They Said It: How the Top 5 Men Thought They Raced in Nice

New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde won the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Nice, France, on Sunday, beating Norway’s Kristian Blummenfelt to the line in a very close, very exciting finish. Third went to Jelle Geens of Belgium, followed by another Norwegian, Gustav Iden, and Lasse Nygaard Priester of Germany. A few hours after making their way down the finishing chute, the top five sat down for a post-race press conference to share their thoughts on an amazing day of racing.

Priester’s Gutsy Run

Priester’s last race in 2025 was the 70.3 World Championship in Marbella, Spain, where he finished more than 14 minutes back of the lead in 25th place. After that, he didn’t miss a podium all season long in the lead-up to Nice. Included in that string of podiums were back-to-back wins at 70.3 Sweden and 70.3 Zelle am See.

He had a great showing on Sunday, coming out of the water 13 seconds back of the lead before riding at or near the front of the race right into T2. He proceeded to chase down Wilde in the early stages of the run and then stayed with him until around the 10K mark. At that point, Wilde ran off alone up the road, and a while later, Geens and Blummenfelt caught Priester.

At the post-race press conference, he said he was “quite happy” with his race, saying it was “solid […] until the second 10 km.”

While he said his pre-race goal was the podium, he was still please with a top-five result. Plus, he said it was a good learning opportunity “to see what it takes” to race with the world’s best on such a big stage.

“I know where to go [now],” Priester said. “It’s a cool journey and I’m really enjoying it.”

Iden Back in the Mix

Less than a minute ahead of Priester was Iden, who won the 70.3 world title the last time it was in Nice in 2019. Ahead of the race, he said he had renewed confidence as he ran around the city in training runs and remembered that day seven years ago. He was unable to repeat that showing on Sunday, but he still had an excellent race.

After what he called a “passive” swim that left him more than a minute behind the leaders, he had work to do on the bike, and he wasted no time getting to it. He clawed within 30 seconds of Wilde and the others after a great descent on the latter half of the bike ride, then took to the run course hoping to chase everyone down. He couldn’t catch everybody, but he did pass a handful of men to move into fourth.

“It was a good day,” he said after the race. “[Because of the swim], I had to spend the first part of the bike riding maybe a little too hard.”

With the tough work done on the way up, he said “the fun began” when he got to start the descent.

“I rode fast to try to win the race, but also rode fast because it’s just so fun,” he said with a laugh. After that, he said the run felt “quite good,” but he realized early on that he probably wouldn’t be winning the world title.

“I thought, ‘Okay, at least I can be best Norwegian,’ but then a Norwegian came by,” he said, throwing a glance at Blummenfelt. Iden finished off his time with the mic by saying he is looking forward to the IRONMAN World Championship next month.

“Kona is going to be an epic day,” he said. “I will do everything I can to finish first.”

Geens Misses the Threepeat

Geens had his eyes on becoming the first man to win three 70.3 world titles, but he fell short on Sunday. Like some of the other big names in the race, he struggled in the ride, posting the 14th-best split of the day.

When he got to the run, he was in 12th place and more than two minutes off the lead. Instead of accepting that it wasn’t his day, he put his head down and ran his own race. He moved steadily through the field, first into the top 10, then top five and finally onto the podium.

The big story on Geens coming into the race was his lack of competition over the past four months. He raced 70.3 Zell am See two weeks ago, but before that, he hadn’t toed a start line in four months. After putting in the time for a proper recovery, though, he said he felt he was “really close to Marbella shape” ahead of Nice, referencing his win at the 70.3 worlds last year.

He didn’t get the same result from Marbella, but he said he is still happy with the result.

“I can be proud of myself after the injury,” he said. “I’ve had to put myself back in shape.”

Blummenfelt’s Blistering Run

Blummenfelt was a surprise non-factor for the entirety of the bike ride. He lost a lot of time going up the climb, eventually hitting the halfway point two minutes down from the leaders. He didn’t lose as much time on the descent, but he got off his bike two and a half minutes behind first place. Like with Geens, it would have been easy to throw in the towel at this point, but that is not how Blummenfelt operates.

He set off at a blazing pace that didn’t seem possible to maintain for 13.1 miles. He ran down man after man, soon enough catching Geens and leaving only Wilde to go. Had the race been another mile or two, he may have completed the comeback, but he ran out of room and had to settle for second place, just 18 seconds behind the Kiwi.

When asked about his run pace at the press conference, he said he did not plan to go that fast, it’s just how the race happened.

“I [thought] more 68 [minutes], to be honest,” he said. “I wasn’t thinking about 65.”

Two things that got that performance out of him, he said, were the fans who lined the course and the man he was chasing up the road.

“The crowds were amazing,” he said. As for Wilde and his fellow athletes, he continued, saying, “I think we were really squeezing out the best of each other.”

Wilde on Top

The seen that Wilde set in Nice on Sunday was quite similar to the one the triathlon world saw in March at IRONMAN 70.3 Geelong. He got off the bike with a 90-second lead there, only to finish third after being chased down by Blummenfelt and Geens.

This time, he gave himself more of a buffer — and it proved to be enough. He swam among the leaders, rode the second-fastest split of the day in 2:16:50 and ran the third-best half-marathon (behind only his fellow podium finishers), posting a 1:07:21 split.

Wilde said in the press conference that he actually lost his watch in T2, so he ran based on feel the entire way.

“I just made sure I went at a relatively good pace,” he said. “I got a few comments on course saying, ‘You’re running too easy,’ because I didn’t know what pace I was going.”

In those instances, he picked up the pace. When he heard Blummenfelt was making up significant time on him, he tried to push more to keep ahead while at the same time “doing the calculations” in his head to determine how quickly the Norwegian would have to run to catch him before the line.

“I saw the 20 km marker and said, ‘Just put your head down and go for it,'” he said.

After that, he closed out the win, which he said felt good after “so many close potential” victories in the last few years.

Tags: