Pierre Breaks Records and Defends Title at 70.3 Aix-En-Provence

May 17, 2026

All eyes were on Marjolaine Pierre and Laura Philipp, but the Queen of France refused to surrender her crown. The athletes produced blistering performances throughout the day, with course records falling across every discipline in both the men’s and women’s races.Starting from a deep-water start in 17C water, Fenella Langridge predictably took control of the swim and maintained the lead throughout, driving the pace at 1:18/100 m. Most of the major contenders lined up behind her, including Imogen Simmonds, Lizzie Rayner, Lisa Perterer, and Hanne De Vet. By the end of the one-lap swim, the front group had gained 80 seconds on local favourite Pierre and another thirty seconds on Philipp.

In transition, most of the women spent extra time pulling on additional clothing to handle the 6C air temperature. Most chose gloves and socks, while Pierre stuffed tin foil down the front of her kit for extra wind protection. Australian athlete Charlotte McShane exited the water in sixth place but endured a disastrous transition. First, the zipper on her kit appeared broken, fastening only at the top while remaining completely unzipped. Then she struggled to secure her helmet and even persuaded another competitor to stop and help her. Finally, she sprinted back from the mount line to her transition box after realizing she had forgotten her bib number.

The opening kilometres of the bike reshuffled the field, with De Vet taking the lead early. Audrey Merle, Simmonds, and Perterer formed a strong chase group. Behind them, Philipp and multiple XTERRA world champion Solenne Billouin worked their way to group, nullifying their swim deficit.. But the queen of Aix began her charge and seized the lead at the 48 km mark.

Looking in control and at home on the roads she knew so well, Pierre, who studied in the area, extended her advantage to 1:38 over De Vet. A further three minutes back, the chase group began to spread out as Philipp and Billouin moved to the front of it.

Pierre broke her own bike course record with a split of 2:19. Characteristically untying her long blonde hair as she headed onto the run course, she never needed to look back.

She posted a 1:19 half marathon (as did eight of the top nine women) and shattered her overall course record by almost four minutes with a finishing time of 4:08:27. Embracing many friends and family after grabbing the tape, Pierre looked bright-eyed and happy after her maiden victory of the season.

Behind her, the top eight all came into T2 within five minutes of each other. Everyone had smooth transitions so positioning came down to pacing. De Vet would unfortunately slip back from second into fifth, as Simmonds and Philipp (who posted the fastest run at 1:18:39) made their way to second and third, respectively, to close out the podium and claim the remaining two Nice world championship slots.

“ I just race with emotion, you know, and memories. It’s just so powerful to have so many memories here and so much good vibes,” Pierre said in her post race interview. “I really race with my heart and it was what gave me this win today.”