They made it a ladies race because of Gentle. Now she’s on maternity leave. Hindsight is obviously 20/20. But GC would have been a more exciting men’s race given current availability and location of the top men plus Yee and Hauser.
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But to be fair, once Gentle had a miscarriage and announced it publicly, she was always going to be a “maternity risk”.
Yes, Blummenfelt’s schedule has suddenly become tight to the point of adverse effect.
Both fields for Texas look like being the strongest outside Kona, stronger than Roth. More on that later.
KB can pick up a 70.3 without detriment to other events. He is on the start list for Oceanside - but I assume it was going to be an either Geelong or. Racing Oceanside against:
| Athlete | |
|---|---|
| Trevor Foley | |
| Ben Kanute | |
| Jackson Laundry | |
| Sam Long | |
| Lionel Sanders | |
| Jonas Schomburg | |
| Casper Stornes | |
| Rudy Von_Berg |
will be no ‘walk in the park’ and has a downside of being only 3 weeks before Texas.
Blummenfelt needs to score two good IMs, and Taupō isn’t one.
| Date | Type | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18-Apr | IM | IRONMAN Texas | Texas, USA |
| 28-Jun | IM | IRONMAN Frankfurt (MPRO) | Frankfurt, DEU |
| 05-Jul | Roth | Roth | Bavaria, DEU |
| 19-Jul | IM | IRONMAN Lake Placid | NY, USA |
| 15-Aug | IM | IRONMAN Kalmar | Kalmar, SWE |
| 12-Sep | 70.3 | IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship | Nice, FRA |
What to do? (besides Texas)
Frankfurt would be insane, unless he sacks off Roth.
So race Roth (against Laidlow, Schomburg and Lange) and then race IMLP a fortnight later? Or delay and race Kalmar nice and steady, minimal competition, 5000, a month before Nice?
My assumption going into this year is that KB is not concerned with the series. He’s taken a ton of money (a million bucks in singles weighs about 2000lbs), and he’s missing the one title he still wants.
Maybe its a case of ‘do Texas and see where there points have fallen’ and go from there.
For someone who’s main goal is ostensibly Kona (pro series probably even 3rd priority behind Nice), he’s not in that bad a position - He lost 858 points in NZ. Compare vs last year, he was 786 ahead of Stornes and 2,670 ahead of Haugenhaug.
So assuming he wins Texas and (in his mind) Kona, there’s still room to slide. When the chips fall at the end of the season, he may well have lost 1st, but the odds of anyone doing 1st in Kona and 3rd in Nice (to repeat what Stornes did), plus winning 2 of LP/Texas/Frankfurt are reasonably slim. Stornes is probably the only one who can do it outside of Blu himself.
Well I guess they can both consult their coaches.
Maybe Geens, if his debut at Texas matches his potential and he chooses to ride a second IM.
Is Geens doing the pro series, or just the KQ path?
Well we (I) don’t know.
But Geens is racing both Geelong and, a month later, Texas.
Which is why I suggested, after those two are successful (ie not many seconds count), ‘just’ racing another IM would set him up for 21000+ and $200k, without adversely affecting either Nice or Kona. But Texas will be Geens’ debut so maybe that’s a bite too far (but see Loevseth 2025). Decision point will be after Texas, I guess.
If, in addition, he wishes to race T100, that’s doable, but not really 3, since the French race is a week after Nice, though in easy cycling range(!): integrated into his Kona build? Each (single sex) race’s prize purse is seriously attractive at $275k.
Geens: Geelong, 4, Texas, 6, SF, 4, Frankfurt, 15, Nice, 4, Kona, 7, Jeddah (+Qatar if it happens).
| Date | Type | Event |
|---|---|---|
| 25-Apr | T100M | T100 Singapore |
| 06-Jun | T100M | T100 San Francisco |
| 20-Sep | T100M | T100 French Riviera |
| 28-Nov | T100M | T100 Jeddah |
In the same theme, wouldn’t be surprised if Le Corre chose to campaign the IM Pro Series as well. After Geelong he’ll lead the standings: again, one more IM and he’s set up.
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Le Corre could well be the sleeper pick here for the Pro Series. No established ties to T100 and a whole season to race before Kona.
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Again idk but think Le Corre is still a Serviceman in which case, as part of that ‘deal’, he may well be ‘required’ to win the World Long Distance Triathlon Championships in Abu Dhabi on 22nd November (see also Mignon and Pierre).
