Pro Race Recap | 2025 IRONMAN 70.3 Aix-en-Provence

Catch the replay of the exciting pro race from the 2025 IRONMAN 70.3 Aix-en-Provence.

Read more about the key race moments here:
https://proseries.ironman.com/

🔔 Subscribe to our channel, and turn on notifications:
https://www.youtube.com/user/ironmantriathlon?sub_confirmation=1

💻 Visit our website and find your race: https://www.ironman.com/

📱 Follow us on our social networks:
Instagram: https://instagram.com/ironmantri
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ironmantri
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ironmantri
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ironmantri

[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] The Iron Man Pro Series continues with six incredibly hardfought races behind us. The last in the USA. And today we are here in Axen Province, France, which is normally known for its wine, cheese, nugar, and olives. And the beautiful and famous sunflower and lavender fields. The first third of the season is behind us and it’s now all about the points that the athletes are making their way toward the chasing the $1.7 million in bonus prize money where every second matters. Today Iron Man 70.3 Axen [Music] Proce and today will be none other than spectacular Minda Carfrey. Welcome. What’s it going to be today, Minda? 22 1/2, 21 1/2, somewhere around there. We’ve been having great swim times this year already as we get underway here in Action Province. We are here at the Iron Man 70.3 and we are underway. Athletes are madly trying to find some space for themselves. Uh it always looks like a bit of a washing machine at the start of that race and you just want to avoid getting a foot to the face or a a fist to the face. Uh but we’ll see as they get a few hundred yards in. things will start to spread out a little bit and uh athletes will sort of uh form alliances, find uh their fast friends and uh we will see some hopefully be able to pick out um some of the athletes. We do have some athletes in colored caps that we will be able to pick out as we go. Well, the two yellow caps there, I can see that Matia Czecharelli from Italy and also Sam Dickinson from Great Britain are right up there in the early part. right here we can see right swimming along there in the pearly pink cap as well Pier Le. So no surprises there to see Pierre right up there in in fourth place at the moment. He is wearing that pink getting himself way out of the water there Mirinda and navigating his way just really nicely right now. Yeah, Pierre Lor sitting pretty I like to say that’s a third third uh third wheel or third body um in the swim. Uh these are the swim color caps we have. We have Christian Blumenfeld in green. Gustaf Eden in purple. Casper STS in orange. Pier Lur as we were just saying in pink. Catsniaak is in the green today. Villain Hersh is in the orange there. We can see that Jakarelli he’s right in there with the the red orangey cap there. Yona Shamberg and also Sam Dickinson wearing the other yellow cap there. So the the great British athlete off to a really good start. Don’t forget about William Hirs. Also, Paul Shist is a great swimmer from Germany as well. But we’re off to a great start here. You can see that the the board paddler, the uh the swim uh the swim team over there where the volunteer is having a hard time keeping up with the pace there, even though he’s on that board out there. So, we’ve got our swim safety all the way out there. You can see just going past that first buoy at the moment. We’ve got an elongated rectangular course. very long out to the far end 850 m and then 100 m across and then 850 back in is right up there as well. So the women’s are underway here. We got a great uh field of 23 of our top professional women around the world here being led there today by Marta Sanchez. Yeah, Marta Sanchez typically takes it out. Um Lena Mesnner as well be will be taking it out very quickly. uh will be able to pick out a couple of these, but uh Pearly Pink coming out really strong. That’s either Julia Melo or Louisa Pratt uh in the pink there. And there are two distinctive packs forming. Wii Emmo is a great swimmer. She said that she needs to get out there and have a great swim and bike ride today to have a chance in this race. She was third place in this race this time last year. So today, a very important race for her. You can see that Lena Meisner is right hot on the heels and Lizzy Raina as well sitting back there in sixth spot. So right up there as well, Lisa Pter and Meline Jolly, sorry, Meline Pierre is just sitting back there in the purple cap as well. So off to a great start today with our ladies there. Marta Sanchez sitting right in there as well. But it’s Imolo, the local French lady that’s off to a great start. Yeah, and as you see on the side there, we can see the cap colors, but uh Io uh swimming very well. We have a yellow cap of Lena Mesna, I believe, just taking the lead now. Lizzy Raina is also in yellow. We have uh Marta Sanchez in green. And one of the green caps uh sort of took the left. I believe that’s most likely Marta in green that we’re on screen right now. Again, she is one of the fastest swimmers led out by a good margin in Iron Man South Africa