Pro Race Recap | 2025 Mainova IRONMAN Frankfurt European Championship

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[Music] [Music] i want to run [Music] heat heat [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] hello and welcome to the MOVA Iron Man Frankfurt European Championship for Men a month ago we witnessed record-breaking performances from the women’s European Championship in Hamburg with World Champion Laura Phillip taking top honors over the 2024 Iron Man Pro Series champion Cat Matthews today it’s the men’s turn and the start list here in Frankfurt reads like a who’s who of the top tier professional longc course triathletes i’m DD Griezbower in studio joined by five-time world champion Craig Alexander craig welcome talk to me about today’s race is this some history in the making hey Dee how are you hello to everyone watching i’ve been like a cat on a hot tin roof this week waiting for this race you know many of the experts are saying it’s the best regular season I iron man field ever assembled and it’s hard to argue when you look who’s on the start list we’ve got six of the top 10 from the Iron Man World Championships last year including the whole podium we’ve got five of the top 10 from the North American Championships earlier this year and we’ve got most of the main players from the Iron Man Pro Series this is going to be uh you know a spectacular race on a fast course i think we’re going to see some aggressive racing and I can’t wait and a lot of the good swimmers like Yona Shamberg I’m sure want to get out really quick here and here we are underway at the MOVA Iron Man Frankfurt European Championship and as we see a couple of dolphin dives and they’re off again we’re looking for some of our key swimmers here wilheim Hirs um Johan Vogle Ben Canute should be up there uh Daniel Beckagard Rudy Van Berg we expect to be in there patrick Langa let’s look out for him can he hang on to that front pack magnus Ditliff how much time will he lose will Christian Hogenhog be able to stay in touch yeah these are all the story lines we need to look out for in the swim here that there’s certain athletes like a Magnus Ditliff he has enough power on the bike that he can bridge a gap so it doesn’t m I’m sure he’d prefer of course to be in the front group cuz we’re getting a nice shot of the athletes now about 100 meters into this swim things are already starting to thin out we see two distinct groups forming but some athletes I think like Patrick his race will be determined by where he comes out of this swim a little bit of separation there at the start uh I’d like to see uh who I believe is Wilheim Hirs there in second place get up on his feet a little bit more would be much more beneficial there’s a red cap there i think that might be Andreas Sulversburg out in front he’s a noted noted swimmer um comes from a shortc course background love to see athletes take it out hard like this you know I think you can tell a lot about an athletes intention how they start the race and you know often with with athletes like Patrick we you mentioned he came out I think it was fourth or fifth place in Kona last year this is a different swim it’s a lake swim not a saltwater swim but um you know with the beach start in that Aussie exit I I think if you’re a little inconsistent with your swim performances the start is crucial uh getting yourself in a great position getting on a good set of feet and not missing the break or um missing where some of you know often in these swims people drop the feet in the gaps can really open early in the swim and it could put you on the back foot for the rest of the swim yeah these athletes on the back of this front group they have to be very vigilant here it’s very easy to get dropped coming up the beach and of course the first athlete hits the beach and he’ll be running while the the athletes on the tail end of this group are still swimming so you know if you’re on the back of this group you’d be making sure that you just get in and out around this Aussie exit and back in the water really quickly as we see our first athlete hit the beach and every single one of these athletes their head the first thing they do that head turns around and they look around I think looking at some of those color-coded caps to see who’s with them but to your point those athletes who are get up and on their feet seem to be getting a gap uh on some of the chasing athletes as we look it is Shawnberg in the lead with Vogle Ben Canute at third feed third feet and uh Casper Steenak in fourth position and it looks like that little group of four has gotten away just by a second or two yeah see Kieran Linder’s up there as well having a great swim interesting i didn’t I wasn’t able to pick Yona Shamberg’s cap color but he is a noted swimmer as is Johannes Vogle so you know Johannes Vogel doing his first Iron Man this is his debut Iron Man but he’s comes off his first pro win earlier this year so he’s positioned himself nicely as we see some of the other pro men coming up around here we’ve got that looks like Castor Sters or potentially Christian Blumenfeld going in
