He seems to be back and perhaps better than ever: after a disappointing 2024, Kristian Blummenfelt is back to being himself – or perhaps a version 2.0 – because after winning Ironman Texas less than a month ago, today he won the highly competitive Ironman 70.3 Aix-en-Provence.
In a race that was exciting to the end, Blummenfelt was actually consistently well in the mix. The swim was still dictated by Frenchman Mattéo Bringer – who would later drop out of the race – with a swim time of 22:32. Big names like Jonas Schomburg, Samuel Dickinson, Pierre le Corre, Casper Stornes, and Cameron Main followed close behind, and Kristian Blummenfelt was also in a good position in 15th place and just 12 seconds behind.
On the bike, a large group stayed together, but one man managed to break away from the rest: Ruben Zepuntke. Although the German and former professional cyclist was being chased by big names, he managed to grab a lead of almost two minutes, giving him a nice margin heading into the start of the half marathon.
Yet that margin proved to be far from enough, as it was mainly Blummenfelt and Frenchman Simon Viain who went in pursuit. Side by side they quickly closed their gap and after about seven kilometers they came alongside Zepuntke. The German in turn tried to catch up, but proved unable to do so. On the other hand, Stornes also came running to the front, and so it came about that at the halfway point three men were in the lead with each other.
What followed was an exciting finale, with Viain, Blummenfelt and Stornes staying together for kilometers and also men like Le Corre, Dickinson and Schomburg running at less than a minute behind. That was not entirely to Blummenfelt’s liking and so he picked up the pace even more after 15 kilometers and with that he immediately secured victory as well, although it was by a minimal margin.
Blummenfelt won the race in 3:40:19. Stornes finished second in 3:40:55 and Viain finished third in 3:41:46.
The women’s race was won by Marjolaine Pierré: she finished in 4:11:57. Lizzie Rayner was second in 4:14:56 and Lena Meissner third in 4:15:48.
