With this year’s IRONMAN World Championship course in Nice packing a serious punch on the bike course with its long climbs and technical descents, many are naturally backing Team Ineos Grenadiers rider Cam Wurf for a top finish.

Having podiumed at IRONMAN Lanzarote and then qualified with second at IRONMAN Austria, the 40-year-old Aussie left it a little late in the season to grab his ticket to the South of France, but seemed ready to do battle in a recent interview on Breakfast with Bob (you can watch the full episode by clicking on the video embed below).

Picking the athletes he thinks will be the ones to watch, Wurf named triathlon legend Jan Frodeno as still the biggest threat, with the German looking to make his “Last Dance” a golden one. On race day, however, don’t expect the former Olympic rower to let Frodeno have it all his way.

“Jan is the favourite”

Doubling down on his opinion that Frodeno is the favourite for another world title, Wurf explained that given the German’s legacy in the sport, it doesn’t really matter whether or not he wins, but if he gets to race on his terms, the result is almost predetermined.

“Jan is the favourite because it doesn’t really matter whether he wins or not. If he wins, well we don’t really need anymore proof after what he has already achieved and if he doesn’t win, he has done it before and it’s not even in Kona [in 2023], and he has had a good year.

“If the race is raced on his terms, nobody will beat him. Jan is still the standard of the sport and you will see that, the difference is that there are a lot more guys nipping on his heels.” 

Wurf on Ditlev

Another name Wurf mentioned is PTO World #2 Magnus Ditlev, the Danish star who won his second consecutive Challenge Roth title this year and who the Aussie thinks can put together a big bike, despite people’s preconceptions that he may struggle on the hills given his height and weight.

“It doesn’t matter how big you are if you’ve got the horsepower. If you’re strong, it’s all power to weight, so the bigger you are you’ve just got to have more of it.

“I think Magnus, whilst he’s big and tall, he seems to have been very consistent. He’s been very good in Roth, and elsewhere he has had his ups and downs,  so I don’t really know what to expect from him.

“He’s very good, he can swim well and bike well and he can obviously bike very quickly on fast courses, so it will be interesting to see how he does here and Danes are riding very fast at the moment, so he should be feeling confident.” 

Talking about his own chances, Wurf admitted that he wouldn’t be at the start line if he didn’t think he could win, with victory in Nice the only result that could have a big impact on a sporting career already filled with accolades and achievements across a multitude of disciplines.

“At this point in my career, the only performance that will change things is winning, maybe being on the podium but certainly winning, so trying to be Top 10 or Top 5, I have done that and I have decided this year to go all in for it.”