Pretty sure he is on the radar for a wildcard for a T100 race, he has also risen up the rankings I am sure and it might also roll nicely down to him
he could make an appearance
For sure Le Corre has to be a great wild card for Singapore (start list out 24th March) and, as you say, with his Geelong result (anticipated) he’ll get an invite to San Francisco on PTO Ranking roll down. He’s not on the Texas start list so the only event which is close to SF is 70.3 Aix (home race).
He said he isn’t. His focus is Kona and he thinks 3 IMs in his first year at the full distance is too many.
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I agree. I wold be very surprised if he tried another IM, and if he does, you can be sure everyone will point ot it if he doesn’t win Kona saying he should never have done it. Last year, the other Norges didn’t do super well in Pro Series IM, none tried to fit in another, although Pro Series was a goal for them (admittedly not THE goal).
The only difference is Blu started the season so much earlier this year, so one never knows.
And lastly, he can still win handily the Pro Series with strong performances in World Championships and other IM. In fact, if he wins all of them, he’ll win easily the Pro Series I think. He’s lost 850 points. Last year apart from Blu, 2ndd was Stornes with 1080 points lost.
As you’ll see ^^ I was really exploring Geens’ IM Pro Series opportunity.
I’d observe that Le Corre (and Geens if Texas goes well) has a strength which Stornes hasn’t got, at least not in spades: strong (ie few seconds lost) in 70.3.
We saw last year with both Blummenfelt and Matthews that success requires both full and half IM performance/results. If LCB wasn’t so fragile she’d be hard to beat. Loevseth will always leak points at 70.3. Same with Philipp if she decided to go for it.
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Just to add, the PTN guys said Blu was sick in the lead up to IMNZ. This is good news probably for Geelong, since he can recover.
But what it also means is that he’s likely stuffed his schedule so perfectly that it means he can’t change course. If you’re sick and then have an aerobars problem, most pros would bail - especially once the run turned into the slog that it was.
But that he stuck through (he could have validated any other time) and tried to limit the damage means that he’s committed to this course, for better or worse
Granted when your trying to win 1st overall in any points series you want the best scores possible. But Blu lost 850 points, could he go 99% max scores at the rest of his schedule (including IM WC + IM70.3WC) and still be near the top? Is this result so bad that he *has to do another IM post Roth to win the series?
From raw points, he’s lost 858 already, while Stornes lost 1,568 all year - so he’s already ‘spent’ half his margin for the year. For Hogenhaug in 3rd, there’s much more buffer - 3,470 lost over 2025.
A win in Texas, and at another 70.3, and that means he can bleed 11m:48s to a Stornes equivalent at the WCs and be fine.
So assuming that he has good races for his other 4, he’s probably fine. Stornes likely won’t have the same year he did last year (hard to beat 1st and close 3rd), so as long as Blu doesn’t have another race like this one and Stornes doesn’t dominate again in the WCs, its still open for him.
Bonus for him this year is that there are a number of big stars racing the WCs that won’t figure into the Pro Series - so he doesn’t have to absolutely win everything, he just needs to keep ahead of others. Wilde in Nice, and Geens in both WCs are the bigger ones who won’t care about Pro Series points.
Le Corre is probably the one to watch as the spoiler if he does another Pro Series Ironman.
ETA: Added specific times
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First: don’t think Blummenfelt does “near the top”.
Having lost 850 points, a “99%” set of results would generate a score which is greater than Stornes from 2025 (20414, losing 1086 Tim), as has already been rehearsed by @Benjik . We don’t know who besides Stornes and Le Corre might be the key challengers (? Schomburg) but if they are closer, going into Nice and then Kona down would be unattractive.
But as @timbasile concludes with insight, with the $$ commitment to Roth + bucket list win ‘tick’, he’ll just roll, won’t add an IM because it would be to the detriment of Kona, and accept that even with an excellent Nice and Kona he may get beat but his A+ race is most important.
Racing Roth as well as two IMs before Kona is already full on.
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Yes, Geens released his calendar a few weeks ago, and he was pretty clear he would not be chasing the pro series. So I think even if he wins Geelong and Texas, you will not see him do another IM.
He is planning IM 70.3 Happy Valley and T100 San Francisco then World Champs and that’s it.
He might however put in another 70.3 Pro series as a 5th score to grab some cash if he wins Geelong and Texas.