5 Takeaways From the 2025 70.3 Worlds

We did it, everybody — the 2025 IRONMAN Pro Series is in the books. The eight month long season has crowned four extremely worthy world champions at our respective distances, as well as the season-long points champions (and the lucrative end-of-year bonuses associated with it). I think I speak for everybody when I say that we’re all exhausted and ready to re-group for 2026.

Naturally, that means that we have Dubai this weekend and Qatar in December to wrap-up the T100 series…but you get the point. It’s almost over. But with that all in mind, here are some things we learned from this past weekend.

Charles-Barclay’s Masterclass

My jaw just about hit the floor when I saw Lucy Charles-Barclay sticking with Taylor Knibb midway through the bike. I had, like many, assumed that Knibb would have opened up a lead on the bike, and Charles-Barclay would need to make up a gap, not entirely dissimilar from the approach we saw in Kona.

So when Charles-Barclay was, well, right there and looking very strong? It was clear that she had recovered well from her DNF in Kona. And then she also let Knibb get away a little bit during the early moments of the run before turning the afterburners on. It was a controlled, measured, disciplined approach to the race that played to nearly all of her strengths. In other words, it was brilliant. I’d argue that it is her strongest tactical performance ever; when you factor in her pure ability as an athlete, it’s a thrilling combination.

In fewer words: I was really wrong in my prediction article. Freezing cold take, indeed.

On Gamesmanship and Tactics

Tactics were also the name of the game in the men’s race. Between eventual champion Jelle Geens being forced to overcome mechanical issues, Kristian Blummenfelt smartly carving his way through the bike field, and then jockeying for position on the run, it was less a battle of pure fitness and more a thinking man’s game.

Much has been made in our forum about whether Blummenfelt’s race craft crosses any sort of lines, in part due to Geens calling the run “annoying” during our post-race interview, saying that Blummenfelt wouldn’t take turns on the front.

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Geens is more than entitled to call it annoying. But that’s the exact type of race craft that we should come to expect out of the top end of the field.

These races are not a time trial. It’s a battle between the athletes. And that means using tactics, or the rulebook, to your advantage. There’s been much written about tactics like accelerating while being passed to lead to a potential position foul being called, or not taking a pull in a larger group while on the ride or the run. The mission is to win while following the rules. There’s no gentlemen’s agreement that says if you’re leading the race that you have to keep trying the workload.

Blummenfelt was, by most accounts, trying to allow Stornes to bridge up. Was that a potential plan to have the two of them work to try to dispose of Geens? Perhaps. But it’s all more than fair, and we shouldn’t call it anything else than that.

The Disastrous “Technical Issue” During the Sprint Finish

Speaking of Geens and Blummenfelt, they had a sprint finish for the ages brewing, trading blows entering the final kilometer.

And then we got to watch a whole lot of hotel and coastline shots before seeing Geens in the finish chute with a gap over Blummenfelt. The exact type of high tension finish that we’re all seeking out of this type of racing and we all missed it.

IRONMAN called it “technical difficulties.” I’m sorry, but I call that unforgivable. There is no way that, for a world championship event, you can miss the winning move of the race. Whether that was a breakdown of the actual transmission equipment, or an issue of reception in that area, both aren’t excuses and are reasonably foreseeable. Cameras break down. Races go through poor reception zones. These have to be planned for and executed better.

When factored with Outside Watch’s programmatic advertising cutting off commentators mid-sentence on multiple occasions, the entire presentation of the race did not match the quality of the racing that actually took place. It’s a disservice to the athletes, the community, and to the brand itself. Collectively, the world championship race broadcasts must feel like they are a world championship quality. At best, we had a ho-hum typical IRONMAN live stream. That standard might fly for your run of the mill Pro Series race, but it doesn’t fly for a world championship.

Thankfully, IRONMAN was able to recover the footage after the fact, and has uploaded that to YouTube.

On is the New HOKA

There was a time when it seemed like every pro triathlete was signing with HOKA. Within short order, HOKA had managed to sign both Jan Frodeno and Daniela Ryf to contracts, and then it seemed like everyone else was following. It helped that the Rocket X 2 was just about everything you could possibly want out of a triathlon running shoe: lightweight, well-cushioned, stable, and responsive.

Well, move aside, HOKA. On has come front and center. Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden felt like the start of a strong push in the marketplace. But now they have the following athletes all under contract:

• IRONMAN World Champion Solveig Løvseth, who signed with the brand after her win wearing their shoes without a contract
• 70.3 World Champion Jelle Geens, who signed with the brand last year after his win in their shoes without a contract
• Josh Amberger
• Kristian Blummenfelt
• Paula Findlay
• Ashleigh Gentle
• Matt Hanson
• Gustav Iden
• Chelsea Sodaro
• Lisa Tertsch
• Kate Waugh

There’s just not any other run-brand putting this much firepower into triathlon at the moment. The question is whether it will wind up paying off with market share amongst age groupers. Considering their net sales for the first part of the year are up 32% over 2024, we may start seeing more of their shoes in transition zones soon.

Pro Series Podium Ceremony Should Be a Separate Event

I’m not going to fault Lisa Perterer for pulling the ripcord on her season following her excellent performance in Kona. When you also factor that she was unlikely to be budged from her third-place position in the Pro Series, and they hefty paycheck associated with it, there was a lot of risk for nearly no reward here.

And I’m also not going to fault her for this photo of the Pro Series podium ceremony where she’s, well, nowhere to be found.

It’s more comedic than anything else that we have these very large season-ending bonus checks being awarded, and one of the big winners of it is simply not there. It makes IRONMAN look bad, and it makes the athlete look bad, and there’s no real good reason for it.

Many other sporting bodies wind up having an end-of-year awards ceremony where championships and accolades are actually awarded. This feels like something that IRONMAN could wind up doing in a centralized location and celebrate the top 10 athletes in the Pro Series, as well as the respective World Champions. It’s something that they could live stream on YouTube, have some sponsor presentations, and help generate free content for brands who sponsor these respective athletes (as race-related content has its own series of rules and restrictions). It’s low-cost with a much higher upside for both the IRONMAN brand and the athletes.

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