Challenge Roth 2024: ‘I’ve been training all year for the three-peat’ says Danish superstar Magnus Ditlev

Magnus Ditlev has made Challenge Roth his own in the last two seasons and on Sunday he’ll bid to be only the third man to win three straight titles after Chris McCormack and Lothar Leder.

Leder was the first man to break eight hours for a full-distance triathlon when winning Roth in 1996 but Ditlev’s display last year took it to another level.

He clocked 7:24:40 – a world record full-distance time if we were to discount Kristian Blummenfelt’s 7:21:12 when winning IRONMAN Cozumel in 2021 when there was a strong downstream current for the swim.

None other than the legendary Sebastian Kienle, who will be commentating on Sunday, described that as triathlon’s “moon landing moment”.

‘No easy task’ for great Dane Ditlev

This season has been an up-and-down one for the great Dane. It started with a brilliant victory in the opening T100 race in Miami but a bike accident in the build-up to T100 Singapore ruled him out of that and he came fourth on his return to action last month at T100 San Francisco.

But there was no disguising his delight at being back at Roth when he was the focus of attention at Thursday’s men’s press conference.

He said: “I love everything about this race, it’s my favourite race on the calendar. I feel so welcome and that really helps me perform and it’s an amazing field that Felix [Walchshöfer, the race director] has created so it’s definitely not going to be an easy task.

“It’d be amazing to get the three-peat and that’s definitely what I’ve been training for for the entire season.

“This is my first highlight of the season. Ever since I crossed the finish line last year I’ve been wanting to return. The entire atmosphere here is amazing and coming back to the same lovely homestay family and seeing the familiar faces.”

Euro 2024 pointer?

Home favourite Patrick Lange has been runner-up to Ditlev in each of the last two years but is hoping Germany’s weekend win over Denmark at Euro 2024 last weekend is an omen for this Sunday.

Ditlev though put that result down to the referee and added: “We’ll see if anyone can beat me on Sunday.”

The head-to-head score between the duo is 5-1 in Ditlev’s favour, though the only reverse came last time they met at the IRONMAN World Championship in Nice when they were second and third behind Sam Laidlow.