Really cool guy. And he's only 24 y.o.!!!

He set the swedish record of 8.08 last year, and yesterday he smashed that with some 19 minutes. Hope he's got some good years ahead.

A 24 year old guy doing his 7th IM goes from 8:08 to 7:49 and setting the seventh fastest time of all time. Shaving of 19 minutes and going from bike PB of 4:26 to 4:14 and topping up with a new run PB of 2:43.

Was the bike short, did they draft, it just don´t add up.

The average age of the top 15 fastest times are set by athletes of 33,8 years age, most of them have short course pedigree or long IM-pro careers. This guy is faster than Reid, Macca, Sebi, Leder, Crowie and several others. It just doesn´t make sense.

I did Ironman Kalmar (where he went 8:08 last year) this year and it's one of the fastest courses out there. Funny thing is, last year they didn't have the best conditions though... The swim is a little bit exposed if it's windy, the bike course quite a lot. Very flat though, 500 meters of elevation, but also a few meters long. You can get an understanding of the conditions in 2015 in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3K2kS0EPQA

This year we had perfect conditions in Kalmar (which took place on Saturday) and I believe the same thing goes for Copenhagen (Sunday race). More or less no wind at all, which doesn't happen every day... Also, it seems that Copenhagen is an even faster course than Kalmar (http://www.trirating.com/course-ratings/). I don't know if the bike is short or not, have not raced there.

Patrik also raced the ITU Long Distance last year (swim shortened due to cold water) where he was 2 minutes behind Cyril Viennot (who's put up two solid performances at Kona the last two years): http://www.triathlon.org/...championships/270351


Funny thing about Patrik is that he seems to suffer when it's cold and thrive in hotter conditions, which is pretty unnatural for us swedes! Will be interesting to see him at Hawaii, if/when he goes there.

Funny, even the trirating.com predictions goes out the window....

It gives Raelert 7:59, Nilsson 8:06 , Clarke 8:16 and Carvahlo 8:22, while the outcome was a stunning 7:49, 7:59 and 8:07 for the latter three.

A magical race indeed.

Copenhagen is a couple of miles short according to my Garmin. It came up with 110 miles. And given that the Garmin almost always over-estimates the distance, I believe it.

Are you saying it's "Not Normal"?

Yes, bike course is 178km so a little short. Would also not that conditions were pretty much ideal on Sunday. Light tail wind going up the coast and then you were more protected in-land so was a fast day on the bike.

Fast day indeed, but I can confirm (from people on motorcycles) that this (Scandinavian) record was draft legal.

Honestly (as a spectator, having watched many, many Ironman races) this is one of the most solid race performances, I have ever experienced, especially Patrick's run - stylish, controlled and fast! Congratulations

So the race was indeed ITU-style draft-legal? That explains it!

I think what you need to read from that term is that the performance on the bikes in the front of the race was legal, from a drafting point-of-view :-)

Yes, I´m saying it´s "not normal".

Iroman record times are like these:
1. Frodeno, 2016, 7:35:39, Roth, age 35, former Olympic Champ
2. Raelert, 2011, 7:41:33, Roth, age 35, former Olympian, HIM Champ
3. Vanhoenacker, 2011, 7:45:49, age 35, IM pro muliple sub 8hr (6!), Kona podium
4. McMahohn, 2016, 7:46:10, Brazil, age 36, two time Olympinan, now IM pro
5. Rana, 2014, 7:48:43, Klagenfurt, age 35, Olympian, ITU Champ,
6. Vanhoenacker, 2015, 7:48:45, Klagenfurt, age 39,
7. Nilsson 2016, 7:49:13, Copenhagen,, age 24, Swedish wunderkind doing his 7th IM
8. Frodeno, 2015, 7:49.48, Frankfurt, age 34,
9. Van Lierde, 1997, 7:50:27, age 28, ITU Longcourse medalist at that time.
10. Fromhold, 2015, 7:51:28, Roth, age 31, IM Pro, German Junior champ

Honorable mentions:
11: Zäck, 1997, 7:51:28, Roth, age 32, ûberbiker
12. Reid, 1999, 7:51:56, Klagenfurt, age 30, 3time Kona Champ
14. Henning, 2010, 7:52:36, Roth, age 35, Olympian top10.
15. Kienle, 2016, 7:52:43, age 32, Kona Champ
20. McCormack, 2007, 7:54:23, Roth, age 36, ITU Champ, legend


Two thing sticks out; Average age is past 30 years. All have shortcourse careers. VanLierde is also sticking out from 1997 and we know what went around in cycling during those years.