earlier this year. Emily Morier from France is also wearing a green cap and she was third place in this race last year. So, look for her to be up there today too. U Emily, so just getting back to our leaders right now that Lena Meer just a beautiful calculated start. Just didn’t get out and rush too much at the start like Io. She just waited a time and then she just got straight into it. And that’s Margelain on screen right now. Um the local French girl. She was uh fourth in in Nice last year. Incredible uh race for her from racing in her hometown. Uh knows those course that course like the back of her hand. And same here. She uh uh you know racing at home. I think she does her best. So she is just falling off the back of this group. But the pace is on. Well she and the men right now are approaching half away on this swim course. The women around 6 minutes in and we are looking at the leaders here. We have Julia Molo in the lead. We have also Marta Sanchez sitting right on her feet and in the violet cap that is Lisa Pertier as well. We believe Julie Amola is in there too. Welsh she in the men’s race. I believe that’s what we’re looking at right now. Um from overhead um a little bit different. Uh you see they’re all bunched up. There’s a there’s a lot more bodies um in there sort of but still you know in at the front we have Yonas Stromberg leading and it’s single file for a couple of athletes right behind him around a minute to swim here at the Iron Man 70.3 Axen Province. It is in beautiful southwestern France. It is the Maritime Alves region in beautiful province. And I tell you what, Miranda, we’ve been um served up a wonderful day so far here this morning. It was 12° earlier Celsius or around about uh you know 55 52° F. A little bit on the cooler side, but it’s certainly heated up right now with just about 20 seconds to swim. You can see that a large group of men in our men’s pro races coming into the transition area momentarily. It’ll be a mad sprint for the bikes and it will be absolute mayhem in the Ruby transition here coming up in a few seconds time. But a great opening swim. The field is just about set with most of our favorites right up there. Right up there. And they’re just about to hit dry land. Generally, you’ll swim until your hands hit the ground and then you start running. That’s the most efficient way to exit a swim. Uh Fast and Furious out of transition now. The athletes getting their caps off as they’re running and you’ll see them undo those wets suits and pull them down to their hips. Wii leading the swim was bringing there just coming in from France. Then Yiannis Shawnberg he did all the leading on the way in. Sam Dickinson in third place. There’s PL core going up into fourth place. Sters as we thought in fifth place. Cameron maine there’s freelance in there and is in there as well from France. Lebo is there. Chetcharelli is in there from Italy. There’s Dupri. Salber is right up there from Switzerland. And the Polish athlete Katpniaak. There is Plumemer going through in Zacharas. Christian Blumenfeld is now in 16th position just 13 seconds down. Yep. So Yiannis was uh you know leading the swim there from the very early part and then in the last part when Sam Dickinson you know just made his way across and said come on through. You need to do a little bit of work here but actually heading out of transition right now. Shamberg he gets back in the lead from Bringer and Sam Dickinson’s had a great transition. So, we’ll get to those transition times coming up in just a little minute from now. But Sam Dickinson from Great Britain leads Yannon Shamberg from Germany just 1 second. Separate our top two. Heading out onto the 90 km bike one loop. Moments away from the athletes getting out and looking like a 24 and change. Last year, Julie Almelo swam a 2453. So it looks like it’s going to be right around that same time for her today as she is right in this pack. Great pacing by the German Lena Mer there just having a good swim today. Here we go with our women’s pro field just about to head out of the water of the iron man 70.3 Axen Promise and we can tell you that right now in a great swim here today. Lena Meer leads from Germany. Marta Sanchez and Lisa Pteru from Austria with a 25 flat and a 254. Then we have Lizzy Raina Pratt is in there from Italy as well. Azimolo at 2510. So six athletes 10 seconds. As we look at the Wahoo Element rival swim time, Lena Mesner 25 flat for Lena. So, um, again, very similar swim times to what we had last year. And the athletes now make their way on this long carpet run. You’ll see them take their swim cap off, get the wet suit down on their hips so it can easily slide off when they stop in uh, transition. So, when they get into transition, do they sit down or they stand up or is it personal preference or uh, typically in a race like this, it’ll be standing up? I think maybe in an Iron Man you may may see them sit down, but typically, you know, they’ll they’ll whip that wet suit off uh super quick uh throw it in the bag, grab the bike helmet out, and and maybe some nutrition. Uh throw it in the back pocket, and they’ll be they’ll be off. First six ladies making a huge impression on the swim course here today with just six athletes out of