Kiwi triathlon star Hayden Wilde showed his class today in Nice, France, winning the 2026 Precision Fuel & Hydration IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship against one of the best fields ever assembled in this iconic event’s 20-year history.
Wilde was 22nd out of the water, just 16 seconds down on the leader Seth Rider (USA). Out onto the bike, Wilde began to move past several athletes in front of him, riding with patient determination up the climbs to reach the top of the famous Col de Vence in seventh, just 37 seconds off the front. As the descent back in Nice began, Wilde shifted gears and within no time joined the front five as they returned to Nice. With the second fastest bike of the day, Wilde entered T2 in second, just 11 seconds in arrears.
Out on the run, the Kiwi made light work of deleting the deficit to the front of the race and looked to be cruising at the halfway point. But a charging Jelle Geens (BEL) and Kristian Blummenfelt (NOR) lit a fuse in Wilde as he once again put his foot down on the gas to keep the fast-closing challengers at bay. In the end, Wilde did just enough to hold on for the win, breaking the tape in 3:50:51 – just 18 seconds ahead of Blummenfelt, with reigning IRONMAN 70.3 World Champion Geens rounding out the podium.
“It's awesome to execute a race,” said Wilde. “I was coming down the Promenade and hit about 15km and the legs felt really good, and I was like yeah, we’ve ticked that box since Taupo, now I just keep chugging along and I got to that 19km mark and really had to dig deep. There was still a 32 second gap, so I was doing calculations in my head where I was thinking if I just keep this pace – I didn't have a watch – it just felt like 3:10 pace, then Kristian has to run sub 3:00 pace to catch me. So I just said keep chugging, keep chugging, get over this little pinch and run downhill. It’s still sinking in, to be honest, but it's just nice to get it done.
“Coming out of T2 I had all my things in my hand, and I kicked my watch, and I think I kicked it all the way into the marina, so that was a bit frustrating. I look at the race, and it wasn't a perfect race for me, there were a few things that were errors, but I was just really happy with how I executed the run,” he said. “With 5km to go I was able to hold on. The last 2km was punishing, but, you know, a great quote from Kristian is, ‘it’s worse to lose’ and yeah, it definitely is, so to hold on is something special for sure.”
Kristian Blummenfelt pushed himself the whole way to the finish line but wasn’t quite able to repeat his heroics from Marbella in 2025.
“I guess I lost the race on the downhill, I couldn’t stay with Gustav or Marten, or Nick Thompson, all three of them were running away, I thought I would lose more time. I was two minutes on the top and then I was thinking, maybe two minutes more on the downhill, but it was quite positive when I heard, two min 30,” said Blummenfelt. “I felt good in the legs on the bike in the last portion, so I thought I had a solid run in me and was quite happy with the run performance. But, it's bittersweet to lose a race in a downhill like that to Hayden, two and half minutes is too much, even though I was able to do it in Geelong six months ago, it was an epic battle again, just a bummer that I'm ending on the wrong side of it.
"I was just hoping that the Taupo scenario would happen again, where he blows up at the front. But I think he was pacing it really well, staying behind with us for the first 5/6k which will have helped him finish in the last 5k,” he said. "We train to win, we train to grab the tapes, four weeks 'til the big one in Hawaii, so let’s just refocus. I think everyone else, like Casper, Gustav, Sam Laidlow are already chasing their focus now after the race, as they didn't get the race they wanted."
Defending World Champion Jelle Geens ran himself onto the podium after coming off the bike in 12thposition.
“I think I had a good swim, I was close enough to the lead and it felt quite comfortable. Out on the bike, the first bit was lots of overtaking. But then once we hit the climb, the pace was really on,” said Geens. “I think I missed a few watts there and came on the top of the climb with just too big of a gap. I messed it up there to not be in the Gustav group into T2, I wanted to go in for the win and went out a really hard pace [on the run], I had to really slow down. Kudos to Kristian and Hayden for the title, it was very impressive racing.
"I love the course, I think it's one of the best courses, it is basically like Tour de France on the climb. Then running on the promenade in Nice, it is definitely something special and something I will always remember finishing on the podium here."
2026 Precision Fuel & Hydration IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship Men’s Race Recap
The pace was on from the gun as nearly 60 of the world’s best male professional triathletes charged into clear azure waters of the Mediterranean Sea to begin their Precision Fuel & Hydration IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship race. A large front pack quickly formed as athletes jostled for positions during the early stages of the swim. Cedric Osterhold (DEU), Michele Bortolamedi (ITA), and Ben Faeh (CHE) pushed hard over the first 700 metres but couldn’t drop pre-race favourites Marten Van Riel (BEL), Jelle Geens, Rico Bogen (DEU), Casper Stornes (NOR), Hayden Wilde and Kristian Blummenfelt, who nestled themselves safely within the leading pack of swimmers.
Seth Rider (USA) made a late surge to exit the water first in 23:28, just two seconds ahead of Bortolamedi, followed by Sam Dickinson (GBR), and Jamie Riddle (ZAF). Already the race was extremely tight and finely poised, with the first 27 athletes out of the water within 22 seconds of the leader.
