Faster Than Ever: How Kristian Grue’s New Position on FastTT Bars Fueled His Norseman Win

Heading in to the Norseman Xtreme Triathlon, defending champion Kristian Grue was quite certain of one thing: “I don’t think anyone will ride faster from Dyranut to Gaustatoppen. I’m quite confident in my setup on the bike …”

Grue’s prediction was accurate – while Olympic legend Alistair Brownlee did beat him up the first long climb to Dyranut and was able to hold off the Norwegian along the long plateau, Grue was able to pull clear on the following up and down sections to hit T2 with a decent lead. It wasn’t easy, though.

“From Vøringfossen it got a lot tactical, because Alistair was taking a lot of time on me quite fast, so I wanted to push hard early and test him on the first climb after Geilo to see if he was strong today or not,” Grue said. The test paid off. “When I got a minute and a half there, I knew I could increase the gap in the next hills.”

The strategy did prove painful, even if it was a winning one: “From the bottom of Imingfjell I really struggled because I pushed a bit too hard after Geilo,” he said. “From the start of Imingfjell into transition, I had a really hard time.”

He might have had a hard time, but once he had taken the lead he never looked back, and surged to a second Norseman title by almost 25 minutes.

One of the main reasons that Grue was so confident with his pre-race prediction (despite how painful it turned out to be) was thanks to his partnership with FastTT – his bike is set up with the company’s 2.1 Tri Bars.

“I’ve been using their bars for the last three seasons now, and I really love them,” he said. “They’re super-comfortable, adjustable and I feel really good while riding them. The support from the people at FastTT is all great – they’re really supportive and send me what I need, when I need it. They’re constantly developing the products, too, spending a lot of time in the wind tunnel testing everything. So I feel really safe riding the aero bars I know a lot of people struggle with aero bars that break or come loose, but I’ve never had issues with that. And I know they’re also developing some new products that will be even faster than the bars I’m racing on now.”

One of those new products arrived while Grue was away at Norseman – a new mono-riser cockpit that he’s looking forward to adding to his Dare TSRf frame. Grue says that the wind tunnel testing on the new bar has been “really promising.”

While Grue hasn’t spent any time in the wind tunnel himself, the testing he did in July on a new position appears to have helped. That testing included CdA simulations which showed his position was a lot faster than earlier in the year.

As with many other athletes, Grue has modified his position this year, foregoing the stretched out position that seemed to be de rigeuer last year for a tighter, lower set up.

“I have a bit less reach on the bars, a lot lower stack, and I’m sitting a lot more over the crank – about five or six centimetres more forward,” he said. “I’ve also got a bit less angle on the bars, and I’m sitting a bit lower overall. So, the who position is lower, especially in the front end, and I’m closing the gap between my head and forearms a lot better, It’s been noticeably faster on the same sections I’ve ridden before.”

The end result was a big win at Norseman, which will provide lots of confidence for his next race, IRONMAN Wales – a race considered to be one of the toughest on the IRONMAN circuit. After breaking his kneecap on New Year’s Eve (no he wasn’t partying – he slipped on ice during a run), Grue’s early season was a challenge – it took a while to get back to training, and his early races suffered. With that in mind, he’ll look to continue to race for as long as he can through the rest of 2026.

With lots of racing still to go, including what will hopefully be a Kona-qualifying effort in Wales, Grue will no-doubt continue to refine both his position and his equipment as he heads to Wales, armed with the support of FastTT.

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