TriathlonAnalysis
Eighteen seconds in Nice: Wilde holds off Blummenfelt as Knibb rewrites the 70.3 record book
Hayden Wilde ended Jelle Geens’s two-year reign with the race’s decisive run, while Taylor Knibb broke Daniela Ryf’s course record by more than three minutes, four weeks before she won in Kona.
Four weeks before she won the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Taylor Knibb produced the most dominant performance of the season over the half distance. Her Kona title has put that day in Nice in a new light.
At the Ironman 70.3 World Championship on 12 September, Knibb won in 4 hours 19 minutes 24 seconds, breaking the course record of 4:23:04 set by Switzerland’s Daniela Ryf by 3 minutes 40 seconds. It was her fourth 70.3 world title, after victories in 2022, 2023 and 2024, and it came after she finished second in Marbella last year.
Knibb’s day: decided on the climb
The Nice course is defined by its bike leg, which climbs into the hills behind the city, including the Col de Vence. Knibb set the fastest ascent of the climb, 29:48, on her way to a bike course record of 2:32:07, according to USA Triathlon.
She started the run more than four minutes ahead of France’s Marjolaine Pierré and Switzerland’s Imogen Simmonds, and with five kilometres left her lead was 5 minutes 34 seconds. Knibb ran 1:17:56 for the half marathon.
The fastest run of the day belonged to Switzerland’s Julie Derron, whose 1:13:04 was a run-course record and carried her to second in 4:23:30. Alanis Siffert completed a Swiss double on the podium in 4:25:10. Norway’s Solveig Løvseth, then the reigning Ironman world champion, was fourth.
Wilde’s day: patience, then the run
The men’s race, held the following day, was decided in the opposite way.
New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde came out of the water 22nd, 16 seconds down, and reached the top of the Col de Vence in seventh, 37 seconds off the lead. He rode the second-fastest bike split of the day and started the run second, 11 seconds behind.
Wilde, an Olympic silver medallist in Paris and one of the fastest runners in the sport, then did what was expected of him, but only just. Norway’s Kristian Blummenfelt, the Tokyo Olympic champion, chased him all the way to the line and finished 18 seconds back in 3:51:09.
Belgium’s Jelle Geens, who arrived as champion after winning the previous two editions, finished third in 3:52:40. Gustav Iden was fourth, four weeks before he finished second in Kona.
What Nice told us about Kona
Results over 70.3 miles do not always translate to the full Ironman distance. This year, they did. Knibb went on to win in Kona and Derron finished third there on debut. Løvseth, fourth in Nice, led in Kona until the final mile.
The common thread among the season’s best performers is a background in Olympic-distance racing: speed that, increasingly, they are able to carry over roughly twice and four times the distance.