the water at the moment there. So, we’ll know that a few of the athletes have been left behind. you know, such notables as Majelane Pierre, uh, just one of them. Nikki Bartlett, one of the favorites. She’s going to be back a little bit as well. So, little bit of work to do in the early parts of the bike ride, but Margeline is there. She is right there. And, you know, a good swimmer, but uh, she’s a very strong biker for 25 years of age. She knows this area very well, so I wouldn’t be at all surprised. By about halfway, she start making inroads on the rest of the competition. Yeah, she said she knows every nook and cranny on this bike course. Emily Morer as well getting out with Margeline. So that’ll be a great partnership. Margelane around 120, sorry, 36 back from the lead. Uh that’s within reach for Margeline. That’s not a crazy big deficit. Of course, she’d like to be as close as possible, but uh now we’re with the lead six women as they take those wets suits off. They’ve got to put them back in their transition bags and they will need to wear race numbers on this race. return that to the rack and then off they go onto the bike. Helmet must be strapped on and done up. The buckle has to be done up before the bike’s released from the rack there. So here goes the bike and it is released now. You can see Lena Mner and Martis Sanchez. Lisa Pura, the first three out of the water. Lizzy Rainer in there from Great Britain and Pratt the Italian having a great swim so far as we can see Marshall Pierre running very very fast toward that bike trying to make up a little bit of that 136 deficit. Now the Ruby transition area they say it is the fourth leg of triathlon. The transition is very very important. Absolutely. Yeah, I think uh you know when you’re racing half distances and uh competitive races like this, you cannot waste a second. And of course, you know, every second does matter in the IM Pro series as well. So, athletes are obviously of course vying for points here as well. I bet we’ll see a very quick transition time for Margelane. She’s in transition all by herself, so she has her uh space to to get what she needs to get done done. She doesn’t have anyone in her way. She’s also a very fast runner, so she would have made quick work of that transition uh zone. Uh again, trying to make up every second she can as she makes her way through transition and onto the zoot bike. Margelane sitting down trying to get the rest of that wet suit off there as the other athlete stands up and they’re happy to say goodbye to L Perles and head off onto the bike right here. 90 km hilly course as they make their way back in toward Axen Province where they’ll be met with a 21 km run over a threelap course. It is uh well pretty flat mind but uh you know with a couple of little inclines here and there but it’s going to be a fast run today because we know that in the men’s and women’s fields we’ve got some really good runners out there today. I’m I’m really interested in seeing you know the legs of someone like Gustaf Eden come back. Christian Blumenfellow and Pier Le probably the three fastest runners in the men’s field today as we look at Margelan Pierre knowing these roads very very well and she’s happy to have the swim behind her and her favorite leg coming up early leader that is Lena Mner and then also up there having a good ride so far we can tell you that our top three ladies are just really hammering right now just trying to get rid of the rest of the athletes here. Julie Imolo spoke during the week that she said she wants to have a very strong bike here today. So I wouldn’t be at all surprised if you see Lisa Purder also out there. Mart Sanchez and Julie Imolo really putting in the big ones early. Yeah, absolutely putting down um as much power as possible getting some separation from the women that they came out of the water with. And they know Margeline Pierre is sitting back there as well. So they will want to make quick work of those early miles and try not to let Margel lane anywhere near them. We are in the opening miles of the Axen Province bike course here and we have a lot of action coming right up and that’s Louisa Pratt there. Um we have the Italian right on screen. So this is the back of that front group of six uh that came out of the water together. uh she’s sitting sitting there looking really good. Uh the the women of course uh don’t have to worry as much about the chaos of of the you know 20 plus men. Um you know with six women it’s a little a lot more manageable to make sure you find your space and and get into a rhythm and um and and yeah sort of race your almost race your own race. Obviously you’re racing everyone around you but you don’t have to worry about the crazy surges that sometimes happen when there’s massive packs. Um so fortunately for these women I mean still no less pain, no less uh effort but uh just less sort of chaos going on around them. Yeah, Louise are riding along nicely not showing any signs of concern up there and you know sitting back a few more meters than the legal distance there. So very very smart racing right now. You can see that the six women athletes were the same six athletes that were out of the water together. Lena Meister from Germany. Lizzy Raina