelt got within 18 seconds, but he ran out of real estate. Wilde reached the line in 3:50:51, breaking the tape for his first 70.3 world title.

Blummenfelt crossed the line in 3:51:09, running a blazing-fast 1:05:12 half-marathon. Geens finished third in 3:52:40. Iden ended up passing Priester for fourth in 3:53:16, followed by the German after a well-fought fifth-place finish in 3:54:08.