Casper Stornes Should Be On Your List for Nice

Photos: Kevin Mackinnon

As the triathlon world turns its attention to the men’s IRONMAN World Championship in Nice, few athletes are as quietly confident as Casper Stornes. He might be one third of the powerhouse Norwegian train, but with Kristian Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden garnering most of the attention, the 28-year-old can be overlooked–which just might be his ticket to the podium. 

The Norwegian Trio 

Stornes has been training alongside Blummenfelt and Iden for well over a decade. He met them at a training camp in 2010, but their natural friendship really cemented when Stornes made the national team a few years later. They all chased the Olympic dream, Stornes finally realizing his in Tokyo where he finished 11th in the men’s individual event. After Tokyo, Blummenfelt and Iden turned more of their attention to long distance, while Stornes still focused on short distance but, after missing out on Paris, Stornes soon followed suit. “The trio” reunited and have been training day-in and day-out together since. 

“ It was a good opportunity for everyone to connect again and go back to the trio as we were before,” Stornes says. “For me, it’s been very good. I really enjoy training with Gustav and Kristian andI think the same from their side.” 

Self-Coaching Together

The three don’t just train together, they coach together. The three each coach themselves, but an open dialogue makes it a collaborative effort. It’s a big change for all of them and a good one for Stornes. 

“ This year I went from having a coach to no coach, just coaching myself together with Gustav and Kristian,” he explains. “I’ve learned to know my body way more than I did before, especially with recovery and making good decisions for myself. Before I could but when you have a plan on a paper and you have a big group you need to follow, then it’s harder to make those decisions for yourself. At least that’s what I felt.” 

“Now I feel, for example, after competitions I struggle to get the recovery right and take it easy enough,” he continues. “But now I just do my thing and just take some time, not off, but like more mentally take a break and be together with my girlfriend. We do some other stuff, like go to the mountains, and then I do more active recovery than going out and running at a specific pace. I just enjoy training, and from that I learned when my body is switching from being tired to when I can start to push. It’s been a very nice experience and I feel it’s been good for me to learn more about my body that way.”

Stornes (second from right) kids around with (from left to right) Gustav Iden, Sam Laidlow and Kristian Blummenfelt at the Nice 2025 press conference.

Preparing for Nice 

In preparation for Nice, the three have been up at altitude in the French Pyrenees mountains. But the specific prep started before they hit French soil. 

“ I wear Fusion now,” he says. “Just before I went [to altitude], we did some testing with the helmet and calves and the suit and we saw that actually the position I have now it’s quite a lot faster than what I had with a long reach.” 

“I also made some changes with the angle of the TT bars,” he continues. “In general, the setup is quite simple. It’s the road frame from Pinarello, so not the triathlon version. But I feel it’s a bit lighter so that’s good for this course. And also, uh, yeah, now actually Princeton has sent me some new wheels that I will use for the competition–they’re a bit lighter than what you get in the store because they don’t have any paint on them.”

After a full training block at altitude on his Nice set up, the three ventured down to Nice for their final training block. 

“ I felt the altitude quite a lot this time around, but I felt I had a good progression through the camp in Font (Rome),” Stornes explains. “We were there for five weeks and did a lot of high volume. Now, after we came down, I was a bit tired in the body the first day, but I feel I usually react when I come off (from) altitude–my body is like, whoa, what’s happening here? But I’m getting used to it after three days, and between two and three weeks, I usually start to really feel the effect of altitude and that’s perfect.” 

“For me now it’s just to get really comfortable on the course, get in the sessions and, more the race specific sessions, and then try not to overdo it, but not go down in volume too early either,” he continues.

Race Day Dynamics

Training as more of a team, it could make race day in an individual sport complicated, but Stornes doesn’t see it that way at all. 

“We are teammates and if we can help each other, we help each other,” he says simply. “If we can’t, then you need to do the best for yourself.  We try to help each other as much as possible out on the course, but for sure it’s hard if I have a good day and the others have a bad day. For example, if I ride faster, then it’s hard for me to help them. So, you do what’s best for you but, if we can, we try to help each other, communicate on course and try to collaborate and do what’s best for each other so that we get a really good result out of it.” 

“The dream scenario would be one, two, and three,” Stornes continues. “That would be epic. But, of course, it’s hard and there’s a lot of other very strong competitors. We need to play our cards right and, in the end, you want to perform the best for yourself.”

The teamwork mentality doesn’t mean he doesn’t view his training partners as rivals. Blummenfelt and Iden are on his watch list along with a few select others. 

“ It would be foolish of me to not look at Sam [Laidlow], Patrick [Lange]- and Kristian and Gustav,” he says. “They are, at least, the four guys I look at the most. I know Marten [van Riel] is also a very strong athlete, but I heard he has been a bit injured. Jonas Schomberg is also a very good athlete, so he can mix it up. He bikes hard. And also Jaime Riddle, if he can split the group in the swim and give Sam a good gap if he hangs on.”

The Pay Off 

Almost everyone predicts a Norwegian will be on the podium in Nice, and while a total sweep might be a dream, Stornes is confident he has a chance at the title. 

“I  believe if you work hard, you get rewarded from the hard work you’ve done,” he says. “At the moment, I feel very good so I’m quite optimistic and I think I have a good shot of winning. Of course, everything needs to go in my favor that day and a lot can happen.”

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