yeah it looked like Christian Blumenfeld was at the very tail end uh actually is sort of in the in the second cap of the chase group uh chasing Rudy von Berg that lead group was nine athletes strong that included it um Casper Storis as you said Daniel Bakagard uh Christian Hogenhog in that group as well and then the second chase group including Rudy von Berg Christian Blumenfelt uh Datcher uh and Patrick Langa in that group as well so so far a very good swim for Patrick Langa taking a look too at uh Kieran Linders who had that breakout performance here a year ago coming in second how important is it for the athletes to come back to a course they’ve done well at at the past or to take an athlete like a Patrick Langa who for whom a hugely accomplished one of the greatest athletes um in our sport um sort of this is the missing piece of his puzzle the piece that he hasn’t gotten the one that’s gotten away it almost seems like you want one or the other you want unfinished business because you want that hunger that anger that motivation or you want to come back to a course where you’ve got really good vibes you remember how well it went a year ago and that fills you with confidence yeah I think it’s a mixture of both of those depending on your personality what was interesting there D I think it was Shawn Bird he just rolled over and did about 15 or 20 meters of backstroke and said “Hey boys who else wants to do some heavy lifting up front here?” So um it’s nice to see someone else take up the take up the pacing here but no I think it’s it’s a great question that you raised but I think it’s again it’s a very individual thing
yeah we’ve got just about I’m going to eyeball it and say that’s about 100 meters to go those sight buoys typically tend to be about 100 meters apart so uh we’ll call that less than maybe a minute now until they uh reach the shore and make their way into the Ruby transition zone again course best here 4217 that is long gone from Yan Severson so uh his course best will stay safe for yet another year we’re at 46 minutes and change on our race clock with less than a minute to go in this Aroa swim course uh a little bit strung out here we’ve got 1 three four five guys in the lead and then another second or two uh to the last four in that group so just just a hair but those those small gaps can grow incrementally uh through transition they can but I think on the back of that group Christian Hugenhog I think he’ll be more than happy with this swim in fact I think he’ll be over the moon with it as I think it’s Andreas Susber leading out here i saw the Swiss flag on his sleeve yiannis Vogle in this group Kieran Linders in this group Casper Stor so it’s an elite front group William Hirsch in this group and we’ll get a good split i think they’ve swam about a 47 minute swim so fast start not the 42-minute swim course record but still a fast start to this race
and of course we knew the gap between this lead group and the chase group was 45 seconds at a kilometer and a half we’ll see uh what damage has been done by these fast swimmers uh by the time all is said and done at the conclusion of our ROA swim course as we take a look at our swim split from our swim leader Andrea Salisburg uh 4742 uh presented by our friends at Wahoo Element Rival official swimslit 4742 from Andrea Sisber yep i’ve been eyeballing that clock but these guys as you said eyes forward into transition they know they’ve got the likes um of uh Christian Hogenhog amongst them there we see Ben Canute uh with the Stars and Stripes on his race kit very strong swim from him not a surprise again I think to your point the surprise was Christian Hogenhag as we look at Rudy Von Berg uh leading that chase group out he is a minute and a half down uh joined by Christian Blumenfeld Patrick Langa uh and Paul Schuster the next bunch out of the water yeah I think I think Patrick will be over the moon with that swim um you know he’s got some of the other pre-race favorites around him as we see Ben Canute here putting his helmet on he won’t waste time in transition we saw Yoanas Vogle run in into the change 10 on Ben’s shoulder as we see Rudy Vonberg leading this second group out so they lost yeah about 47 seconds on this second loop so they’ve they’ve held pace okay i don’t think anyone in this group will be too disappointed with that although they will be surprised to hear that Christian Hugenhog is up the road but I’m sure that will be a surprise to a lot as we see Yianis Vogle make his way out now kieran Lindes Andreas Susber so these these gentlemen are not mucking around they will want to maximize every second of lead that they have out of this swim
and back at swim exit Craig we’ve got Magnus Ditlv another one of our notable uh super strong cyclists he is at just over two minutes back so he’s at the very very tail end uh about 30 seconds down uh from Rudy von Berg who led that chase group out so another 30 seconds back is Magnus Ditliv but they’re all together so there’s another 11 guys that are within 30 seconds uh exiting in that chase group
yeah so it’s nothing has really been settled as we knew it wouldn’t in the swim although again I’m just interested to see the early kilometers of this bike what what Christian Hugenhog decides to do the gentlemen are now on the early part of this bike ride and I’m just I for me the big story line here is Christian Hooenhog what a great swim and I’m I’m really really interested to see what his tactics are in the early kilometers of this bike ride and also of note this isn’t the size group we thought it might be coming out of the swim how does that affect early dynamics on the bike particularly as the athletes are sort of sorting themselves out some of the stronger cyclists maybe making their way to the front there’s less congestion less potential for those um you know head down trying to make your way forward mistaken penalties that can happen uh smaller groups than we might have expected yeah we see the leaders here we saw Ben Canoot tucked in nicely at the back of that group he’ll be he’ll be more than happy with his positioning after the swim and he’s typically an aggressive racer Dee we we have seen Ben you know test the legs of the other athletes we saw him do