from Great Britain. Iolo from France is in there. That’s Pratt that we’re looking at at the moment. Marta Sanchez is just up the road a little bit. Lisa Purder. So all of our women’s athletes up there that we thought that would have a shot today are in there. The only one that’s around about 238 down uh being one of our favorites was Margel Pierre. But also we’re forgetting Nikki Bartlett. Nikki Bartlet, not known for her her swim ability, but Nikki can ride a bike and and can run. So, uh Nikki will be someone we will be keeping our eye on um throughout the day. I’ll I’ll go and look at at only 40 minutes in the race. You are absolutely right in saying that. However, she’s more than 6 minutes down at this point of time and it’s going to be a a very very hard task to pull that in, especially when we get to that 60 km marker. 60 to 70 km marker. It’s going to be uh it’s going to be a very very uh you know hard part of the race where things might you know separate a little bit more. It’s going to be where the strength of the riders really come through and do their thing and the runners are going to have to really work hard to be able to stay with those athletes up front and then start to prepare for what is going to be a very very fast threelap run around the town of Axen Province today. But uh we can see here that our leader is having a great day here in the saddle. The champ from last year laying down a really strong he is riding away from the cream of the crop. Some of the best cyclists in our sport. So uh this is um he’s burning a match but maybe he has many matches to burn. So you know we don’t know how he’s feeling. He knows this course. He’s won on this course and he’s like I don’t care who’s here, who you are. I’m going to make you work for this win if you want to take it from me. Yeah, he’s also the course record holder at 34723 as well, you know, and then last year set the fastest uh bike time with a 20436. So, you know that he’s uh you know, he’s he’s got the bike ride uh you know, underneath him. He knows that that’s a a strength of his, but a run today. This is probably, you know, knowing that he’s going to have to get a bit of a lead on on the rest of the field, but he’s really giving it, you know, some concerted effort at this point in time, trying to build up a a good lead, and nobody else was able to go with him in the early part there. Ruben Sup is really hammering down these hills here, Minda, and he’s really putting it on the line here on these technical descents. Yeah, absolutely. And this is where like some risks kind of need to be made. And uh the athletes are completely engrossed in the moment and you know they spend so much time on their time trial bikes. It’s almost an extension of themselves. So um it looks a little bit hairy as they as they hurdle down uh the mountains, but I can assure you they’re they’re well in control. They know what they’re doing. They’re flying around those corners. You got to be careful not to uh cross that center line. Um you know that can be a penalty. Uh but yeah, this is a downhill section. And as you can see on the bottom of the screen, the light uh gray section is where he is currently at. So he’s kind of rolling the downhill. He’ll uh do a little bit of a flat and then he’ll raise back up um into the that second aid station. So uh a really quick part of the course right now. Well, Lizzy Draer is really making a forge toward the front there, riding very nicely through the flower fields, through the lavender fields, but they’re all chasing Marshall Pierre. Now Margelane came with a deficit of over a minute out of the water behind but now making the way to the front of the race. The powerful young lady that hails from this area in Axen Provence is really getting the job done today. Miranda and showing a lot of uh you know patience but I would say uh you know just a really good tactic as well. Yeah, she uh took uh basically rode through this small pack of women uh to the front and and you saw her now taking stock of, you know, who’s in there. Uh she must have decided she was sick of uh leading and um let one of the other women come around. Now she’s going to go back to the front and put the pressure back on these women. Uh this front pack is five strong. We have Margeline, Lisa Me, Lena Mesna, Lisa Pertier, and Marta Sanchez, and also Lizzie Rainer in that group. So that’s five strong. Emlo has flipped off the back of that group. Um, so too has Louisa Pratt. Um, so now five strong and Margelan Pierre is making them work for it. Through the flower fields, through the wineries they go and through aid station number two. Zupun still leads our men’s pros here at the Iron Man 70.3 Axen Provence taking another sneaky look over his shoulder and he’s still got the gap that he had about 30 kilometers ago. So Zupunk really holding on to the pace at the moment. Minda and as we get to the crux of this men’s pro race in the next 10 kilometers we are going to rise up sharply and that’s where Zupunct is going to have to either make another move or just hold that pace. Margeline Pierre on the other hand is really doing a great job of things. She’s showing maturity uh you know for her young 25 years of age and uh you know just how to get it done