Tag: Race Reports

Europe’s strongest full-distance race has its date: 28 June. IRONMAN Frankfurt is not an ordinary race, it is the European Championship, with the largest pool of Kona qualifying spots on the continent. This year 71 professionals will jump into the Langener Waldsee, with six professional slots to the world championship on the line.

The Norwegians split up

The most interesting storyline is the Norwegian tactical split. Casper Stornes, the reigning IRONMAN world champion, and his friend and countryman Gustav Iden both chose Frankfurt over Challenge Roth. The third of the trio, Kristian Blummenfelt, races Roth on 5 July, where he will face Sam Laidlow and Patrick Lange. All three have been sharpening their form at a training camp in St. Moritz.

Stornes and Iden had a difficult start to the season, both dealing with injuries and racing less often than Blummenfelt, who has already won a full IRONMAN in Texas plus two 70.3 races, in Oceanside and Geelong. Even so, both know Frankfurt well. Stornes stood on the podium here last year, third, and has two third-place finishes this season, at 70.3 Oceanside and IRONMAN Texas. Iden finished fourth at last year’s European Championship in Frankfurt, and was second at the world championship in Nice. As a former IRONMAN and 70.3 world champion, he is aiming for the podium.

Ditlev returns after illness

The big unknown in the field is Magnus Ditlev of Denmark. The three-time Challenge Roth winner is only just opening his season, an infection picked up before IRONMAN Texas took longer to shake than he expected. “I still haven’t started the season because of the infection from before Texas, but I hope to be back on the start line soon,” he wrote on Instagram from an altitude camp in Sierra Nevada.

Ditlev is a two-time IRONMAN world championship medallist (2023, 2024) and winner of the 2025 African Championship. On any start line he is a genuine threat, the only question is how much the illness has taken out of him. At Frankfurt he also needs a Kona slot, so his motivation is doubled.

Who else is chasing a slot

The list of contenders for the six tickets to Kona is long. Gregory Barnaby of Italy, winner of the 2024 IRONMAN Pro Series, has already tasted success at Frankfurt, third here two years ago. Vincent Luis of France, after a standout full-distance debut in Texas, fourth in a strong field, jumps onto the list of favourites. Kieran Lindars of Great Britain already has a Kona slot locked in with eighth place in Texas, and was second at Frankfurt in 2024.

The home team will make its presence felt: the German squad includes Jonas Hoffmann, fifth last year, Finn Große-Freese, Wilhelm Hirsch, Jan Stratmann, Florian Angert and Paul Schuster. Also back after an unlucky season is Jamie Riddle of South Africa, who should set a fast pace from the swim and bike.

A shadow over the organisers

The women’s European Championship was held in early June in Hamburg and was won by Norway’s Solveig Løvseth. It will also be remembered for another reason: metal and glass were scattered on the bike course as a protest against the road closures. More than 100 age-group athletes had to withdraw with punctured tyres. IRONMAN announced it would work with police on measures to stop a repeat. The Frankfurt organisers will certainly be taking note.

What to watch for

Frankfurt is a classic where legs alone do not decide the race, the head matters too. The long, flat bike course punishes anyone who starts too fast, and the finish on the medieval Römerberg square can send the crowd into a frenzy. If Ditlev returns to his old form, expect a duel with the Norwegian pair for the European crown. If he does not, the door opens for Barnaby, Luis and the German contingent.

On Sunday 6 September the island of Jersey hands out the largest single day prize purse in triathlon history, $800,000. And only there, in a season running since January, do Alex Yee and Hayden Wilde finally line up against each other for the first time.

Where, when, how much

The race takes place at Elizabeth Marina in St Helier, the capital of Jersey. The women start at 14:10 British time (15:10 CEST), the men an hour and ten minutes later at 15:20 (16:20 CEST). Coverage is free on the Supertri YouTube channel and on TriathlonLive.tv.