it in Eagleman not long ago he was up the front and off the front of the race for a little while so I’m wondering if he’s going to play it a little more strategic today he has got the strength to do that as we again we flash back to Daniel Bakagar here looking nice and comfortable daniel of course changing coaches this year as you mentioned right at the top of the show working with Philip Seep who’s Laura Phillips’s husband and Philip’s one of the one of the best training coaches in the world uh so I think that’s a good change for Daniel he wasn’t that long ago was regarded as one of the best Iron Man races i I watched the race Iron Man West Australia in 2023 where Daniel just went solo off the front and raced to a 7-hour 34 Iron Man finish just incredible performance um and I I feel that his race in Texas was starting to show again glimpses of that form from a couple of years ago
as we take a look quickly here uh staying with Daniel Bakagar but our top transition times presented by Ruvie that’s Nick Heldorn um Casper Stepppniaak uh and Shamberg with our fastest transition times at 256 and 258 each uh so taking advantage of those quick efficient transitions top Ruby times sorry top transition times presented by Ruby easy for me to say um but yeah Daniel Beckagard a name that we talked about so frequently for so long and then just really again issues with injury uh so it’s great to see him glimmers again similar to Gustaf Eden uh glimmers of what he once was and as he continues his sort of comeback story uh under new coaching toutelage as well we’ve got Shawnberg off the lead with about a minute over the Chasers this is this is one heck of a ride so far from this athlete who’s only in his second Iron Man
and he’s racing in his home country he’s had a third on debut you’ve got to imagine that he learned a lot from his first Iron Man race in South Africa and he’s you know he’s bringing a lot of that knowledge here as we get a some vision back in the field the athletes coming up that overpass that we saw Yonas go over two or three minutes ago i mean he has really lit up the early kilometers of this bike course
and you are watching race leader Yonas Shamberg with a technical malfunction um right before we went to break there he his arrow bar came completely undone he has stopped he had a 2 and 1/2 minute lead on the chasers and he is giving that up now the entire front of his arrow bars fell off the bike craig what’s going on here uh I tell you what when I saw that happen I got the same sick feeling in my stomach that I got when Christian flattered in Oceanside or or or when Magnus did double flattered in St george it’s just robbing us of an interesting scenario here i was just I was going to comment that I thought it was a good tactic to go so fast early in the morning when the temperature is still 20 or 21° before the heat gets up and maybe that was his plan to maximize you know these cooler temperatures knowing that it’s forecast to hit 30° by midday 30° C so unfortunately he’s hit that cobble section and the whole arrow bar has come off it looks like it’s sheared straight off and like I’m wondering if it is like a stripped bolt or if it is a I mean all of these athletes would have checked double checked the the bolt tension after traveling um going into a major race like this you would leave nothing to chance uh so I don’t know if this is like a fracture this is not a quick fix he’s he’s lost considerable time here and that mechanic is not having an easy go of it no it looks like there’s it looked like some of the carbon or the spacers had been sheared or broken so that needs to be repaired he’s probably lucky he didn’t shear the internal cabling as well as he’s just going up that cobbled section there ah just heartbreaking i mean these you know we we often sit here and talk about you know the technology in the last five or six years with these bikes and how it’s enabled some of these faster times the the comfort and the aerodynamics in the front end cockpit he was one of our leaders on the Iron Man Pro Series scoreboard after you know if if we’re just looking at one Iron Man result and one Iron Man 70.3 as we see him get going here hats off to that mechanic cuz that looked like it was going to be a 30-minute fix so I want to say he’s lost four to five minutes as we see some of the other athletes shoot past but his race is not over it’s not ideal but his race is not over
it is heartbreaking though um but the mindset has to be you know you got you got to have a short memory and forget about what had transpired the lead you had built and just put yourself back into the race and the race dynamic have a have a short memory um as they say be a goldfish uh the shortest animal with the shortest memory span uh forget about what has happened and just stick yourself back into the race where you are stay in the moment uh Christian Hogenhog with a with a great bike performance back at Iron Man Texas uh but he really struggled on that run uh running 315 uh back there in the Woodlands uh but he says he’s done a lot of heat prep so maybe that is going to work out differently for him today uh we’ve seen there’s another bottle launch there i don’t know who that was oh both bottles for that athlete there is that Casper Stor who’s going back for his bottles that’s Kieran Linders
kieran
yeah Kieran Linders going back for his his bottles i mean it’s
it’s quite astonishing DD to be honest the number of times we see this at races these bottles I know they’re aerodynamic in the placement but the the physics they tend to shoot out at regular intervals so I mean Kieran’s gone back there i don’t know if the bottle is shot out or actually the bottle and the cage the whole thing the whole contraption has come loose and come off the bike so certainly not ideal for Kieran chasing his Iron Man World Championship qualification slot as he watches the next group slowly ride by he just needs to get back on his bike