as well with a deficit coming out of the swim. This young French lady is really tearing it up. Yeah, we are most certainly on the climb. You see Zapunk there hopping out of the saddle and uh I think this is sort of a welcome change for the athletes uh getting out of the arrow bars, stretching out the hamstrings, the back um and just getting out of the saddle and put, you know, they do put down a little bit more power when they go up over the hills. Um but yeah, he’s definitely trying to keep the pedal to the metal. Um, we will get accurate splits to you just as soon as we can. Unfortunately, Reuben Zapunked forgot his GPS this morning and so he’s the one guy we really would have loved to have had that on. Um, but he forgot to put it on. So, we don’t have an accurate split right now, but uh, we can tell you that that chase pack is large and it has some very heavy hitters in it. Pier Laor, that’s the athlete we’ve been trying to hunt down and see if he has been able to stay intact with this um main group or with Christian Blumenfelt and Christian Blumenfelt uh at the front of this group now and being the aggressor trying to split this up because this is one large group of men chasing the leader Reuben Zapun. All the men who are in contention are on this climb right now. the leader has really cleared out. She has cleared, you know, out and and even to a point where, you know, the the ladies just weren’t even able to hold on because of the the power that this young uh French lady is really putting out right now is everything that she needs to and she needs to get out there and and establish a very decent decent lead. Lisa Ptera this year is uh having a very solid start to 2025 and and she’s one of the ladies that I look to have one of the fastest uh you know foot speed here today for the run. So Margeline as we were saying before she doesn’t really have a weakness. She’s a good swimmer. She’s a terrific biker and she’s a great runner. So you know good on her. She’s just going to have to keep that uh the pressure on right now because over the last 20 to 25 km where she’s at or actually no round about the last 20 km where they are right now is where that she’s going to have to uh you know control herself and try at the same time make a little bit more of a gap in between uh the runners here. But you can see just heading around that hair pin there just absolutely beautiful out of the saddle very smooth goes back into the saddle looking great. Now, what he’s done is really nothing short of amazing. And that was an incredible bike split by our men’s leader here today. Remember last year he did a 204. So, as soon as we get some, you know, times that come through, we’ll let you know exactly what Reuben was able to do today. But heading off um the bike right now into the Ruby transition area number two. Minda, he looks pretty good. He looks great. He looks his stride is nice and long. He doesn’t look like he’s pulling up short at all. um you know is making quick work of this transition. It looks like it’s another long run through transition. Um he’s taken the helmet off. Uh and he is just moving through transition right now trying to get in and out of there before anyone else does. Uh it’s always good to, you know, make sure they don’t get get eyes on you um early. But again, this race course is three laps, a lot of U-turns, a lot of out and back. And he’s got three loops of 7 kilometers now. were very twisty, very turny. Uh it’s sort of a race circuit around here through the beautiful old streets of Axom Province. This uh place was founded in 132 BC, Miranda, believe it or not. As we get Zupunk now going through at um through transition there, but his bike time today was at 20351. So just faster than his uh time of 204 um last year. So we can see the group just coming off uh you know just chasing down this pay just coming through at the moment is Christian Blumenfeld. He’s running uh nicely into transition but our race leader Zupun is really heading out super fast here today. Yeah and we have um all of the men coming in now. We have Casper Stors in there. Cas Casper Sepniak. We have Sam Dickinson and Christian Bloomfeld. Tom Vilen of course Nathan Gar came in second. We have Gregory Pavet. Uh Charelli is going. Yeah. Yber was in there. One of our race favorites. Zack House Dupi is there. And Andrea Salversburg from Switzerland. Leo is just coming in and Vilheim Hirs. So you’ve got 15 uh actually 14 athletes just coming in within 2 minutes and 33 seconds of our leader there today. So what a race that we have on our hands. Zupant running out very very quickly. But look at this. Christian Blumenfeld just going to work immediately overtaking athletes left, right, and center. There is Zupunk right now just running out through the streets of Axen Prom. The run course is 21.1 km long. And now we can see that this race really heating up in the south of France. Schwamberg has run up onto the shoulder of Viv Vivan and Christian Bloomfelt sitting in third right now. So this is second, third and fourth on screen and they are all chasing Zapun. Margelane Pierre now comes down the treeine streets of Axam Proance and exits off the bike and the dismount line right there. Pierre now of uh France is the leader