The $800,000 purse splits evenly between women and men, $400,000 per category. The winner takes $100,000, second place $75,000, third $60,000. The money goes all the way down to tenth, which is rare even in World Triathlon or on T100.

The Enduro format: six transitions in one race

The Supertri Final is run in the Enduro format, three identical consecutive stages. Each is a 300 m swim, a 4 km bike and a 1.6 km run. In total an athlete covers 900 m in the water, 12 km on the bike and 4.8 km on foot, with six transitions.

On top of that comes the 90 second rule: anyone losing more than a minute and a half to the leaders is pulled from the race before the next stage. The strongest riders can also earn Short Chutes, a shortened run course on the final stage as a reward for riding well earlier. It is a format where one mistake in transition costs the whole race, not just a few seconds.

Yee against Wilde, at last

Alex Yee, the Olympic champion from Paris, and Hayden Wilde have not raced each other in 2026. The New Zealander has been his most consistent rival over recent seasons. Add Matt Hauser, the Australian defending the WTCS world title. Three athletes who in another setup would be fighting for medals on the same finish line meet here for the first time this season, over a distance where every transition counts.

In the women’s race Cassandre Beaugrand has won all four WTCS races in 2026, the full set. Jersey is a chance to add the richest start of the season to that. Facing her are Georgia Taylor-Brown and the defending Supertri champion Jeanne Lehair of Luxembourg, who knows this format better than anyone else in the field.

The Enduro format rewards different things than classic Olympic distance racing. Fast exits from the water, aggressive riding from the first metre and a head that holds up through six transitions under the clock. Beaugrand has won in WTCS on the strength of the whole package; here one weak transition from a rival can be the margin.

Hauser is racing for more than a cheque

For Hauser, Jersey is not only a payday. The Australian, defending the WTCS world title, deliberately skipped the race in Karlovy Vary to prepare calmly for the season final in Pontevedra. He filled that gap in the calendar with the Supertri start instead. He said himself that he wants to “turn up the speed a bit” in Jersey before the decisive race. Meanwhile his main rival in the WTCS standings, Vasco Vilaça, leads with 3850 points against Hauser’s 3495.76. The Portuguese will race Karlovy Vary without him, so the gap could grow further before Pontevedra. Hauser’s tenth place in Weihai, after a crash on the bike, only raises the stakes here. Jersey is the last form check before the biggest race of the year.

Two weeks out, and a course that does not forgive. Nice hosts the IRONMAN 70.3 world championship on 12 and 13 September. The women race on Saturday, the men on Sunday, both fields off at 7:00 local time. The start lists carry 72 men and 78 women, and in the middle of the bike course stands the Col de Vence, which will settle the whole thing.

Geens has a shot at something nobody has done

Jelle Geens has started the 70.3 world championship twice and won twice: Taupō in 2024 and Marbella in 2025. A third title from three starts would be something no man has managed, according to Triathlon Magazine.

His full-distance season, though, was a write-off. A DNF in Texas, then an injury that ruled him out of Lake Placid. So the Belgian returns to the distance nobody has beaten him over, after a year in which very little worked. That is a more interesting setup than a straight title defence.

Behind him stands Kristian Blummenfelt, who lost by a few strides in Marbella. In Geelong he ran down Geens and Hayden Wilde after both had ridden away from him. The general view is that whoever beats Blummenfelt wins the race. Geens happens to know how that is done.

Three former champions and one New Zealander

The full set of previous world champions is on the line: Rico Bogen (2023), Kristian Blummenfelt (2022) and Gustav Iden (2019 and 2021). Add Marten Van Riel, the 2024 T100 world champion, who also won last year’s IRONMAN 70.3 Nice and therefore knows this course from inside a race. And there is Casper Stornes, the reigning IRONMAN world champion.

The most interesting name is Hayden Wilde. He skipped last year’s 70.3 championship after finishing second in 2024, and since then he has dominated the T100 distance. He comes back to a format he has already stood on the podium in, in very different shape.