lots of non-triathlon related triathlon issues out there this morning Craig
yeah and we see Shawn Berg again here he looks very reluctant to put any weight through that cockpit that front end area and yeah I’m guessing if you’ve had one catastrophic equipment failure like that you would be a little reluctant to put all your upper body weight back through the front end of the bike so um yeah this is not not ideal for for Yonas but as we mentioned he seems to be up and running again and we’ll keep an eye on him as we go back to Christian Hugenhog here who is just doing what we’ve seen him do at a lot of races is just really lay down the power on the bike and it’s not like he goes at any crazy pace he’ll be able to maintain this throughout the course of this bike i mean he biked a 357 on this course last year different conditions it’s going to be much hotter this year uh I think they got some rain on this course last year as well so but for me this is a really interesting storyline it sets the race up nicely because you know looking at the time splits a lot of the big pre-race favorites are together about 5 minutes back of the lead christian Blumenfeld Magnus Ditliff Rudy von Berg Patrick Lunger is in there keeping them company as well so you know a lot of the names that we were talking about pre-race the guys who have figured on the podiums at the World Championships in recent years um and won a lot of the big regional championships they’re they’re just making their way through this race with a little fanfare early you know we know these races they’re they’re long days um and they take many twists and turns throughout the course of the day but I’m liking what we’re seeing from Christian Hugenhog so far dee
well and it’s not just Hogenhog i mean if we look at at some of our GPS data now it looks like Chase one is actually even pulling away now that gap was at around 2 minutes went to 230 and now we’re seeing it at 3 minutes so I I think that Chase 2 while there’s a lot of miles left to go or kilometers depending on where you’re watching um they can’t be too complacent they’ve got to be mindful um of managing that gap yeah we’re getting we’re getting word from from now down from the course and from our technical team on the ground uh that the race officials have decided that uh his bike setup in its uh current condition is not safe uh either for himself or other riders around him he was riding in a group and they just think that it’s it’s not a safe position he’s lost the ability um certainly to to shift from at least a different location one would assume he’s got shifters on that base bar uh but technical officials deciding that in the current condition given the fact that the bike seems to be falling apart I think maybe there’s some concern other parts may not be secure as well uh would that base bar be in jeopardy of of falling off so at the moment technical officials telling him uh it’s not safe he’s going to have to cease and desist from um from the rest of the race which is which is terrible because this this guy was given it the old college try despite uh some really ill fate out there so far but uh his day I is going to come to an end
as we had a look now at Patrick Langer as he starts his second loop and yeah he looks I don’t know i wouldn’t say he looks comfortable his cadence a little a little lower than it was before and
we typically when Pat
Oh sorry when when we see Patrick riding well he’s got a little bit of rhythm in his shoulders and his rhythm I agree Craig looks a little off
yeah he looks a little off to me for sure i mean I think he’s certainly not a a natural bike rider like some of the other boys but we’ve seen him i mean he biked a 406 in Kona last year so this man can ride a bike he just he looks a little off to me today i’m not sure but again I am still backing in his ability to I mean he I mean his body language to me still looks like he’s he’s up for the fight um and I I think he’ll back himself in you know if he he can stay close enough i think he’s always confident in his ability to have if not the fastest the second fastest run on course and um so all is not lost for this man just yet isn’t it amazing we’re what three hours into the race and we’re only clapping eyes on Christian right now so I I think it just speaks to the depth of the racing and the quality and a lot of these younger athletes who are keen to swim hard and take the race up the road and um it’s great it’s it it lends to you know as us as fans of the sport watching it leads to a really great and interesting race dynamic and but again this man has so much experience i’m sure he’s not panicking he knows what kind of a marathon Iron Man marathon he has up his sleeve and he’d be he’d be crunching the numbers um he it wouldn’t have escaped his attention that Patrick Lunger has has drifted off the back of this group um but he’d also have eyes on the front of the race i mean that’s he’s a champion he has a champions mindset he’s he’s thinking about nothing other than victory he’s not thinking about Iron Man Pro Series points or the $28,000 first prize paycheck he’s he’s thinking about winning the race and adding a European title to his incredible resume and uh it’s interesting you know this sort of congested narrower part of of the bike course D it is hard to it’s harder and easier i mean with with the sort of the stop start nature here gaps can form but the speeds aren’t as high here but the gaps can still open up for this group of 13 and I don’t think it’ll be a group of of 13 for very long
