IRONMAN Texas Lives Up to Hype with Record-Setting Wins
Today’s IRONMAN North American Championship in The Woodlands, Texas, was supposed to be a barn-burner for both the men and the women and, despite substantial wins by both Kristian Blummenfelt and Kat Matthews, there was lots to be excited about from today’s racing. Both winners shattered the course records. Matthews put up the fastest women’s time ever for an M-dot race, and Blummenfelt did the same if you follow TriRating’s Thorsten Radde’s lead and discount his swim-current-helped race at IRONMAN Cozumel in 2021 (he had a 38-minute swim split). And you can add to all that the two-fastest bike splits in full-distance race history, too.
Blummenfelt Blasts
Photo: Eric Wynn
After a flat tire derailed his start to the IRONMAN Pro Series at IRONMAN 70.3 Oceanside, there was no doubt that a fit Kristian Blummenfelt (he ran a 67-minute half marathon in California once he finally got back on track after the flat) was ready to tear things apart in another IRONMAN race. Last year, just a couple of weeks after competing at the Olympics, Blummenfelt won the IRONMAN European Championship, but then struggled in Kona. There was no struggle on tap today as the Norwegian IRONMAN world champ (St. George in 2022) and Olympic gold medalist (Tokyo, 2021) got his day off to a brilliant start, coming out of the wetsuit-illegal swim in sixth place, just eight seconds behind swim leader Andrea Salvisberg (48:26). In fact the first 25 out of the water were within 42 seconds of each other. Other pre-race favorites in the mix included American Rudy Von Berg (13 seconds behind the lead) and Blummenfelt’s countryman, fellow world champ and training partner Gustav Iden, who was 14th out of the water, 19 seconds down.
All of which set up a huge lead group that, through the 10-mile check point, included 16 athletes within 22 seconds of each other. There were still 14 together at the halfway point of the ride, with super-cyclists Robert Kalinn (SWE) and Cameron Wurf (AUS) eventually working their way to the front and pushing the pace over the final 25 miles of the bike. By the time the ride was finished, Wurf had managed another of his trademark “push the last half” rides (his 3:53:52 set a new course record and broke Kallin’s bike split best of 3:54:33 set at IRONMAN Vitoria-Gasteiz last year), entering T2 with Aussie Nick Thompson on his heels. The pair were about 30 seconds up on a group that included Kallin, Spain’s Antonio Benito, Von Berg and Blummenfelt.
Benito and Blummenfelt quickly moved to the front, and the Spaniard managed to hang with the Norwegian for about five miles. At that point Blummenfelt pulled clear and would never look back, adding the run course record (2:34:03 – breaking Patrick Lange’s 2:35:15 from last year) to the overall record as he crossed the line in 7:24:20 and shattering Lange’s record set last year (7:44:14) by almost 20 minutes.
Benito would hang on for second (7:32:23), with Von Berg taking third in 7:33:26. Daniel Baekkegard had a solid day to take fourth (7:35:04), with Blummenfelt’s countryman Casper Stornes taking fifth in 7:37:04. Germany’s Paul Shuster took sixth in 2:45:16, snagging the final Nice qualifying spot. Wurf (7:40:04) would end up in eighth behind Thompson (7:39:42).
After a quick change for a flat tire, Iden had appeared to be in the mix on the bike before dropping back and starting the run in 16th place, 5:31 down. Over the first six miles of he run the 2022 Kona champ ran his way to 4:40 behind the lead, but shortly after that point his charge to the front stalled and he would eventually take 13th (7:51:15). The race will serve to ratify his spot for Nice, though, so there’s room for his comeback from injury to continue as he looks for another world title later this year.
All told there were 16 men who finished under eight hours – Ben Kanute rounded out that group with his 7:55:44 finish.
Matthews’ Three-Peat
Photo: Eric Wynn
After 2022 Kona champ Chelsea Sodaro pulled out due to illness, the women’s race promised to be a duel between two-time Texas champ Kat Matthews and three-time 70.3 world champ Taylor Knibb. We got that, along with the added bonus that the pair managed to push each other to a couple of world-best times along the way, too.
American Rachel Zilinskas led the women out of the water (50:35) with Knibb just six seconds back and American Haley Chura hitting the swim exit just under a minute behind. Brit Stephanie Clutterbuck was next out, but she was 2:14 down, while Matthews would come out of the water at 5:48, two seconds behind another pre-race podium favorite, Lisa Perterer.
For the first 17 miles of the bike Knibb appeared to be riding under control, allowing Zilinskas to stay within seconds, but at that point the Knibb started to pull clear. A quarter of the way through the 180 km bike ride she was over a minute clear of Zilinskas, with Matthews moving up to sixth. The Brit had lost a bit of time through that checkpoint, trailing the lead by just over six minutes.