The Americans have waited since 2007

The only American ever to win the men’s 70.3 world championship is Andy Potts, in Clearwater in 2007. Nothing since.

This year’s squad is their best chance in a long time. It is led by Sam Long, second behind Iden in 2021, who has not finished outside the top five over this distance since 2023. Alongside him are Trevor Foley, Jason West and Morgan Pearson.

Three world champions on one women’s start line

Defending champion Lucy Charles-Barclay has withdrawn to put everything into Kona, so the title is open. Taylor Knibb heads the field instead, three times 70.3 world champion in 2022, 2023 and 2024. Knibb was second last year and won the T100 world title in 2024, but she has never raced the Nice course.

This is not a one-woman contest. Solveig Løvseth arrives as the reigning IRONMAN world champion, Laura Philipp as the 2024 champion, and Kat Matthews as the defending Pro Series winner. Three athletes with a world title behind them and one who has won the Pro Series. That start list is rare.

Beyond those four there are two more nobody sensible writes off. Alanis Siffert has won four of six starts this season, among them Challenge Roth ahead of Matthews and Charles-Barclay, plus a third straight win at the Alpe d’Huez triathlon. Paula Findlay won her full-distance debut in Lake Placid last month, and over the last two seasons she has won five of the eight half-distance races she has started.

There is a local angle too. Marjolaine Pierré lives in Nice, won 70.3 Aix-en-Provence and was second in Jönköping. In Hamburg she set the pace before Løvseth and Philipp came past her, finishing fourth. The shorter distance should suit her better.

Col de Vence answers every question

The course is a 1.9 km swim in the Baie des Anges, 90 km on the bike with about 1190 m of climbing, and a flat half marathon. On paper a classic mountain course, but the detail sits in how that climbing is distributed.

The climb starts at around 26.6 kilometres and runs for 9.7 km at an average of 6.6%, for 633 m of ascent. Individual ramps go past 12%. Before that, at the 10th kilometre, comes the exit out of St-Laurent-du-Var with sections up to 13%.

The key tactical fact is this: past Coursegoules, at the 44th kilometre, the climbing is over. Less than 90 m of ascent is left across the remaining 46 km. What the course does serve up instead are two technical descents: 2 km with four hairpins from the 47th kilometre, and 11 km back into Nice from the 64th.

Anyone who overcooks the Col de Vence spends the rest of the bike paying it back. Then comes a flat half marathon with nowhere to hide. That favours athletes with a sensible power-to-weight ratio and a strong run, and works against time-trial specialists.

Worth knowing as well: at the regular IRONMAN 70.3 Nice, part of the field chooses a road bike with clip-on bars over a time-trial bike. The profile is rolling enough for that to make sense.

The pick

In the men’s race, Geens takes a third title, but not by riding away from anyone. The last 5 km of the run decide it, with Blummenfelt a handful of seconds back. In the women’s race the pick is Siffert. The form from Roth and Alpe d’Huez is no accident, and the course profile suits her better than it suits anyone else on the start list. Knibb second.

Over the weekend of 21 to 22 August, Abtao beach in Callao, near Lima, hosted the Americas Triathlon Cup Callao Lima 2026. American athletes took two golds and a silver home from Peru. The most interesting part of this race is not the list of names, though, but what happened over the bike’s 20 km and why a three-rider breakaway held its lead to T2 anyway.

Stuhlmacher: In Control From the First Metre

Carter Stuhlmacher (USA) won the men’s race in a style every age-grouper should study frame by frame. He posted the fastest 750 m swim, in 9:41, and rolled into T1 with a 4-second cushion. Behind him came Joshua Bird (Canada) and Gabriel Terán Carvajal (Ecuador). No one else finished within 10 seconds of Terán.

That trio rode alone. Behind them a large chase group formed and started closing, because in draft-legal triathlon, extra numbers mean free watts. The lead shrank across the full 20 km. It never disappeared, though. The breakaway riders reached T2 with a 30-second gap.