the man from Denmark Magnus Ditlev softspoken uh but really really um a likable guy uh I think he’s got a quiet confidence about him there’s never a hint of arrogance from him uh he’s put in a big effort to improve his swim he said at the start of that a fighting chance series thank you again to our friends at Hoka for that visit uh that he was hoping that he would have a compatriate and Christian Hogenhag but unfortunately Hogan Hag is five minutes up the road but Magnus Ditlev uh doing all he can uh to move through uh we see quite a bit of congestion right now a little shaking to the head at some of the dynamics going on there and we expected that because now uh chase groups in one and two have conversion there’s 13 guys in that group also trying to overtake uh lapped age group athletes so it’s a bit of uh a lesson in patience and perseverance not only is Christians lead up to that up to and through that magical 7 minute mark 718 um you’ve got Rudy von Berg at the front of that chase group currently but if you look down what’s interesting to me on the tracker it tells you how many spots up and down you’ve the each athlete has moved since the last timing mat and to look at the movement in the chase group up three down two up four down seven these athletes are all over the place and they cannot sort themselves out to the point where you would expect a Christian Blumenfeld to be pretty aggressive and want to stay towards the front of that group uh to try to blow it up and separate it a little bit but he’s the ninth or tenth guy in that group so that he just can’t get to the front because the group is too big and it’s going to have to burn too many matches for him to to bridge all the way forward so they just can’t get get through it all uh optimistic for Rudy von Bberg who’s at the front of it to try to separate himself but for a lot of the firepower behind they just can’t get through the congestion
yeah DD the drama continues i mean this is just crazy so close i think under 10 km to go until we see him ride into Ruby T2 and let’s see what happens here does he hit some tram lines or a pothole something’s caught there maybe he’s got a It looks like his chain has bounced and maybe lodged down between the frame
yeah he wasn’t able to recover that sometimes uh if it drops hard uh it can get stuck in there it looks like he tried to reach down don’t try that at home folks you might lose a finger but uh tried to rectify it pulled over to the side of the road got it fixed and his back moving uh again he’s got a seven and a half minute lead on the field so it’s not going to cost him that much but we know that every second matters uh at the end of this day it would be tragic to see him lose this race by a handful of seconds because he would owe that to a dropped chain but he is back moving um yeah that’s a a tough break but uh he’s back rolling and um we’ll see what happens um every second does count not only for Iron Man Pro Series points but I think as we see Christian coming into dismount now both freaked down before the dismount line very smooth and look Be’s turnover looks good i think you can always get a few little tells telltale signs early as they hop off the bike and he looks good yeah absolutely as we take a look at uh Christian Hogan Hog’s first off the bike bike bike split on the day presented by our friends at Wahoo Element Bolt 35210 uh that’s uh pretty outstanding bike split there and I agree we call this the judgment zone where uh we take a look at his run form coming off the bike often times those hip flexors get shortened up uh and not today for Christian Hogenhog he looks great as he hits the ground with good good foot speed good bounce in his step rolling that bike all the way into uh transition he will rack the bike and head his way into Ruvie transition grab that run bag uh take that helmet off get that run gear on and be on his way as we look back to the rest of the field and start to preview this hoker run course certainly uh we know that uh Christian Blumenfeld and Patrick Langa capable of throwing down some great marathon times giannis Hoffman also capable of a great marathon who else in this group uh the Chase group is capable of running down an 8 and 1 half minute deficit well I think the the big name that stands out is Christian Blumenfeld there’s there’s some athletes who have some really fast standalone run PBS but have yet to do it off the bike jonas Hoffman does have a lot of run pedigree patrick Langer of course but he’s a bit further back and we’ll have to serve his penalty in in T2 as we see Christian running out here m you know we talk about efficient bike and and swimming techniques and we we do the same in running but you know what’s most important is how fast you cover the ground so you know let’s see what the pacing splits are early here and how they compare back to some of our other athletes in that chase group to me Christian H passes the eyeball test at the moment he’s He’s ticking along that daddy’s a little stiff and sore getting off after a what was that DD a 352 bike split oh my goodness i mean
yeah me too these guys these guys are incredible also word that at the front of the chase group that Magnus Ditlev and Daniel Beckagard have jumped clear uh of the rest of the folks and right now we’re we’re at a standstill here
okay the first one in the beginning and the second one now okay can you communicate clearly
yeah I I will but again it’s a and I’m not even sure it’s my coach
who is it
two two guys they told me “Hey I’m I’m I’m the coach.”
