The City of Frankfurt today played host to the 13thstop on the IRONMAN Pro Series™ circuit and the IRONMAN® European Championship for male professionals. Kristian Blummenfelt (NOR) stormed to victory just two weeks after competing in the Paris 2024 Olympics. The Norwegian, who is the only professional triathlete to win Olympic gold, the IRONMAN World Championship and IRONMAN® 70.3® World Championship in the same year, put down a dominating performance to officially validate his start in Kailua-Kona.
As well as a ticket to the Big Island, Blummenfelt will also take home $28,000 prize money, 5,000 points, and the title of IRONMAN European Champion to add to his accolades.
In his IRONMAN triathlon debut, Kieran Lindars (GBR) had the race of his career, with a second-place finish, just five minutes behind Blummenfelt. Lindars came 16th at IRONMAN 70.3 Valencia triathlon earlier in the year, but his performance today showed that he is absolutely one to watch ahead of the VinFast IRONMAN World Championship in Kailua-Kona.
Gregory Barnaby (ITA) completed the podium and climbed 15 spots in the IRONMAN Pro Series standings, where he currently sits in 8th place.
The Mainova IRONMAN European Championship Frankfurt triathlon served as the last chance to qualify for the 2024 VinFast IRONMAN World Championship triathlon, with the final 6 qualifying slots going offered to Kieran Lindars, Kristian Høgenhaug (DEN), Menno Koolhaas (NLD), Jonas Hoffman (DEU), and Finn Große-Freese (DEU).
Kristian Blummenfelt said: “I'm quite surprised. I felt I came in with really not much of preparation. A real lack of riding on the TT bike...barely done any long runs...So I was like, realistically thinking, go out as sort of as normal, and just sort of expect the world to hit me, quite early on the bike. But the thing was, after 160k there was only two guys up front. I thought it was a way bigger group up front, and I was more like riding in 15th or 16th position. But then it turned out we were like in third and fourth at that point, I started realizing that if I'm feeling okay coming off the bike, I can actually run for podium.”
At the post-race press conference, Blummenfelt added: "It's more like you want to win the iconic races, and like you want to win [IRONMAN] European Championships – Germany has two of the bigger races that you want to win. And of course, Frankfurt, has the best crowds and atmosphere."
59 male professional athletes finished the race, and nearly 3,000 age-groupers were racing alongside them.
Top Five Male Professional Results??
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Kristian Blummenfelt (NOR)
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News and Notes??
- Proving his legs were certainly fresh from short-course racing, Blummenfelt’s time of 7:27:21 marked a course best, beating Sebastian Kienle’s 2017 time of 7:41:42.
- Blummenfelt’s win marked his return to IRONMAN triathlon racing in nearly two years, following his podium finish at the 2022 VinFast IRONMAN World Championship in Kailua-Kona.
- The Norwegian also admitted he had not raced on a TT bike since he competed in the 2023 VinFast IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Lahti a year ago.
- Kieran Lindars (GBR) had the race of his career in his first ever IRONMAN triathlon. He had the fourth fastest bike split of the day, and then ran himself into second place on the run, chasing down Blummenfelt, finishing four minutes and 53 seconds after the Norwegian.
- Blummenfelt also had the fastest run of the day, making up a 10 minute deficit from the bike to take the lead, and completing the marathon in a course-best time of 2:32:29, beating Denis Chevrot’s (FRA) run course best of 2:38:45 from 2022.
- Kristian Høgenhaug (DEN), who came out of the swim in 17th, quickly rode his way through the pack to the front, and despite a crash, still managed to have the fastest bike split of the day (3:57:09).
- Wilhelm Hirsch (DEU) had the fastest swim of the day in a time of 45.51, as he led a big pack of 17 other professional men out of the water.
- Home favourite, Patrick Lange (DEU), who was in 15th place at the start of the run, managed to run through the field to finish in 8th position overall. Despite a disappointing day for the German, Lange’s result means that he is now 3rd overall in the IRONMAN Pro Series standings.
- Jonas Hoffman (DEU) flew under the radar to become the fastest German athlete of the day, beating Lange by 90 seconds.
- European athletes made up the top 10 professional athletes, with Bradley Weiss (ZAF) coming home in 11th, and USA’s Matt Hanson finishing in 14th, which was enough to keep him atop of the IRONMAN Pro Series standings.
IRONMAN Pro Series Standings?
The IRONMAN Pro Series™ is a year-long performance-based triathlon race series with professional triathletes being able to earn points at 20 select races in 19 locations globally. Open to approximately 1,000 eligible professional triathletes worldwide, the IRONMAN Pro Series ushers in a new era of IRONMAN racing where Every Second Matters™ with every second behind the race winner equating to a point earned or lost. For any athlete, only their top five event results count towards their overall Pro Series points and standing, of which a maximum of three IRONMAN results can be counted. How it works can be found here.?
Overall IRONMAN Pro Series Standings – Top Five Male (After 13 Events)?
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Total IRONMAN Pro Series Points (Max Top 5 events)??
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Total Eligible Races Scored??
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Eligible IRONMAN Races Scored??
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Eligible IRONMAN 70.3 Races Scored??
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Overall IRONMAN Pro Series Event Prize Money?
In addition to the IRONMAN Pro Series’ $1.7M year-end bonus prize pool, there is an event pro prize purse payout of $2,575,000, distributed across IRONMAN Pro Series events. To date the IRONMAN Pro Series has paid out a total of $1.12M. Over $1.45M remains to be claimed at the remaining events.???
Top Five Male Prize Money Earned (After 13 events)?
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Mainova IRONMAN European Championship Frankfurt
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Kristian Blummenfelt (NOR)
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Tomas Rodriguez Hernandez (MEX)
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Next Events Coming Up?
The IRONMAN Pro Series remains in Europe for the next two stops with IRONMAN 70.3 European Championship Tallinn taking place next Sunday August 25, and IRONMAN 70.3 Zell-am-See taking place the following Sunday 1st September.