Marten Van Riel made it six wins out of six in IRONMAN 70.3 races with a clear-cut success at Elsinore in Denmark, the eighth stop in this season’s IRONMAN Pro Series.
There was plenty riding on it for the brilliant Belgian too as this was his last chance to qualify for the 70.3 World Championships in Nice – but he looked in cruise control throughout.
He was in the front group in the swim and then he and home hope Valdemar Solok (DEN) shattered the bike course record to open up a significant advantage before they closed it out on the run, Van Riel winning by 1:14 in a new overall record time of 3:36:03.
Simon Vlain (FRA) ran through the field to round out the podium in third.
Swim – Butters shows way
The spectacular cannon start in front of Kronborg Castle, home to Shakespeare’s Hamlet, quickly saw Hannes Butters (GER) and Jamie Riddle (RSA) take centre stage.
A tight swim course, with lots of turns, took the athletes around Elsinore Harbour and the sheltered nature meant calm water in what were already pleasantly sunny conditions.
However there was some confusion right from the get go when Van Riel appeared to momentarily stop, later saying that was to allow a jet ski to get fully out of the way.
However he was soon right in the mix and a 21:47 for Butters, just a second ahead of Riddle, saw that pair first out of the water.
Ben Faeh (SUI) was a close-up third, Ollie Turner (GBR) fourth and Van Riel (BEL) fifth as just 10 seconds covered the first seven.
Bike – Record pace
There was a slight headwind for the first section of the bike and Solok had soon worked his way to the front, with MVR the only one able to go with him
After 32km the two continued to share the work in what was potentially proving a race-defining move.
They both clocked low 1:58s for the bike course, which was well inside the previous course record.
That put them 2:18 ahead of Pierre Dupuy (FRA), with Kristian Høgenhaug (DEN) fourth at 2:24, Riddle fifth at 2:28, Faeh sixth at 2:30, Butters seventh at 2:34 and then a further minute back to the rest.
Run – Cruise control for Van Riel
The win looked between Van Riel and Solok given their advantage and there was also an interesting sub plot in terms of the three qualifying slots on offer for the 70.3 Worlds in Nice.
Van Riel needed one as did most of the early run leaders on what was a twisty and scenic course.
The front two ran together in the early stages but halfway round Van Riel had put 36 seconds into Solok. Riddle was 3:35 back in third alongside Høgenhaug but Simon Vlain (FRA) was making ground and he swooped past that pair and into third just before the 15km mark.
Vlain (70.3 Aix-en-Provence) and Solok (70.3 Poznan) had already sealed their Nice spots so it was still looking good for both Riddle, who has had such an unlucky season so far, and Høgenhaug and they duly finished fourth and fifth respectively.
IRONMAN 70.3 Elsinore 2026 results
Sunday 21 June – 1.9km, 90km, 21.1km
Pro Men
Full times and splits will appear here shortly…