So
okay so listening this it sounds like
he’s getting a penalty for outside assistance apparently someone’s coach was on course according to the official there 15 seconds
the drama continues Dee the drama just continues it looks like this will be a stop and go the equivalent of a yellow card uh we’ve got the technical official watching his watch so it looks to be a one minute penalty and off he goes again you heard what the official said to him what were the exact words i was I was talking over it
it was some sort of coaching or outside assistance um that he confirmed it was one of Christian’s entourage his coach or and so yeah he was assessed a one minute stop go penalty checking what that gap will be magnus Ditlive the first to dismount uh and he his unofficial bike split 35905 he sits 750 back so that quick chain stop only cost uh about 25 seconds uh for Christian Hogenhog daniel Bakagard uh team Denmark off in first second and third place here into the Ruby transition zone with Christian Hogenhog obviously out running already magnus Ditv in second daniel Bakagard in third yeah the three Danes off the front of this race and they know each other’s game they know each other’s strengths and weaknesses very well so um nice little tactical move at the end of the bike we saw Cat Matthews do it in Hamburg a month ago to Laura Phillip just
And look at this that’s Cameron Worf I think at the front of the rest of that chase group so Cameron caught up to the group and biked absolutely threw it uh in the closing kilometer so Cameron Worf I think off the bike in about fifth place there yep exactly fifth place so outstanding performance from Cameron Worf did it all on his own moving his way through uh the rest of the chasers uh Casper Storz Cameron Worf Gustaf Eden Rudy Vonberg Casper Steppnak Ben Canute at 854 Leonard Arnold Christian Blumenfeld and Johannes Vogel uh so that is quite the chase group we will see uh a lot of action here in the Ruby transition zone [Music] yeah interesting that Daniel and Magnus were able to get a minute at the end of that ride in the last handful of kilometers it’s still the best part of 9 minutes to the majority from the majority of this group to our leader although we did see Christian serve his one minute penalty on the run course so closer to 8 minutes and some great runners in this group de I think we’ll learn a little bit at the you know the the first couple of timing splits out on course here certainly the first lap we’ll learn a little bit about what athletes intentions are with their pacing and and if they choose to particularly the someone like Christian Blumenfeld is he just going to go for broke and go for the win here i think we’ll also know who in that group may have overbiked uh obviously large group dynamics uh if anybody overcooked themselves on the bike that certainly is going to rear its ugly head in the opening kilometers uh of this Hoka run course as well [Music] as we’re back with our leader Christian Hogen Hog and he seems to have shaken off that little indiscretion and he’s getting back to his work he’s got the the lead lead bike rider with him now keep in mind he’s just gone through that uh opening time segment there uh on the tracker at 1.8K but that will be inclusive of the time he uh spent standing still so uh take that one with a grain of salt it is not reflective of his overall pace thus far yeah it was interesting to see had the the race suit zipped all the way down the athletes are definitely feeling the heat here today and in this heat he’s going to play A big part in the marathon as we see Daniel Bakagar head out on course looking good there nice and fluid no worse for wear again always sort of tough to tell but uh he’s found his run posture pretty well sometimes athletes can be a little bent over with those shortened uh hip flexors from a long hard bike ride but uh he looks to have found his form and and upright and moving moving well moving forward
yeah he’s got a nice rhythm nice rhythm going nice leg turnover and again he’s got the he’s got the race kit unzipped as well so the heat is going to have its say in this race for sure um like you say Dee the the really good triathon runners they they get upright quickly and they get access into full hip extension straight away and Daniel looks like he’s found a nice rhythm early
