IRONMAN 70.3 Nice 2025 results: Learmonth and Van Riel star in the south of France

Marten Van Riel and Jess Learmonth claimed significant victories at IRONMAN 70.3 Nice, with impressive all-the-way wins in the south of France.

Van Riel capitalised on the absence of likely main rival Kyle Smith (due to a bike crash in training) to dominate the men’s race and tick off qualifying for the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Marbella later this year.

And for Learmonth, part of Team GB’s gold medal winning team in the Mixed Relay at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, this was a first middle-distance success.

She bossed the swim alongside Sara Pérez Sala (SPA), pulled clear on the bike and then had enough in reserve on the run as she returned to the top step of the podium for the first time since the birth of her first child in late 2023.

Women’s race – Joy for Jess

Short-course legend Learmonth has gone close before at middle-distance – she was second in both her races last season and was a superb third behind Taylor Knibb and Julie Derron at T100 Vancouver a fortnight ago.

That suggested her run form after a calf tear was moving very much in the right direction and that was confirmed here.

Herself and Sala are both outstanding swimmers so it was no surprise to see them take chunks of time out of the rest – only 17 seconds over Daisy Davies (GBR) but more than two minutes on the remainder.

But it was on the bike where Learmonth really asserted and it meant that coming out of T2 she had just over four minutes in hand on Sala.

However the alarm bells did ring in the early stages of the half marathon – Learmonth lost 30 seconds in the first 2k and the gap was down to 2:33 after 5k.

But it stabilised after that – at the halfway point it was back up to 2:44, with Sandra Huon (FRA) seemingly the only other potential threat at +3:21 in third.

She would overhaul Sala to take second but Learmonth held firm to close out the victory by just under three minutes, with Anne-Sophie Pierre (FRA) rounding out the podium as Sala faded late on.

Jess Learmonth T100 Vancouver joy 2025 — Jess Learmonth [Photo credit: PTO]

Men’s race – One-way traffic

Van Riel was to the fore throughout in the men’s race, starting with the swim where he was in a lead group of 14 as Michele Bortolamedi (ITA) led them out of the water.

And the Belgian wasted little time in driving the pace on the bike – to the extent that the 14 was soon whittled down to six men.

That rate of attrition continued and it wasn’t long before Van Riel was by himself up front and putting significant time into the rest.

When he reached T2 he had an advantage of 3:40 over Bortolamedi and, barring a mishap on the run, the race was surely his.

That was how it proved as the gap held relatively steady – a 1:12 half marathon rounding things off nicely and giving him a first victory since he was crowned the T100 World Champion in Dubai last November.

That shouldn’t mask the fact that it’s still been an impressive season for Van Riel – he qualified for the IRONMAN World Championship with second place to Magnus Ditlev at IRONMAN South Africa and has had three T100 races since then, including second to Jelle Geens at Vancouver a fortnight ago.