Wilfong: The Fastest Run, Not Enough Distance

Foster Wilfong (USA) came out of the water 58 seconds behind his fellow American. A disaster? Not necessarily, since it dropped him into the chase group, the only place from which the race was still winnable.

On the run, Wilfong posted the fastest 5 km of the day, 14:20. It was the best run split in the whole field, and it still wasn’t enough. Stuhlmacher shed Bird and Terán, controlled the gap and brought home gold. Wilfong took silver, and Juan Jose Andrade Figueroa (Ecuador), just 8 seconds behind him, ran in for bronze.

The lesson for an age-grouper is brutally simple: the best run of the day doesn’t make up a minute’s deficit from a 750 m swim if there’s no one left to catch on the way out. Swimming doesn’t win a sprint triathlon, but it decides which group you race in.

Duncan Wins on the Bike, Not the Run

In the women’s race, Faith Duncan (USA) confirmed her July win at Magog and beat a far more experienced Elizabeth Bravo (Ecuador). Gabby Martin (USA) and Leslie Amat Alvarez (Cuba) led out of the water, with Bravo close behind them.

Duncan settled it on the bike. The best bike split of the day, 30:48, got her to the front and first into T2. She then added the fastest run, 15:53 over 5 km. Fastest in two of the three disciplines closes the case at a Continental Cup. Bravo took second and her first podium of the 2026 season after returning from injury, while Cecilia Sayuri Ramirez Alavez (Mexico) finished third.

Juniors: McIntyre of Barbados Delivers

In the junior race, Luke McIntyre (Barbados) posted the best swim and bike splits, and a 14:27 run, the second-fastest of the day including the seniors, gave him his first Junior Cup win, 14 seconds clear. Silver went to Maximiliano Bobadilla (Chile). Bronze went to Elias Medina Paolucci (Uruguay), who beat Sergio Maza Krause.

Among the junior women, Manuela Ortega Arteaga (Ecuador) won by 32 seconds, settling it with a 16:37 run. Victoria Arce Nuñez (Costa Rica) was second, Renata Valentina Oña Paredes (Ecuador) third.

The same weekend was meant to bring the Europe Junior Cup in Molėtai, Lithuania, but the super-sprint finals there were cancelled for weather.

After an eleven-year gap, the WTCS returned to London, and wasted no time reminding everyone why sprint racing can be triathlon’s most nerve-shredding format. On Saturday 25 July, Cassandre Beaugrand won for the third time in three starts this season. In the men’s race, Matt Hauser again proved stronger than Vasco Vilaça in the closing metres.

Women: Beaugrand Settles It on the Run

The last WTCS-ranked race in London was back in 2015. This time the course ran through the Royal Docks, with nearly half the run staged inside the ExCeL centre.

Beaugrand came out of the water well off the front, a surprise for an Olympic champion. On the bike, American Taylor Knibb pushed hardest, and together with Britain’s Tilly Anema she opened a gap of roughly half a minute on the field.

The breakaway ended at a single corner. Anema cut it too tight, hit a bollard and crashed. The chase group reeled Knibb back in bit by bit.

The whole field hit the run together, and that’s when Beaugrand took over, dropping world champion Lisa Tertsch and rising star Tilda Månsson. The three women ran shoulder to shoulder almost to the line.

Pos.	Athlete	Country	Time
1	Cassandre Beaugrand	FRA	56:06
2	Lisa Tertsch	GER	56:11 (+0:05)
3	Tilda Månsson	SWE	56:21 (+0:15)
4	Beth Potter	GBR	56:26 (+0:20)

The top British finisher, Beth Potter, came in fourth. She still leads the overall series standings, even though Beaugrand has a perfect record of wins.

The reason sits in the rulebook. The Frenchwoman has started only three of the six rounds held so far, and the standings count the best four results plus the Grand Final. Beaugrand hasn’t said whether she’ll chase the title for the rest of the season.