By the halfway point of the ride Knibb had opened up a gap of 4:14 on Zilinskas, with Perterer and Matthews at 6:37 down. Through 83 miles Matthews had finally moved herself to second (about 12 seconds up on Perterer), but was almost eight minutes down on the American. That was as big as the gap would get, though, and Matthews would claw her way to 5:46 behind by the end of the ride, with Perterer at 9:14 back as she hit T2.
While she might have lost some time, Knibb did manage to set a new bike split record, becoming the fastest woman ever at a full-distance race with her 4:19:46 split. (Germany’s Daniela Bleymehl held the previous best of 4:20:47 set in Hamburg last year.) As she finished the ride Knibb fell, but bounced back up quickly and got on her way to her running shoes.
It wasn’t as though Knibb wasn’t running well through the early stages of the run – it was that Matthews was flying. The Brit made up 30 seconds in the first mile, and was 4:27 behind after 2.3 miles. The seemingly inevitable pass came just before the nine-mile point of the marathon, at which point Matthews blasted by and never looked back. She would break her own run course record (2:49:31) set two years ago with her 2:49:19 clocking. As impressive as that time was, though, her overall finish of 8:10:34 knocked a whopping 22 minutes off her previous course record (8:32:51 – again from 2023) and becomes the fastest women’s time ever at an IRONMAN event and the fastest full-distance time from a race other than Roth. The previous record (8:18:20) was set by Laura Philipp at IRONMAN Hamburg in 2022.
The new “IRONMAN record holder” (see below) is congratulated by husband Mark. Photo: Eric Wynn.
Knibb’s 3:04 marathon was more than enough to keep her in second place (8:20:15) in just her second full-distance race. Perterer (8:28:17) would round out the podium, while American Alice Alberts would take fourth in 8:36:34. Sweden’s Sara Svensk (8:46:21) would finish fifth, while Canada’s Tamara Jewett (8:48:14) would finish her full-distance debut with a 2:57:02 marathon, claiming the last Kona qualifying slot along the way.
Two more women would finish under nine hours – Chura (8:54:37) and Clutterbuck (8:58:58) would put eight women under the nine-hour barrier, a sign of just how fast the day’s racing was.
Stay tuned for more analysis from the race in Texas.
Tags:
IRONMAN North American ChampionshipIRONMAN TexasKat MatthewsKristian BlummenfeltNotable Replies
Continue the discussion at forum.slowtwitch.com
Participants
Thank you for the speedy write up.
To add (for those who quite reasonably doubt that distances are ‘correct’):
Wurf’s strava , with time differential fix (recorded time 3:53:32 v Strava 3:50:01), suggests the bike course was exactly 180km. Other athletes’ uploads verify that.
Matthews’ run Strava with time differential fix (recorded time 2:49:19 v Strava 2:47:56), suggests the run course was 42.1km.
Thorsten’s analysis with progression graphs:
https://www.trirating.com/ironman-texas-2025-analyzing-results/
Thank for the links to the uploads and validity on course distances. Hopefully it kills the questioning from those who don’t believe the distances and records. We have good tech to deliver athletes to the end of the bike 20-25min earlier than yesteryears and that helps them to start the run with more energy stored on their bodies and now we have the faster shoes which likely has a bigger impact on Ironman marathon running than in open marathons given the fatigue the athletes are carrying into the run, so compared to a decade ago, faster times all around
Is there any way to look at an individual’s results on a desktop Windows computer, or is it only on a phone app?
Rudy von Berg rode 275w for a sub 4 hour bike split, which feels like a pedestrian output for that bike split. It was a PERFECT weather day with a massive men’s pack, too. Crazy times, crazy day! The weather couldn’t have possibly been any better from what I’ve seen. With the right wind on Hardy, you get a bit of a wind tunnel that pushes you one way and doesn’t really affect the other like you’d expect. As well for the pros, the wind picked up slightly as they rode into the last return leg for a further average speed boost.
What is that a CDA around .19?
For 275 watts
How much does the lapped course with the age groupers they zoom by help?
Watching it, it looked to me as if the Pros going past amateurs were actually slowed by the extra care required to pass. Knibb mentioned in one of her interviews that she found it an issue (and she lost time to Matthews in that last 30km).
The speed differential between pros on their second laps and those being overtaken was such that any sling-shotting would be transitory. I recall Nick Thompson dipping in and out doing this, but I think he was just making sure he didn’t stay left and risk a blocking penalty.
Can’t count on Ironman for this obvious ‘service’.
But you can count on someone shitting on Ironman even when it isn’t warranted.
@Hanginon here’s the link, it can be found on the race site under the athlete tab and results.
scroll past the advert for the app and it has individual results including all past results, followed by open division results followed by triclub results.
They had the “Individual” banner up earlier but had not yet actually posted anything. Thank you!