IRONMAN Lake Placid 2025 men's results: Marquardt wins as defending champ EXPLODES on the run

Matthew Marquardt (USA) turned the tables in spectacular style as he won IRONMAN Lake Placid after fighting back to overhaul reigning champion Trevor Foley (USA) on the run.

The roles were reversed 12 months ago when Marquardt led for most of the day only for Foley to reel him in late on the run.

Here Foley produced a stunning bike leg and then cruised to the front early on the run and looked set to defend his title. But appearances were very deceptive and as Foley hit the wall, Marquardt jumped past him and never looked back.

IRONMAN Cairns in June was Marquardt’s first pro win and, just as he did that day, he overcame cramping issues between the swim and bike to notch an impressive success.

A 2:39:53 marathon this time saw him stop the clock in 7:50:08, winning by over six minutes from Kristian Høgenhaug (DEN), with Foley rounding out the podium in third. Here’s how the race played out…

Swim – Gordon shows the way

It was a non-wetsuit swim which usually creates a little bit more separation but for the first 1.2-mile loop things stayed pretty much together in the men’s race.

The waters in Mirror Lake were calm and for large parts of the swim there’s an underwater cable to follow which makes sighting far easier than normal and as a result it was a relatively relaxed.

At the Aussie exit at the halfway point we had a group of 14 up front and just 23 seconds separated them.

Thomas Gordon (USA) was first, Jason West (USA) – on his full-distance debut – was next, with British uber-swimmer Andrew Horsfall-Turner in third.

Two big-name favourites with work to do were Leon Chevalier (FRA) in 23rd at +1:42 and Foley two places further back at +1:58.

Starting the second lap, the pro field was now mixed in with the age-group athletes and it did start to break up more.

But at the end of the swim, Gordon still led, 26 seconds ahead of Horsfall-Turner.

West remained right in the mix while Foley now had 6:18 to make up.

Bike – Marquardt cramps early on

It’s a long run to T1 at Lake Placid and the two main stories were West overhauling the two men ahead of him to lead at the start of the bike, while Marquardt was cramping up after the swim.

A similar story had unfolded at IRONMAN Cairns in June but that didn’t prevent him from claiming a first full-distance win.

And he stayed calm here, walking to get his bike. But the numbers showed he went from sixth, less than a minute down, to 12th at +2:49.

The rain was now pouring down – as it would for the rest of the day – but conditions weren’t too sketchy.

And Foley put incredible power down to start eating into his 6:18 deficit.

So much so that not only did he bridge up to the front group but he swooped past Høgenhaug and into the lead.

And we now had six men all in close contention – Foley and Høgenhaug plus Robert Kallin (SWE), Chevalier, Marquardt and Bradley Weiss (RSA).

Finland’s Henrik Goesch was at +22s in seventh, West and Horsfall-Turner soon after, followed by Braden Currie at +1:17 in 10th.

Things then settled down – there was nothing between the front six at 72 miles into the bike.

Weiss was first to drop off, followed by Kallin and then Chevalier.

But Foley, Høgenhaug and Marquardt couldn’t be separated until late on and dismounting the bike it was Marquardt in first, Høgenhaug 28 seconds behind and Foley at +1:26.

Run – Role reversal

Heading out of T2 and two of the fastest runners in the sport had huge gaps to overcome – West was at +14:26 and in eighth on his first IRONMAN while Hanson ‘fresh’ from his 2:28 marathon at Challenge Roth, was +27:06.

Høgenhaug had been quickest through transition, meaning he and Marquardt were out together and neck and neck in the early part of the run, with Foley at +42s.

But there was no doubt that Foley looked by far the smoothest of the trio and he duly moved into the lead inside the first few miles.

Around nine miles into the 26 he’d put nearly a minute into Marquardt, with Høgenhaug a few seconds further back and while West was the quickest runner on course he still had 12 minutes to make up as he moved up to fifth.

But any thoughts this was a done deal were dispelled as Marquardt didn’t let Foley get any further ahead – with 59 seconds between them at the 15-mile point.

Alarm bells soon started to ring for Foley as his stride length shortened and Marquardt took full advantage. He moved into the lead after 18 miles and quickly pulled clear en route to a new course best.

Matthew Marquardt wins IRONMAN Lake Placid 2025 [Photo credit: IRONMAN]

Høgenhaug, who was second at IRONMAN Hamburg three weeks ago and also raced 70.3 Swansea just last Sunday, also overtook Foley and would take second.

But Foley showed what a fighter he is as he kept on well for third – in what was only a couple of minutes outside his now-beaten course record from last year.

Chevalier was fourth to book his IRONMAN World Championship ticket for Nice, as did West in fifth.