on our women’s pro race here at the Ruby transition number two. She was 1 minute and 30 seconds down after transition area number one, but now finds herself in first place over this long transition. Still running with the helmet on. And will she put the socks on? I think so. Uh on a windy course like this, but we look at the Wahoo Element Bolt. bike time. She’s rode a 2211 for the 90 km. That’s 56 miles. So, we will see what the next fastest bike split is. But, uh, yeah, I think uh, you know, I think socks are a good idea when especially when the course is super windy like this. Yeah, it looks like Margeline’s running out sensibly at the moment. Just getting into a nice groove uh, straight away just like on the bike today. She looked absolutely fantastic on the bike. She’s got a really nice um you know turnover at the moment. I love the arm carriage as well. Very relaxed you know from the 25year-old. This is uh good going so far. It’s early. Christian Blumenfield not giving an inch but Caster Casper Storms is really giving us a good race today as well. So our medal positions Van from France is in first place. Blumenfell and Stors in third place right now. So the two Norwegians chasing down the Frenchmen. What we’re witnessing on screen right now is the fastest runner in this race. He’s picking off one by one just inside of the top 10 off the bike. And already into seventh place is Pier Le. We haven’t even hit the 11 kilometer marker right now. So Pierre Le is on a mission right now and it looks like with this turnover, this race is far from finished. Viain might be the leader from France at the moment, but look out for Laor. But when you look at Marshall Lane Pierre, she’s got a beautiful pace happening at the moment and just getting the job done over Lisa Pura and Lena Mesner from Germany at this point of time. So the young French lady 25 years old from Nice France is getting the job done and running along here in Axen Province. Stors right now from Norway is having a great day as well. Looks like Vain is just trying to u you know keep his turnover but struggling a little bit. There’s Christian Blumenfeld. He is just looking at that heart rate monitor just making sure that all of his numbers are lining up at the moment. He looks across at one of his training partners and and just says hey Casper take a look around. What do you see? Uh not much Christian. Let’s just keep it going there bro. So as we do see Margeline PH come up here on the run course she’s doing her own race. Look at the, you know, this stride is is just, you know, speaking volume. She’s just got that, you know, pace going at the moment. She’s running along at a, you know, a decent pace here at this point in time, you know, and at at 5 kilometers into it, she’s still got the lead and the other ladies are trying to come down on it. Now, what we’re looking at here is Mner from Germany and also Lizzy Raina. You know, they’re working hard, but they’re not taking the chunks of time out that they expect to. And and that was a good call on your side, Mindy. You were saying that they’re only taking a second out here and there. And if Margelane can, you know, just keep that pace going, then that’s all she needs to do. Things are heating up on the streets of Axen Province. It was Simon Ven from France over the first couple of laps, who was our early leader on the run here after overtaking Zup. But now the pace is on. The 2020 Olympic champion, the Iron Man world champion, has now decided that it’s time to go on the run. Casper Stors from Norway, the only man to keep up with this incredible human and triathlete Christian Blumenfeld. Now, just a few weeks ago, he was a 724 finisher at the Iron Man Texas, running at 234. And bringing it home for the victory there today is going to be Christian Blumenfeld. Will it be Blumenfeld? Will it be STS? Or will it be somebody else that is really putting up a fight of his own? That is Pier Le. Pier Core came from a magnificent deficit off the bike here today to run himself up into fourth place at the moment. But will the Frenchman catch the other Frenchman? Will it be Van to fall back one here today? Let’s go back to Margeline Pierre right now. Just running through uh the streets here. She’s uh coming up to around about halfway uh or actually up to the 7.5 km marker as she makes her way through this course in Axen Provence along the flat roads here. And you can see that she’s just getting the job done. Just turn over is one thing. One foot in front of the other and Minda what’s going through her head right now with a lead. I think right now she’s uh she’ll be getting splits and she’ll know um you know what’s happening behind her. She’s holding steady at the 7.5 um K. Lizzy Rainer is right right running at 145 sitting around there. Lena Meisner started to drop back a little bit. So Lena Meisner’s lost about 15 seconds um in that last time split. So uh Margelane just needs to keep doing what she’s doing. She looks great. She looks cool, calm, collected, and she’s running free. Now we going back to Pakur here. It looks like he’s got some company on the run now. Dickinson has run back up onto his shoulder. I believe that’s Dickinson. Um but uh Pierre Lor not able to hold pace with Christian