IRONMAN 70.3 Luxembourg 2023 results: Taagholt pulls it out the bag

Danish distance star Miki Taagholt secured his first professional middle distance win at IRONMAN 70.3 Luxembourg with a lightning quick run split to secure two consecutive podiums after second place at IRONMAN 70.3 Warsaw last weekend.

Christophe De Keyser of Belgium came home in second to secure his slot to the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships, with Portugal’s Filipe Azevedo and Youri Keulen of the Netherlands taking the second slot to Finland down in fifth.

Swim – Bogen leads the way

Having surprised many in winning IRONMAN 70.3 Kraichgau last month, German Rico Bogen tried to put his mark on the race in Luxembourg early on, leading out of the water ahead of De Keyser, with German Jan Stratmann and Taagholt right on their heels.

Next out was Keulen, Azevedo and then Matt Ceccarelli of Italy close behind, as this trio exited the water +0:15 off the front pack, with the top eight men coming on to the bike within less than a minute of each other. All the early favourites made the first bike pack.

Bike – Pack stays close

Out on the bike course, the top six athletes, Taagholt, Azevedo, De Keyser, Bogen, Keulen and Stratmann all remarkably stayed together for the duration of the ride, as they quickly established a lead over the rest of the field that just kept on growing.

Already qualified for the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships in Finland this summer, it seemed that Taagholt, who is an incredibly strong cyclist, was content to save himself for the run, a decision which inevitably paid off.

Behind this group of six, Nick Thompson of Australia was the next athlete into transition, some three minutes down, with Lukas Kocar of the Czech Republic and Ceccarelli of Italy making up the rest of the Top 10, along with Frenchman Antony Costes, who seemed to be really struggling.

Run – Taagholt charges for home

For an athlete who has finished fourth and sixth at the world championships, it is perhaps quite a surprise that Taagholt has never won a middle distance race, despite finishing on a number of podiums.

Miki Taagholt / IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship 2021 — Photo Credit: Nils Nilsen / Getty Images for IRONMAN

Seizing his chance in Luxembourg, Taagholt was patient throughout the first half of the run, as he pulled clear with De Keyser to establish a minute gap back to third by the 13.5km mark, before ramping things up over the final couple of kilometres to gap the Belgian.

Winning by close to 90 seconds in the end, Taagholt impressed with a strong run split of 1:15, the second fastest of the day, as De Keyser came home in second ahead of Azevedo, who had managed to stay away from Stratmann, Keulen and Bogen.