Bortolamedi was first out onto the bike but it was Riddle, Josh Ferris (AUS), Jonas Schomburg (DEU), and Lasse Nygaard Priester (DEU) who took the front of the race on during the opening kilometres of the 90km Zoot Bike Course. Similar to the swim, there was plenty of jostling for positions as the athletes settled into the climb, with Stornes, Wilde, and Geen tracking one another and sitting in the top 10 as they battled toward Col de Vence.
While it was Frenchman Simon Viain who was fastest up Col de Vence in 26 minutes 37 seconds, it was Bortolamedi who was first to the top. With the climbing over athletes turned their attention to the descent back toward Nice, and it was during this section of the course that Wilde demonstrated his biking prowess as he quickly joined the front five at the head of the race. Iden was also making the most of his descending ability, flying past several of those in front of him while being tracked by Stornes and Rider.
As the leaders sped back into town it was Bortolamedi who made one final surge to enter T2 first, closely followed by Wilde, Bogen, Priester and Ferris. Iden posted the fastest bike of the day with 2:16:43 but would get off the bike 54 seconds behind the leader.
All the key players made a lightning-fast start to the run, with Wilde hitting the front of the race within one kilometre before Priester joined him just 4km later. Geens and Blummenfelt set out like two men on a mission, with the Belgian moving up nine places after 25 minutes of running while the Norwegian moved up to fifth. At the 16km mark, the duo had moved into podium positions. With Blummenfelt and Geens closing fast, Wilde found a second gear over the final few kilometres of the half marathon and was able to hold off the charging Norwegian, who got within 18 seconds of Wilde but ultimately ran out of tarmac as the Kiwi went on to become the first New Zealander to win the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship since 2008.
Top five professional men’s results:
| Pos |
Name |
Swim |
Bike |
Run |
Total Time |
Pro Series Points (unofficial) |
Prize Money |
| 1 |
Hayden Wilde (NZL) |
23:44 |
2:16:50 |
1:07:21 |
3:50:51 |
3,000 |
$75,000.00 |
| 2 |
Kristian Blummenfelt (NOR) |
23:50 |
2:19:02 |
1:05:12 |
3:51:09 |
2,982 |
$45,000.00 |
| 3 |
Jelle Geens (BEL) |
23:39 |
2:18:51 |
1:07:12 |
3:52:40 |
2,891 |
$30,000.00 |
| 4 |
Gustav Iden (NOR) |
24:40 |
2:16:43 |
1:08:51 |
3:53:16 |
2,855 |
$19,000.00 |
| 5 |
Lasse Nygaard Priester (DEU) |
23:41 |
2:17:13 |
1:10:22 |
3:54:08 |
2,803 |
$15,000.00 |
IRONMAN Pro Series Standings
The Experience Oman IRONMAN Pro Series is a year-long performance-based triathlon race series with professional triathletes being able to earn points at 16 races globally. Open to approximately 1,000 eligible professional triathletes worldwide, the Experience Oman 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: www.ironman.com/proseries/about-ironman-pro-series
Following today's race, Kristian Blummenfelt (NOR) has moved up two places to sit atop the men’s standings with just one race left in the 2026 series. Andrea Salvisberg (CHE) and Casper Stornes (NOR) jump two and four places respectively into the top five, while two of the day’s biggest movers were Gustav Iden (NOR), who moved up seven places into eighth and Kacper Stepniak (POL) who jumped nine places to round out the top 10.
Overall IRONMAN Pro Series Standings – Top Five Male (After 15 Events)
| Rank |
Name (Country) |
Total IRONMAN Pro Series Points (Max Top 5 events) |
Total Eligible Races Scored |
Eligible IRONMAN Races Scored |
Eligible IRONMAN 70.3 Races Scored |
| 1 |
Kristian Blummenfelt (NOR) |
17,124 |
5 |
3 |
2 |
| 2 |
Matt Hanson (USA) |
16,744 |
5 |
3 |
2 |
| 3 |
Trevor Foley (USA) |
16,689 |
5 |
3 |
2 |
| 4 |
Andrea Salvisberg (CHE) |
15,560 |
5 |
3 |
2 |
| 5 |
Casper Stornes (NOR) |
15,032 |
4 |
2 |
2 |
Next Events Coming Up
The 2026 Experience Oman IRONMAN Pro Series will culminate in Kailua-Kona for the first time, as the best athletes in the world head to the iconic IRONMAN World Championship. With 6,000 points on the line for the final race of the season, all eyes will be on Kona as the 2027 Experience Oman IRONMAN Pro Series champions will be crowned in the birthplace of IRONMAN.
Full results for the 2026 Precision Fuel & Hydration IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship men’s race can be found at www.ironman.com/races/im703-world-championship-2026/results.
For more information about the 2026 Precision Fuel & Hydration IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship event, please visit www.ironman.com/im703-world-championship.To learn more about the IRONMAN and IRONMAN 70.3 brands and series of events, please visit www.ironman.com.