Blumenfeld. He was making inroads, big inroads. Um at one point it was he was 39 seconds down from the the trio of um Storms, Blumenfeld, and Beyond. Um but now he’s blown out to you know a minute back. Um he’s only 40 seconds back from Van, which is a podium spot. Uh Casper Stor’s um only 5 seconds back from uh Christian Blumenfelt. But uh yeah, these men are moving out there on the course now. And this is the last lap of three laps. Christian just he just looks like he’s he’s sprinting and accelerating. You saw him grit his teeth and run up over that hill. Um, you know, it’s incredible. This man is just there. There are no words for what this man can can do. Superhum is a good one. Sam Dickinson moving back up into fourth. It looks like Pierre Lor might have gone out a little hard in the start cuz he’s sort of now faded into fifth. He’s only a few seconds back from Sam Dickinson, but he’s now sitting at 129 back. So maybe that podium um place is slipping out of his hands. may as well finish the job. Last year’s winning time was at 34723. Well, he’s absolutely going to smash that today by quite a few minutes as Christian Blumenfeld is doing to the rest of the field today. He’s just showing them that he is the class of the field. Showing them that he is the world and Olympic champion. Showing the rest of the field that he’s got another gear when it makes the difference. And now just high-fiving the crowd here in Axen Provo. It’s a great crowd, an educated triathlon crowd down here in the south of France. This is Province. It is one of the most beautiful places to race and train. But for Christian Blumenfeld, he’s not going to forget this day in any hurry. What a great swim he had today. The bike ride was incredible, but the run was exceptional. Christian Blumen Phil he’s going to get the job done today with an incredible performance here in Axen Province to break the tape in first place the Norwegian gets it done and your champion in first place premiier of Axen Province Christian Blumenfeld 34056 breaking the tape there today Minda what a great run that he had today with a 106 [Music] you 10712. There it is. Officially 10712. Yeah, I mean 10712 on a windy twisty turning course. Of course, no wonder the Wahoo helmet rival clock shows it right there. 10712 for the 21.1 km, 13.1 mi. That’s ex kind of exactly what he ran at Oceanside. But this course was, I think, more challenging with the twists and the turns. Um, he was so happy. you’re coming. He started celebrating, you know, a few hundred meters out and um just completely elated uh with that performance and and you love to see it. A guy like Christian who wins as much as he does, he still takes the time to to, you know, high-five the fans. Um celebrate this moment. Um you know, I’m sure we’ll see many more of these, but in the moment, it’s important to celebrate it cuz you just never know when you’re going to step back on that top step again. Countryman and training partner Casper Stors takes the silver medal and gets over the line in second place. But the local hero of the day today is Simon Vienn and he does get across the finish line in the bronze medal position in the third place today picking up crucial points in possibly the greatest race in his career. Right behind Christian Blumenfeld and Casper STS. And coming in fourth place today, Sam Dickinson from Great Britain giving us a great run this afternoon. 34242 holding off a fast charging Pierre Le. And we are with women’s race leader Margeline Pierre. She is running away with this race. This young woman got out of the water around 130 down in the swim. Front pack of six women made their way onto the bike course. Margeline erased that deficit by 30 kilometers on the bike and then broke away and had the roads to herself the rest of the bike ride. Amassed around a 140 lead off the bike and now is is 220 up on Lizzy Rainer who’s sitting in second place. Marshall getting the job done. Lizzy Raina is hanging in there. Just looking like she’s losing a little bit of energy to the ground there at this point in time. Yeah. And just looking back through some of Lizzy Raina’s results earlier this year, she raced 70.3 Valencia and she finished third there. Uh last year in 2024, she won 70.3 Portugal. She was third at 70.3 Swansea, fifth in Mayora, uh sixth in uh Valencia in 2024. and at the IM man world champs last year she finished 16th. So um some solid performances um last year with the first to the third. I think she’ll be you know this year finishing third already in Valencia and now uh second. This is a rising star in our sport. You know for Lena Mesner Lena just uh you know working really really hard to get the job done today. Said that she was going to go out and swim hard. Said she was going to bike hard. Maybe it was a little bit too much but she’s hanging in there. still in third place right now and only at 334 down. So, you know, things are getting a little bit, you know, a little bit tighter, I would imagine, with Marta Sanchez because Marta is only about 14 seconds down on Lena right now. 400 m to go. She is almost there. Um I don’t think she’ll be Yep, she’s already She’s around 118 so far, so she’ll be around a 120. Um, but after that bike, she shouldn’t have to run any