uh Magnus one of our faster fastest movers uh on course right now through the last timing segment granted it’s early stages uh but Magnus moving really well as we take a look uh at uh uh Christian Blumenfeld now picking his way through the field yeah and he’s just pulled up on the shoulder of his countryman Casper Storis and interestingly Dee these two gentlemen posted just ridiculously fast run splits just 3 weeks ago and Iron Man 70.3 Axon Province in the Iron Man Pro Series i think Christian was a 10650 and Casper was a 10710 and they’re actually chatting to each other you can hear them chatting discussing the pace and uh this is a power group right here so um yeah two of the best runners in the field so it’s interesting they’re swapping the lead here we saw Christian on the front and now Casper’s on the front this is certainly a little partnership of convenience or an allegiance that’s formed between these two guys and they’re two of the fastest movers on course right now
yeah you know one of the things I noticed uh actually during his uh fighting chance uh profile that we saw a moment ago and if you missed it uh make sure to get on the Iron Man YouTube channel uh to take in that episode but Christian Blumenfeld again you don’t Yeah body type doesn’t matter right it’s it’s it’s who gets to the finish line first but but Christian Blumenfeld has been he’s got like a a huge massive chest if you ever see him in person um just the way his rib cage is is shaped but to me he looks leaner than he’s looked in the past um I don’t know if that’s by design i know in the past uh when he’s tried to uh slim down it’s actually detracted from his uh power on the bike and so he’s always been very careful to to maintain uh his weight in a certain range but to me he looks he looks trimmer than I’ve seen him in the past and and he’s running extraordinarily well yeah what’s interesting isn’t it i mean it’s it’s always fraugh with danger we see an official here coming up to have a chat with Magnus Git i’m not sure i think has has Magnus been assess the penalty let’s go down to the ambient see if we can hear go
red cartisification disqualification what the you talking about you can’t disqualify me wow wow keep running Magnus keep running let’s sort this out later i just not sure what’s going on here but uh didn’t really hear what was said there D i’m not sure if you caught it but it wasn’t a it wasn’t a yellow card like a one minute standout it was definitely the red it was it was a red card and I heard the official say disqualification but I did not hear the reason given um certainly Magnus isn’t taking it lying down and he’s continuing to run i I again the athlete can keep going you can protest it ah okay i’m hearing right now that he was assessed a yellow card but he didn’t stop and so now he’s been assessed red card and will be disqualified for failing to honor the yellow card stopand go penalty okay do we have any idea what he was assessed the yellow card for
we’re waiting to hear from our technical officials what that was for um
am I disqualified or not we can see him asking if he’s disqualified or not
yes i I want the official to get up next to our camera so we can hear So he’s going to start this marathon and try as we see our leader just try and get the crowd fired up and give him a little lift there i love that i think that shows a lot that that says a lot Dee about where his head’s at and how he’s feeling
uh but to I agree with you Craig uh Blumenfeld and Stor look best on course at the moment and um I think time will tell uh as to whether or not the paces that Hogan Hog is is turning in uh will be enough to hold on for the lead again we we have the weather to contend with and the heat um certainly getting getting higher the the mercury rising uh but all of these athletes fueled by these great crowds which we see now flooding down to the main river uh alongside to cheer these athletes on little bit of an update Dee we just got word from the head referee that Magnus Ditliff’s red card has in fact been rescended so apparently they’re just trying to communicate that to him out on course uh I’m glad he kept running it was the smart thing to do but you know under the circumstances and the pressure and the scrutiny um who knows what was going through his mind but he seems to I mean he’s such a calm character such a great temperament for a world-class athlete he just stays in his own head stays in the zone and he looks absolutely fantastic out on course here just a slight slight forward lean you know he’s making it hard for these two men behind him to to bridge that gap well you called it you predicted it it’s it’s it’s been a long time coming though but we have we have three of the best triathletes in the world over the Iron Man distance now shoulder-to-shoulder as we approach halfway of this run maybe a little crack starting to appear in the uh Casper Storis armor as Christian again just squeezes the pace a little bit or is it Casper coming off the pace we’ll have to we’ll have to check back on the splits on that but both men still look good and what we can see at the front of the race here is the closest the two Christians have been since they were standing on the start line together about 7 hours ago so um this has been a phenomenal race this has been just one hell of a race but what we’re going to see here is a pass as one of the greatest triathletes on the men’s side of the sport that we’ve seen just takes the lead from just a gallant courageous performance from Christian Hogen Hog and I think a real step up in his career trajectory but what can we say about this man dee Christian Blumanfeld just continues to just produce time again he just continues to produce