Men: Three Seconds Between Hauser and Vilaça

In the men’s race, Hauser confirmed his form, winning in 50:28, just 3 seconds ahead of Portugal’s Vasco Vilaça. Hungary’s Csongor Lehmann completed the podium, also within eight seconds of the win.

It’s the Australian’s third win in three finished starts this season too, exactly the same record as Beaugrand’s.

Pos.	Athlete	Country	Time
1	Matt Hauser	AUS	50:28
2	Vasco Vilaça	POR	50:31 (+0:03)
3	Csongor Lehmann	HUN	50:36 (+0:08)
4	Morgan Pearson	USA	50:45 (+0:17)

Olympic champion Alex Yee struggled with the swim again. Off the bike, he was the most conspicuous absentee from the front group.

On the run he clawed back what he could, cheered on loudly by his home crowd, but it was already too late for a high finish.

What It Means for You

A lead from the swim and bike guarantees nothing if you can’t hold the pace on the run. Beaugrand won despite a poor exit from the water.

Crashes on short, technical bike loops are a real risk once the field gets dense. The day’s breakaway was decided by one badly cut corner, not a lack of power in anyone’s legs.

In a race run over multiple laps, that one corner costs more than the watts you’re missing.

On Sunday 30 August, the IRONMAN Pro Series regular season closes. Zell am See-Kaprun is its 14th and final round. After that only two championship races remain, Nice and Kona. Up for grabs: 2500 points and a $50,000 prize purse.

Philipp Wears Number One, Fifteen Days After a Course Record

Laura Philipp will race with bib number 1. This is the same Philipp who demolished IRONMAN Kalmar on 15 August in 8:13:37. She took the course record that day from defending champion Katrine Christensen (8:27:49). Fifteen days between a full-distance race and a start in Austria isn’t textbook recovery. It’s the decision of someone with a specific score to settle.

The German’s season hasn’t been easy. Health problems in spring cost her form. Even so, she collected third at 70.3 Pays d’Aix, a win at IRONMAN Sweden and second in Hamburg.

There’s another twist. In Kalmar, Christensen finished second behind her, in 8:32:22, and that result put the Dane top of the Pro Series. Philipp, despite the course record, sits sixth. Zell am See is her chance to sharpen her half-distance form before the championship races. Triathlon Magazine Canada’s editors reckon she could climb as high as fourth after Sunday.

Also on the start list is Lisa Perterer, runner-up at this race in 2025 and currently eleventh in the Pro Series.

Geens Chases a Third Straight World Title

The biggest name in the men’s field is Jelle Geens, a two-time 70.3 world champion. Injury wrecked his full-distance plans this year, so he’s put everything into one target: a third consecutive world title. No one has done that yet. Kona will have to wait until 2027.

The Belgian’s numbers at this distance are obscene. Of 15 finished middle-distance races, counting T100 and 70.3 together, he’s stood on the podium in all but two. Two years ago, in one of his first starts at this distance, he finished second in Zell am See.

One thing to note: Geens isn’t chasing the Pro Series this year, since he has no full-distance result to his name. In Austria he’s racing for form and rhythm, not points.

Kraft vs Nygaard Priester, Rematch Number Seven

Defending champion Fabian Kraft has had a mistake-free season, with podiums in all three races he’s finished: 70.3 Valencia, Challenge Walchsee and IRONMAN 70.3 Sweden.

In Sweden, though, he lost to a fellow German. Lasse Nygaard Priester broke away from him on the run and won. A year earlier in Zell am See it went the other way, with Kraft running stronger. Both are on this start list, and their head-to-head record after six meetings favours Nygaard Priester.

Trevor Foley arrives in Austria second in the Pro Series standings. He’s already banked a win at the 70.3 North American Championship in Happy Valley. Why another regular-season start? Probably as a backup result, in case Nice doesn’t go his way. He finished eighth in Kalmar, over twenty minutes behind the winner, so points from Austria could still come in useful.