faster. No, it’s been a well uh well thoughtout race and a a very well paced race. And that’s what we, you know, been talking about, you know, halfway through the bike ride there when she was just riding along at her pace. It’s not as if, you know, um, she went harder when she needed to. She just rode her pace and it was enough to just, you know, bike on by the people. There goes the arms up in the air there. She’s just asking the people to come on, get loud now. Marshall Pierre is now running in toward the finish line here to claim the 2025 Iron Man 70.3 Axom Provence and she’s getting it done. Yes, Margeline Pierre is coming into the finish line to her adorning fans. She will be the 2025 Iron Man accent province 70.3 champion from France. Margelene Pierre 41122 taking the tape as well with a 11757 by the look of it through the 20.8 km mark but a 11851 run time today gets it done with a total time just over that 4 hours and 11 minute marker today. Well done to Marshall Pierre. What a great way to celebrate. And the crowd is absolutely going wild. They have one of their own, the champion, Maraselain Pierre. Lizzy Raina will come in in your second place position today at Iron Man 70.3 Axon Provence. A phenomenal performance here today from Lizzy Raina. And we have Lena Meisner now on the red carpet. She will come in at third place. So I’m in 70.3 accent province Lena Meisner third place here today. Okay let’s go over to our winners right now collecting 2500 points Christian Blumenfeld Casper Stors also from Norway with 2469 and in third Simon Van at 2422 Sam Dickinson picks up fourth and Frenchman Pierre Leor at 2384. Like it was fun to ride through the bike course. Like it’s like little bit of everything and uh uh a little bit like challenging with the dynamic of being maybe 15 guys something up there and trying to do the descending right and being in a good position but I felt strong throughout the whole day and uh also coming off the bike uh I felt super comfortable from the beginning and I was just planning to go like for the last five or six like waiting until the right moment and uh quite pleased with how the legs were feeling when I was turning up the pace. We have to talk about that run. 2 minute gap between yourself and Reuben when you got off the bike. Within the first kilometer, you’d already taken 20 seconds out of that. And then the three of you got together, Simon and Casper and yourself. And it was just incredible. Sub 3minut pace for for some of it. That was insane. Yeah. Yeah, it was uh great fun out there on the course. And also I think it was in the first lap when Yunas came up again in the downhill but then uh I felt that he was breathing quite heavily. So then when Simon was pushing up the pace in the uphill again he got dropped uh quickly again but then Casper was playing it quite smart behind and uh yeah he had a poor transition so he was like like catching slowly and uh yeah it’s great to have two Norwegians back on the podium. Iron Man Pro Series standings. Christian Bloomfelt slides up the board into first. Yonas Schroberg slides into second. Leon Shaalier up six into third and Casper Stors up sixth as well as well as Gustaf Eden both up six spots into fourth and fifth. Over onto our women’s side of things. Today was a great result for Mareline Pierre collecting 2500. It was Lizzy Rainer, Lena Mesner, Marta Sanchez with 2227. There’s Nikki Bartlett that made her way up into fifth place. Lisa Pura slipped down to six. Sarah Spence, Charlene, Charlene Clevel, Lauren Jansen, and Louisa Yona Pratt. So, I’m so glad and so happy to be able to put my name on this race, especially with Stackfield. Uh I race on my own so it was like a good training day but on the race day with so much cheering from a lot of people my family friends so it’s so special and with this finish line like it’s so beautiful so I’m super happy to have a nice picture. So when you come back to a race that means so much to you a place that you studied in and you have so many friends and family here but also being French and winning in France must be a very special feeling. How good is that? I struggle a lot with a lot of injuries. So, it was quite hard to be back into my training and my rhythm. I do do a lot on myself and I’m I’m just so happy to race with my horse. We train so many hours every day. So, yeah, the winning here is just amazing and so special. And we’ll go over and look at our Iron Man Pro Series standings after today’s race, the sixth, seventh race on the series. Marta Sanchez moving up seventh now into first place. Annie Rashman, that’s sliding down one into second. Lisa Pertier up 12 into third. As now for threetime Iron Man world champion Minda Carfrey. I’m Greg Welch saying thank you very much for watching Iron Man 70.3 Axom Provence and watch on demand replays of all Iron Man Pro Series broadcasts exclusively in the US and Canada. Sign up for outside plus today globally. Watch the proseries. I immenra YouTube channel and any of our global distributors. So long for now. This copyrighted broadcast of World Triathon Corporation may not be retransmitted, reproduced, rebroadcast or otherwise distributed or used in any form without express written consent of World Triathon Corporation.