I am always more worried about people signing up here, the day after the CPH race (yes, this monday the 22.) - only to comment on this athlete's performance and that its "not normal"

If you have something to say or share, then go right ahead and do so!

Disclaimer: I do not know the athlete in person, but I DID witness a stellar performance!

Every fast-ish Swede knows about Patrik and his success. He hasnt had a skyrocketing career like we would like to see; he was almost wore down by his first coach and underperformed greatly. He then changed coach and did great at one race but cramped out of a few others. He has since met a girl who is a nutritionnerd and tricoach and he moved in with her, creating the exact environment he needs to thrive. What he has done throughout his career has set him up for this win. In Kalmar 2014 he ran the first 10k off the bike in 35 minutes (and bonked badly). In Kalmar 2015 he learned from his mistakes and ran solid 39 min 10k's straight through.

Long story short he is the perfect storm of an upcoming long course star. He is a blazing runner, already did the swim focus to come out with the best guys, obv has bike talents and a solid bikefit (I think Björn has done it, not sure tho. Björn coaches a lot of the fastest Swedes nowadays but not Patrik), learns very quickly from his mistakes and makes solid performances in hot weater, and now lives in an environment (actually in Denmark) where he thrives as an athlete.

I'll have to show you guys his run from Kalmar 2015. At 40:30 to 41:30 he rand past me. I did this km in 4:44 but looks like I'm trying harder than Patrik, who is already 15k ahead of me. I was in 20-something place OA (backdoor brag).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIzXph47kgw

---

Endurance coach | Physiotherapist (primary care) | Bikefitter | Swede

I'd argue the number of AG males well into their 40s, flying comfortably under 9h is more questionable. Unless of course most of them are effectively 'lifestyle athletes' without the demands of the average AGer's life.

---

29 years and counting

i did copenhagen sunday. it was a warm run, a foggy swim, but apart from that conditions were prefect for fast times, didn't miraculously get me under 9 hours or anything but conditions definitely helped to get people a bit fast than they would have gone normally.

Except the 60°F/16C water temps. Was pulled for hypothermia. Devastating.

sorry to hear that. honestly did not find the water even the slightest bit cold, and was very surprised to hear people were pulled with cold issues afterwards. i guess there is some benefit to racing in ireland with 14c temps or less for early season races.

On another note here - is just me, or is it a bit odd that neither IM Kalmar, nor IM Copenhagen results produced a write on the official ST stream? Or did I just miss that?

Or let alone one of the best/fastest performances in Ironman history, and no mention on ST?

T

I havent seen anything either. More than few results.
They are usually very fast and cover most of triathlon world

Maybe soon to come?

Patrik looks to be on his way for a second win, and a second sub8 performance this year, in Barcelona today.

Two of the absolute fastest courses but still...

Heia Sverige!!

Swim: 49.32
Bike: 4.20.15
Run: 2.41.25
Total: 7.55.28

Based on my experience n=1 Kalmar can be super fast or very difficult--- depending on the wind. When I looked at the course metrics before the race I was expecting it to be super fast- but the year I did it I think it had one of the slowest swims on average of any ironman race that year- 2015, I think- and the bike was much slower than I had anticipated because of the wind... I had never experienced wind like that where I am from, so it was a pretty big mind $uck to be throwing down max ftp on a totally flat course and go like 15 miles per hour --but even though I vomited twice from sea sickness during the swim, I loved every minute of it (..:.:::in retrospect, of course- at the time it totally sucked) That said- that course with no wind and ideal conditions has the potential to be very fast. It is just rare to have ideal conditions. Someone told me once I was there that the name of the island translates to something like "land of wind and sun".... Wish I knew that ahead of time!!! As an aside - the people there are absutely amazing- just unbelievable support, crowds and cheering.

Wow, that was a stellar performance from Patrik!
7:49 and 7:55 in 42 days, must be a back to back world record.

The guy is on fire, wonder when we will see him in Kona?

He´s going there next year it seems.
Gonna be interesting. Takes a while to get used to it but he has great potentials
beeing very young for an triathlete.