IRONMAN Frankfurt 2026: Date, start time and how to watch live

IRONMAN Frankurt is one of the biggest races of the season and the recent winners list reads like a who’s who of long-distance triathlon greats – Blummenfelt, Frodeno and Kienle all taking the title on multiple occasions.

It’s the men’s European Championship race – the women’s equivalent, won by reigning IRONMAN World Champion Solveig Løvseth, took place on 7 June in Hamburg.

And it will feature the current men’s IMWC in Casper Stornes as well as his fellow Norwegian Gustav Iden, the winner in Kona in 2022, as well as a whole host of other big names.

Six Kona slots are up for grabs and time is running out on that front, with just IRONMAN Lake Placid and IRONMAN Kalmar to come after this for the men before the qualifying window shuts.

Start times and how to watch live

IRONMAN Frankfurt takes place on Sunday 28 June. The men-only professional race begins at 06:20 local time, which corresponds to 05:20 in the UK, 00:20 on the US East Coast and 21:120 on the West Coast on Saturday 27 June.

This event is the fourth full-distance IRONMAN triathlon on the Pro Series calendar for 2026 and the first to feature a men-only pro field.

The race will be broadcast live and for free across multiple platforms for viewers around the world including proseries.ironman.com, DAZN, iQIYI, L’Equipe Live, and YouTube among others.

And the YouTube coverage will be embedded below nearer the time so you don’t have to leave this page – it will begin 30 minutes before the start.

Start list – who is racing at IRONMAN Frankfurt?

As we mentioned at the start, Norwegian duo Casper Stornes and Gustav Iden will line up as they seek to hone their preparations for another crack at IRONMAN World Championship glory.

Casper Stornes and Gustav Iden celebrate at the finishing line of the IRONMAN World Championships in Nice, 2025. — Stornes and Iden celebrate at the finish of the IRONMAN World Championships 2025. [Photo credit: IRONMAN]

Having decided not to join training partner and compatriot Kristian Blummenfelt at Challenge Roth the following week, the pair instead head up a huge field which also includes the likes of Magnus Ditlev (DEN), Jamie Riddle (RSA) and short-course great Vincent Luis (FRA).

Stornes and Iden both struggled with early-season injuries and, as a result, have not raced as much as ‘Big Blu’.

Stornes has managed two third places in his two races so far this season – 70.3 Oceanside and IRONMAN Texas – and has a history of performing well in Germany, having finished third in Frankfurt last year, one place ahead of Iden.

Three-time Challenge Roth winner Ditlev will make his long-anticipated season debut, hoping for a strong comeback after injury and illness delayed his start to 2026.

He will be hoping that his latest training camp in Sierra Nevada will be enough to prepare him for the second half of the season – and he also needs to secure a Kona qualification spot, having finished on the podium twice at the IRONMAN World Championship (2024, 2023).

He also has unfinished business here in Frankfurt after his controversial ‘red card’ 12 months ago which was then rescinded.

Magnus Ditlev wins IRONMAN South Africa 2025 — Ditlev takes the tape in South Africa in 2025 [Photo credit: IRONMAN]

Also eyeing Kona slots will be Riddle and the 2024 IRONMAN Pro Series champion, Italy’s Gregory Barnaby, who had a taste of success in Frankfurt back in 2024 when he finished third.

Riddle got his season back on track last weekend by bagging a 70.3 Worlds spot thanks to his fourth place at IRONMAN 70.3 Elsinore following what had been a frustrating and unlucky start to 2026.

Representing Great Britain, Kieran Lindars will be in Frankfurt after a breakthrough second-place finish here in 2024. Like Iden and Luis he has already booked his Kona ticket with a top 10 at IRONMAN Texas.

Luis will also be high on everyone’s top picks after two fourth places in his two full-distance races to date (Roth and Texas).

Jonas Hoffman (GER) returns after finishing fifth last year and will be joined by a strong contingent of German athletes looking to make their mark on home soil, including Finn Große-Freese, Wilhelm Hirsch, Jan Stratmann and Paul Schuster.

Prize Money: What’s on the line?

The prize purse on offer this weekend is $87,500 – with the winner collecting a $28,000 share of that total.

Athletes will also earn points toward the IRONMAN Pro Series Championship, with 5,000 being awarded to the winner.

Whoever tops the Pro Series standings at the end of 2026 will pocket a $200,000 bonus as part of an additional $1.7million prize pool.

IRONMAN Frankfurt course

IRONMAN Frankfurt opens with two-lap swim with a short Aussie exit. The swim takes place in Langener Waldsee hidden within Frankfurt’s city forest.

The bike leg consists of a two-loop 180km course, beginning in the forest before heading through the city centre and north east towards the Altenstadt, Rodenbach and Stammheim before heading back to the city. The course is described as “rolling”.

The marathon finale takes place on the banks of the River Maine on a four-loop course. Noted as one of the most spectator-dense course runs in the IRONMAN portfolio, the course is flat and fast.

And good news for the athletes is that the current heatwave across much of Europe is set to dampen down by the weekend, though temperatures in Frankfurt are still predicted to reach 27 degrees Celsius by the time we get to the business end of the pro race.