Matt Hanson Finally Makes it to Roth. Can He Ride Fast Enough to Stay in Contention for a Big Day?
Photos: Kevin Mackinnon
Matt Hanson’s resume is jam-packed with IRONMAN wins, but one thing that’s missing is a top finish (or, in fact, a finish at all) at Challenge Roth. The American is looking to change that tomorrow with his first appearance here in Roth. We caught up with the six-time IRONMAN champion shortly after he racked his bike in transition today.
Slowtwitch.com: Matt Hanson – first time in Roth. What took you so long?
Matt Hanson: Exactly! I got to spectate here in 2019, and I’ve wanted to get on the start line ever since. I planned on doing it when COVID arrived and then just wasn’t able to to make it work out after that.
This might not be as competitive a field as we’ve seen here in Roth, but the field here is always stacked.
I think there’s a lot of newcomers here that we have no idea how they’re going to perform, and they’ve done really well at other distances. So, you have got to assume they’re going to figure it out pretty quick. And if they do it in their first race, it could be a really, really surprisingly stacked field, I guess. And there’s a couple of guys who are here just starting their season off, whether they had injuries or whatever. So, they’re fresh and that’s always a bit of a wild card, so you never know what you’re going to get here. The conditions look beautiful, so you do know that people are going to get rewarded by going out and being crazy early on. Someone’s going to crack, but people are going to get rewarded by doing that.
There’s always people who crack here, it seems. You are renowned a great runner, but I’m guessing its even more important here for you to have a strong bike.
Yeah. I mean, having a great run is nothing if it’s not preceded by a good swim and bike. So, I’ve got to do the work early on in the water to to put myself in the right place.
That makes the day a whole lot easier, so that’s the focus on the day, and then whatever happens. I’ve just got to put myself in a position where a good run actually means something, and then go out and get it done.
It looks like a non-wetsuit swim. Good news or bad news for you?
Pretty much indifferent. I mean, everybody goes a little bit faster in the swim (with a wetsuit), so the gaps might be a little bit smaller, but historically I’ve had more low back issues on the bike after a wetsuit swim. So, yeah, I might lose a couple extra seconds to the leaders, but hopefully I can make that up by being in a better position on the bike.
What’s a successful Roth for you?
I think anybody that comes here dreams about pouring beer on their head at the end of the race, and you’ve got to earn that. You can’t just do it for the picture. You have to earn the picture. I mean, that’s the goal. There’s a lot of smaller goals to to lead me to that point.
And where does this fit into a season in which you have a bunch of IRONMAN events, too?
Well, it would have worked out fine if I weren’t to have got ‘hit in the face’ early in the year. I went to South Africa and ended up getting sick. So, then I had to add Cairns three weeks ago and to go after the points. (Hanson would finish fifth there.) I’m not so worried about feeling good for this one. But, Lake Placid in two weeks is going to feel pretty rough. But at least I was able to have a good day, a decent day in Cairns, and that opens up the options.
We also managed to grab some shots of Hanson’s bike, which we profiled last year heading into Kona. There are a few changes to his new set up.
Hanson has switched out the Drag Zero aero bars he used in Kona for the Fast TT model.
As in Kona, he’s running the DT Swiss ARC 1400 80mm front wheel.
But here in Roth he gets run the ARC 1100 Disc rear wheel. He’s still using Shimano Dura Ace components.
He’s still using the ISM PN3.0 saddle, but now there are two water bottle cages attached – in Kona he had a single cage attached.
All smiles as he gets ready to take on the speedy Roth course.
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Challenge RothMatt HansonQuintana RooQuintana Roo V-PRiRoth 2025Notable Replies
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What size chain rings are those?
That bike allowed Hanson such a comfy ride (albeit 19 minutes slower than Schomburg/Laidlow) that he was able to assault the Roth run course (slightly increased to the full 42.2km apparently) with his 2:28 !!
Clearly not saving himself for Lake Placid in a fortnight.
im seeing the strava results come in now and it looks like run course is 450m short, bike 2km short
I guess even if 450m short (almost within the 1% tolerance), 2:28:03 extrapolates up to <2:30.
They’re measured from the center of the road/path, 26 miles of tangents probably accounts for that missing distance.
I listened to the PTN show about guys running under 2:30 and their agreed upon take was ‘who cares’ if the run didnt result in the win. The sentiment is that, “well, an easy (slow) bike could so easily result in faster run times.” The outcome now is that the 2:30 barrier is broken and no one has really celebrated it, and when it happens in the way that they want it, it’s old news. Same for the sub-8. If it’s not one in the clique, then it again gets little fanfare.
I’m as excited as I can be (for a guy that I don’t know) for Hanson to get this. Very cool. Great guy to accomplished it. For a guy who is not going to win a WC, these type feats keep him in the game, and its worth watching and rooting for.
They say “who cares” but then talk about time milestones all the time.
They did loads of talking about female sub8 in the last few pods (rightly so) but seems pretty hypocritical.
Would not be surprised if sub 2:30 by Hanson is mentioned in the next pod. Even if they later say “who cares” again after. Milestone and barriers are good for the sport to building excitement, hype.
Not many tangents on the Roth course, so I’d say ‘probably not’. Anyway proper measurement of a road race course does not follow the road/track centre.
I think this is a reasonable take. It’s clearly the case that an easy bike might allow a much faster run. Compare the races of Lange and Blummenfelt (who’d had to work hard on the bike, ftw) (or Haug, Philipp, Matthews) compared to those of Messias and Hanson.
Agreed that it is a reasonable take. I think its also a reasonable take to say that there is a strong amount of “who cares because its not one of our guys.” Then its not celebrated. And then it’s hard to celebrate later, also. I say, make a big deal of it. Matt Hanson finished right where he would have had he used a different race tactic and biked faster but run slower. I do not see it as an “easy” bike as much as a tactic to maximize finishing place.