This is a preview of the race – click on the names to read about impressive victories for Kat Matthews and Trevor Foley.

The IRONMAN Pro Series starts in style this weekend with stacked fields lining up at IRONMAN New Zealand.

It’s the 42nd edition of the race – only the World Championships in Hawaii has more history – and this is the first time it’s been part of the Pro Series, helping attract one of the strongest professional fields ever assembled in Taupō.

This is also the first IRONMAN race where we will see a 20-metre draft zone on the bike.

And it will all be broadcast live – read on to find out more…

Start time and how to watch live

The race will take place on Saturday March 7. The professional men will start first, with the gun going off at 07:45 local time. This corresponds to 18:45 in the UK, 19:45 in Central Europe and 10:45 on the West Coast on Friday March 6. 

The women’s race will commence five minutes later at 07:50 local time. This corresponds to 18:50 in the UK, 19:50 in Central Europe and 10:50 on the West Coast on Friday. 

The livestream is embedded below so you can watch from start to finish without leaving this page.

The pro races will also be broadcast live and for free for all international audiences across IRONMAN YouTube and ironman.com/proseries, with additional regional live broadcast and highlight shows also available – full broadcast and streaming information can be found at http://www.ironman.com/proseries/how-to-watch.

The ever reliable IRONMAN Tracker App is a useful companion to the livestream and will provide up-to-date splits throughout the swim, bike and run for the professional and age group races.

IRONMAN New Zealand course

IRONMAN New Zealand sees athletes take on a 3.8km swim starting and finishing on the shores of Lake Taupō, a 180km ride taking in the rural landscape surrounding Taupō, and a 42.2km run along the lakefront lined with supporters.

Watch the video below to get a true flavour of what is in store at a stunning setting.

Pro Women

Wearing bibs #1 and #2 are the race’s defending champion Regan Hollioake (AUS) and Kat Matthews (GBR), who has taken the IRONMAN PRO Series titles in emphatic style in each of the last two seasons.

Hollioake powered past two-time IRONMAN New Zealand winner Jocelyn McCauley (USA) on the run 12 months ago and that pair are back for more, as is Nina Derron (SUI) who rounded out the podium in third.

But Matthews is the standout name. She won three of her six races last season and came second in two others – to Solveig Løvseth in the IRONMAN World Championship in Kona and Laura Philipp after an epic battle at IRONMAN Hamburg.

Training sounds to have been going well, with a stint in Australia before the relatively short hop to the “The Land of the Long White Cloud” and this kickstarts what could be an epic season, including a first appearance at Challenge Roth.

Home favourites Hannah Berry, who won here in 2021, and Rebecca Clarke, who has twice been on the podium, are also on the start list as are Tamara Jewett (CAN) and Fenella Langridge (GBR).

Pro Men

As with the women, we’ve got last year’s champion Mike Phillips and Pro Series winner Kristian Blummenfelt (NOR) lining up.

More World Championships are what motivates 2021 Olympic champ Blummenfelt the most but he’s also made it crystal clear that he’s looking to start the campaign with a succession of wins to put himself in pole position for a Pro Series repeat.

Compatriots Casper Stornes and Gustav Iden – who were first and second in that Norway clean sweep of the IMWC in Nice last year – had been possibles for this race but both miss out through injury.

Phillips is a three-time winner of this race while his fellow Kiwi Kyle Smith makes a first foray into full distance for a few years.

Fred Funk (GER), coached like Smith by the great Dan Lorang, comes here having stepped up in trip last year at Challenge Roth and IRONMAN Switzerland – with Lorang telling us recently that he thinks full-distance racing will see Funk move up another level.

There’s a two-pronged American challenge from Trevor Foley and Matt Hanson but arguably the most intriguing name on the men’s start list is Pierre Le Corre. The Frenchman, fourth at the Olympics on home roads in Paris, has taken in a few middle-distance races in recent years but this is his first IRONMAN.

Prizemoney and the Pro Series explained

The IRONMAN Pro Series will see athletes competing for a piece of the $1.7 million USD season ending bonus prize pool, with each event broadcast to triathlon fans around the world, including this weekend’s IRONMAN New Zealand.

Professionals racing at IRONMAN New Zealand will also race for a share of a $125,000 USD event prize purse, on top of the season-ending amount.

The Pro Series is 16 events in total – six IRONMANs and eight IRONMAN 70.3 triathlons around the world in addition to the IRONMAN World Championship and the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship triathlons.

The best five scores (up to three IRONMANs) count and the winners of full-distance events will be allocated a maximum of 5000 points for winning, with 2,500 awarded in 70.3 races. Those totals go up to 6,000 and 3,000 respectively for the World Championships.

Points for all remaining professional finishers will diminish based on the time deficit to first place at a rate of 1 point per 1 second to the first place finish time.  There is no points minimum, or “floor”. Points will accumulate throughout the season.

A cool $200,000 is on offer for the series winner on both the men’s and women’s side, with second earning €130,000 and third receiving $85,000.