We Noticed: Blummenfelt Heads to Roth (As Does Matthews), Stornes Signs New Partner and More
Will Blummenfelt Blast in Bavaria?
When I chatted with Kristian Blummenfelt (and Gustav Iden and Casper Stornes) in Lanzarote a few weeks ago, he couldn’t have been more clear that the big goal for this year was the IRONMAN World Championship in Kona.
“I’m trying to be a little bit more patient with the training and build it into October,” he said. “So, I guess I will be fit enough to fight for the win in New Zealand and Australia, but that’s not the key focus. The key focus is to be ready in October, and to build into October. Being a bit more patient in terms of the volume and intensity in training.”
Presumably that “fit enough to fight for the win” line extends to Challenge Roth – Blummenfelt and the Roth crew announced that he’ll be racing in Bavaria on July 6th.
The Tokyo gold medalist will be toeing the line in New Zealand next week, and then plans to head back to IRONMAN Texas in April. Presumably the vision is to have a couple of wins to his name so he’ll be in good shape on the IRONMAN Pro Series front heading into Kona, which gives him the opportunity to compete in Roth, take whatever resembles a break in the Norwegian world, then begin the build towards the big peak in Kona.
Also announced as a starter in Roth this July is Kat Matthews, who will presumably look to go for a third straight IRONMAN Pro Series title by beginning the season with a win in New Zealand, too. She did imply on Instagram earlier this year that she’ll be in Texas again to go after a fourth-straight win there, in which case she’ll no-doubt be on a similar track to Blummenfelt in terms of the Kona build strategy.
Last year Matthews scorched to an impressive 8:10:34 finish in Texas (then the fastest time at an IRONMAN race), then followed that up with an even faster performance in Hamburg, where she duelled with Laura Philipp (8:03:13) to post the second fastest time at an IRONMAN event with her 8:05:13 finish. If Laura Philipp were to return to defend her title in Roth, it’s easy to imagine that the two could easily push each other to a sub-eight hour finish. (Of course Matthews has already done that with the “Sub8 Project” where she went 7:31:54!)
Matthews has been quick to deflect any talk on the record-setting front: “Records and splits are nice, but crossing the finish line first is what matters to me,” she said.
So far we haven’t seen Philipp added to the list of names heading to Roth this summer, but who knows if she’ll be there along with men’s defending champion Sam Laidlow. It’s not a stretch to think that Philipp might want to aim for Hamburg again, then have a bit of a break before building towards Kona. While Philipp won the IRONMAN World Championship title in Nice, she would dearly love to have a Kona title to her name, too, so she’ll no-doubt be evaluating what the best approach to winning that title will be.
Another big name added to the Roth start list is 2023 IRONMAN 70.3 world champion Rico Bogen, who will be making his full-distance debut in Roth. It’ll be fun to see the German hit the course in Roth – he’ll certainly be one to watch and will no-doubt keep things moving at the front of the pack.
Other names announced this week include Germany’s Caroline Pohle, who is also making her full-distance debut, fellow German Frederic Funk, who finished fifth in Roth last year, American Ben Hoffman, France’s Denis Chevrot and Arthur Horseau, Switzerland’s Alanis Siffert, the Netherlands’ Menno Koolhaas and Denmark’s Kristian Høgenhaug.
In terms of athlete announcements, though, Brit Fenella Langridge’s certainly was the most entertaining.
The Slowtwitch Podcast
This week’s podcast has landed – it’s a fun conversation we had with Sea to Summit race directors Andy Scherding and Kathleen Walker.
It’s a great chat with the two about the various events they put on through their company, New England Endurance Events (NEEE). They offer everything from “standard” triathlons to the adventure-oriented Sea to Summit triathlon, full-fledged adventure races and a SwimRun event.
It was a really fun conversation with some interesting insights on the world of multisport racing in 2026.
Stornes signs with Zone3
When I asked IRONMAN world champion Casper Stornes how winning Nice last year has changed his life, his buddies Kristian Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden both joked that now “he’s rich,” and will finally be able to buy a house in the same neighbourhood.
Not sure how much of that new-found wealth will come from today’s announcement that Stornes has partnered with Zone3 for “elite swim kit and wetsuits,” but it certainly can’t hurt. As with Mauna’s signing of Jelle Geens earlier this year, adding a world champion to the Zone3 athlete mix is a big deal for the company. In addition to all the challenges of the COVID 19 pandemic, Zone3 also had to work its way through the challenges posed by Brexit. The company managed to weather all that, and became “employee-owned” in 2024.
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