Foley Finds His Form Again At IRONMAN New Zealand

The opening race of the 2026 IRONMAN Pro Series started with a bang in Taupo, New Zealand, as the men’s pro series champion, Kristian Blummenfelt, arrived determined to start his title defence in style with an early-season win. Winning the race was never going to be easy, though, even for the mighty Norwegian and, in the end, the day belonged to American Trevor Foley, who returned to the top of the podium for the first time since winning IRONMAN Lake Placid in 2024.

And, right off the bat, the rest of the field made it abundantly clear that they weren’t ready to make Blummenfelt’s life any easier. From the gun France’s Pierre Le Corre, competing in his first IRONMAN race, and hometown favourite Kyle Smith, who was competing in his first IRONMAN race since 2022, drove the pace. The two were joined by four others and were able to open up a gap of about 90 seconds on the chase group, which included Blummenfelt, by the end of the swim.

Le Corre led the men out of the water in a time of 48:11, with Kiwis Robert Huisman and Smith close behind. Also in the mix in that lead group were Sam Osborne (NZL), David Martin (CZE) and Henrik Goesch (FIN).

By the time he was through transition Blummenfelt had worked his way to the front of the chase group after coming out of the water a couple of seconds behind Germany’s Frederic Funk, who led the group of 11 that also included defending champion Mike Phillips and his Kiwi countryman Jack Moody. Some of the other pre-race favourites found themselves well back heading onto the bike – Trevor Foley was just under four minutes down, while Rasmus Svenningson was over six minutes behind.

Drama On the Bike

Smith wasted no time in pushing to the front, and quickly started to pull clear from the rest of the field. While Blummenfelt quickly worked his way up and past the rest of the members of the chase group, Smith was pulling away from everyone, including the Norwegian – by 45 km he was three minutes up. Adding to the challenge being provided by Smith out front, Blummenfelt also lost one of his aerobar extensions. He carried it in his hand for a while, but was eventually able to pass it off and he would continue on with just the left extension on his bike.

Through the first half of the bike American Matt Hanson was having a great ride, and was leading the group of 13 that was between 5:35 and 6:16 back. As Smith continued to push at the front, the group started to whittle down and, by 135 km, Funk had moved to the front and only four men – Blummenfelt,,Phillips, Le Corre and Foley were staying close to the German.

Smith continued to power clear, and would eventually get to T2 after a 4:11:55 bike split. Funk was eventually able to pull clear of the group and would gain some time over the final stretch of the bike, posting a 4:13:22 split to hit transition 3:39 down. Blummenfelt was next in at 5:51 behind, with Phillips and Foley within 10 seconds, with Le Corre another 35 seconds behind.

Run for Dough

With Smith well clear, the initial shock of the run was seeing Blummenfelt drop off the pace early on. With Funk quickly dropping back (he would eventually drop out), it didn’t take long for Foley to make a move towards the front. The question was, though, was the American making up enough time on the Kiwi. Smith appeared to get into a groove, and didn’t seemed phased to lose a few seconds per mile. Through 11.5 km the gap was still 5:46 to Foley, and at 19 km the gap was a shade under five minutes.

The big mover on the run course, though, was Hanson, who was flying through the run course. The 40-year-old American was steadily moving up to towards the podium. By the halfway point of the run Hanson had moved himself to third, with Moody on his shoulder and Le Corre another 11 seconds back. Blummenfelt was well back – after throwing up on the course he appeared to be moving a bit faster, but that surge was short lived. At this point it looked like the Norwegian would have to settle with validating his Kona slot for October, rather than going after the win.

More Drama

After running extremely controlled and looking like he had things under control, Smith suddenly grabbed his hamstring as he cramped at about the 24 km point. From there the gap just kept decreasing, and by 29 km Foley was in front, with Hanson suddenly in second place, 31 seconds behind the leader, with Le Corre another 23 seconds behind, also getting ready to pass Smith to move him completely out of the podium picture.

With 10 km to go, though, Foley suddenly found another gear, and appeared to be holding Hanson off. Turned out Hanson’s charge for the front had finally fizzled, and the American would start losing time to Foley, and with about 9 km to go, was passed by Le Corre who suddenly appeared to realize that there was no reason he shouldn’t push for the win. The man who finished fourth at the Paris Olympics had said before the race that he was “scared of the 30 km mark” of the race seemed to be getting over that fear.

Foley, though, missed the memo, though, and shut the Frenchman’s hopes down over the next few kilometres, opening the gap to over a minute. He would never look back, flying through a 2:35:42 marathon to take his second IRONMAN win. Le Corre debuted in style with second, capping his day off with a 2:36:18 marathon. Hanson would set a new run course record of 2:34:49 to nail third.

“I committed myself to being a professional, be an adult in 2026, and commit everything. I haven’t had a day off all winter and I really wanted to come here show my winter arc,” Foley said, referring to his relatively tough 2025. After an excellent couple of workouts three weeks ago, he told his coach he’d like to race in New Zealand, and they went for it. “We looked at it and thought that if I could be lucky enough to get on the start list and have a good race it just opens up the season … it was a risk we took, but I am so glad we took it.”

In the end Blummenfelt would get across the line in sixth

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