no acknowledgement there as he makes the pass i’m sure there will be great acknowledgement at the finish line uh but Christian Blumenfeld has uh unfinished business going to get himself to the finish line before he acknowledges the outstanding performance of his competitor there uh goes round the corner gives him a gives him a look to make sure that uh he’s not going to try to do anything silly like go with him and again some race dynamics happening uh behind uh Yonas Hoffman secure in fifth place rudy von Berg has moved past Magnus Ditv now sitting in sixth cameron Worf fighting hard in eighth to see if he too can get past Magnus Ditv uh before the end of uh of this race and Patrick Langa uh as we mentioned briefly has fought his way into the top 10 he’s in ninth running extremely well and if Magnus Ditlev continues to falter any further uh Patrick Langanger might have might might have the real estate uh to get by Magnus Ditlev as well but we will celebrate uh our men’s leader right now Christian Blumenfeld as he makes his way over the main river uh for the final time today at Nova Iron Man Frankfurt uh Iron Man European Championship for Men still wanting to secure that sub 230 marathon time it is from Norway entering the Finnish stadium onto the red carpet christian Blumenfeld your MOVA Iron Man Frankfurt European Champion here he comes Christian Blumenfeld as we see Christian Hogenhog make that right hand turn into the Roman B onto the red carpet now what a performance by this man he’s going to take second place in the Myanova Iron Man Frankfurt European Championships just a wonderful wonderful well-rounded performance by this man a career’s best race as he takes some time to high-five the crowd i’m sure he’ll be over the moon DD with this performance it’s definitely a step up and I want to say a career best race for Christian H
that bike and ran super strong was disappointed with his performance uh in the run at Iron Man Texas went back did some heat work uh and boy did it pay dividends today for our runner up at my Nova Iron Man Frankfurt European Championship onto the red carpet for Casper Stor he will round out our men’s podium at my Nova Iron Man Frankfurt European Championship
yeah super pleased with that i saw it on the watch but uh yeah I was just I was struggling so much on the last part of the bike i had to be a little bit careful especially on the first uh two laps on the run just to get those calories in and I was just trying to get those Morton gels down and uh also had like a bottle with me out of transition and uh uh I thought that Magnus would run slower in the beginning but he was also doing like 330 pace so and as well Hogen up front uh I was did or I was assuming that he would sort of fell apart a bit more because he was riding so strong uh I think he did like seven five or six minute quicker bike than what I did and uh yeah he was really responding there on that third lap so I had to really dig deep in order to catch him
and I think just wets our whistle for what’s to come with World Championship uh season fast approaching uh great to take a look as we recap our overall top 10 uh athletes again christian Blumenfeld Christian Hogenhog Casper Storis Gustaf Eden Yonas Hoffman Rudy von Berg Patrick Lunger Magnus Ditliff Cameron Worf and rounding out our top 10 Paul Schusta again all of our athletes with their challenges on the day not only from the caliber of field the conditions on the day let’s take a look at the Pro Series standings after this MOVA Iron Man Frankfurt European Championship christian Blumenfeld stands at top uh our men’s leaderboard moving up four spots cameron Worf moves up into second place casper Storis moves up seven spots and Gustaf Eden rockets 10 spots into the fourth place position thanks for watching my Nova Iron Man Frankfurt European Championship you can watch on demand replays of all Iron Man Pro Series broadcasts exclusively in the US and Canada sign up for Outside Plus today globally you can watch proseries.ironirman.com iron manchai YouTube channel or any of our global distributors for Craig Alexander I’m DD Griebower this copyrighted broadcast of World Triathon Corporation may not be re-ransmitted reproduced rebroadcast or otherwise distributed or used in any form without express written consent of World Triathon Corporation