The financial motive isn’t a secret either. Foley has joked often enough on pro athlete panels about “$200G” that broadcasters now needle him about it. It refers to the bonus for the winner of the whole series, which in 2026 is exactly $200,000 for the top man and top woman. The top fifty split an additional $1.7 million.

What It Means for You

Coverage starts on Sunday 30 August at 10:30 CEST, on the IRONMAN YouTube channel. It’s one of the few windows in the calendar to see the complete 70.3 field racing together. Two weeks will remain until the world championship in Nice.

Our pick for Sunday: Philipp wins the women’s race, but not as easily as her Kalmar result suggests. Fifteen days isn’t enough to be back at a hundred percent after a full-distance race. Among the men, we’re backing Geens. It’s his dress rehearsal before defending his title, and no one at this distance comes off the podium as rarely as him.

A year ago Henry Räppo won in Tallinn in a finish decided by seconds. On Sunday 23 August he defended his title far more comfortably, with a lead of over a minute. “Comfortably” is the wrong word, though, for a race in which he came out of T2 two and a half minutes down.

Butters Dominated the First Two Legs

German Hannes Butters swam fastest and came out of the water more than a minute ahead of the group holding Räppo, Marco Lorenzon, Enzo Bourdon and Casimir Moine.

The Estonian is known for a strong bike leg, so he tried to prove it from the first kilometres. It didn’t work. Butters held pace well enough that he had over 2:20 in hand over Räppo by T2. Louis Woodgate came off the bike third, 2:45 down.

At that point the race looked decided. At 70.3 distance, a two-and-a-half-minute lead out of the second transition is usually a verdict.

The Run: A Minute Back in Four Kilometres

Räppo didn’t calculate, though. In the first four kilometres he clawed back more than a minute. By the eighth he was already alongside Butters.

They ran together only briefly. Räppo pulled away immediately and took the win in 3:38:31. Butters finished second in 3:39:38, 1:07 behind. Frenchman Enzo Bourdon came in third in 3:41:12.

For the Estonian, it’s his second strong result of the season on northern European courses: in July he won Challenge Turku.

Bernardi in Control, Kapten Three Seconds From the Podium

In the women’s race, Italy’s Marta Bernardi won in 4:12:04. Behind her, France’s Sandra Huon finished in 4:13:05, a minute back.

The real drama was for third place, though. Local athlete Liis Kapten closed out the podium in 4:13:08, losing to Huon by three seconds. The Estonian crowd got two storylines from one race: their winner, and their own athlete fighting to the line for second.

Bernardi has raced evenly all year, and in Tallinn she never gave up the lead once she was off the bike.

Results

Place	Men	Time	Women	Time
1	Henry Räppo (EST)	3:38:31	Marta Bernardi (ITA)	4:12:04
2	Hannes Butters (GER)	3:39:38	Sandra Huon (FRA)	4:13:05
3	Enzo Bourdon (FRA)	3:41:12	Liis Kapten (EST)	4:13:08

What This Means for an Age-Grouper

Tallinn is one of the closer 70.3 starts for anyone travelling from northern or central Europe. It sits on the Gulf of Finland, reachable by plane or ferry, so it’s worth a spot on the list for anyone looking for a half-distance race away from the crowded courses in Germany and Austria.

There’s also a purely tactical lesson here, independent of ability level. Butters won the swim, won the bike, and still lost the race. Räppo rode in a way that let him get off the bike with legs that could run. That’s not exactly a discovery at 70.3 distance, but it’s rarely visible on this scale: 2:20 of deficit closed in under eight kilometres.

Anyone who has ever blown up on the bike and then walked a half marathon home knows exactly what that means.

The World University Triathlon Championships took place in Nyon, on Lake Geneva, over the weekend of 8 and 9 August. Dominika Peszleg won the women’s race by one second, and Benedikt Bettin capped the best season of his career.

Bettin runs away from the field on the run

The race was over sprint distance: 750m swim, 21km bike and 5km run.

Bettin won in 55:11, finishing 12 seconds ahead of German runner-up Jan Scheffold. Hungarian Gergő Dobi completed the podium.

This was no one-day fluke for Bettin. Every one of his international gold medals came this season: the Africa Cup, the Asia Cup, and now Nyon. He also placed fourth at the sprint European Championships.

His rise up the world ranking opens a path to a first WTCS start, a series he has not yet raced.

Peszleg wins by a second, bronze two seconds off gold

In the women’s race, Peszleg won in 1:01:57. Frenchwoman Elena Polaert led out of transition first, but the Hungarian caught her over the closing stretch.

It came down to the fastest run in the field, 17:00 for 5km. Peszleg won by one second in the end.

Another Frenchwoman, Appoline Foltz, took bronze a second behind Polaert. Gold to bronze came down to two seconds, on a distance that takes just over an hour.

Peszleg is aiming higher than a university podium. In a stacked Hungarian squad she is fighting for an Olympic spot, and Nyon was just one stop in her season.

Why this matters for amateurs

FISU Nyon will not turn up in a prime-time broadcast slot. But the opening of the qualification window for Los Angeles 2028 means every international start, even a student one, now carries more weight than it did a year ago.

Athletes such as Bettin and Peszleg are not there just to take part. They are racing for ranking points that will decide, two years from now, who goes to Los Angeles.

Bettin is building a season without an international defeat and climbing the rankings without a single WTCS start, a rare trajectory. When Olympic spots start to be decided in 2027, some of these names will already be well known.

Maja Stage Nielsen, the Danish athlete who has raced professionally for more than a decade, has announced her retirement from triathlon. The 38-year-old said on Instagram that she no longer has “race mode” in her, even though she still loves training. She no longer wants to line up just to be on the start list.

Over a decade on the IRONMAN distance

Nielsen built her career on the long distance, where the racing is hardest. Her record includes a win at Apfelland Triathlon in 2023 and a string of second-place finishes at some of the biggest IRONMAN races.

• Mallorca, 2016
• Lanzarote and Cozumel, 2019
• Texas, 2023
• Hamburg, 2024

These are the course names that most amateurs treat as a lifetime goal. She raced them professionally, year after year.

This is it. Time to admit that I’m done racing triathlon. I’ve known for a while. Many of you probably suspected it too. I just didn’t have the courage to say it out loud.

Maja Stage Nielsen

Thirteen starts without a podium, despite good form

Her last podium finish was second place at IRONMAN 70.3 Westfriesland the previous season. After that came thirteen consecutive starts without a top-three result. She opened the 2026 season with a DNF at IRONMAN New Zealand, pulling out on the bike leg.

Her fitness had not left her, though. In May, after that DNF, she ran the Copenhagen Marathon, finishing 17th among women in 2:44:04.

Sport is as hard as it is rewarding. Being an athlete is the only thing I’ve known. It challenged me, shaped me and gave me more than I ever dreamed of. I learned to love swimming, I love riding my bike, I love running and I still love doing it every day, except on race day. I don’t have any “race mode” left in me, and I’m done being the athlete who shows up to the start line just to be there. I’ve done that too many times already. It was never the real me, and I don’t want it to keep being me.

Maja Stage Nielsen

What comes next, without a plan yet

Nielsen admits she has no plan yet for the next stage, even though she made the decision long ago. The new chapter unsettles her more than any professional start did, despite more than a decade of lining up at the gun.

I always loved the process more than the result. Training, the daily routine, small improvements, that’s what gave me joy.

Maja Stage Nielsen

I have no idea what comes next. I only know I still have dreams and goals to chase. I know sport will always be part of my life. I know I need to find a job, and I know it’s time to get moving. This isn’t goodbye to sport. This isn’t goodbye to you. It’s only goodbye to racing triathlon professionally.

Maja Stage Nielsen