A fun day with crazy winds and a near-perfect display bar a late bonk on the run was Magnus Ditlev‘s post-race description of his hugely impressive IRONMAN South Africa win.

The opening full-distance event of the IRONMAN Pro Series pitted world number four Ditlev against the man who tops the standings in Marten Van Riel.

Both performed superbly but it was Ditlev who was in control from the moment he shattered the bike course record to move to the head of affairs.

And he crossed the line in 7:44:55, four-and-a-half minutes ahead of his big rival.

‘Super funny’ with the winds

Speaking soon after on the live broadcast, he said: “It was a really tough day, the wind made it super brutal and honest.

“There were some huge gaps even on the swim – I felt like I had a pretty good swim but the gap to the front four was a little bit larger than I had hoped but it was also the best of the best short course swimmers.

“I tried to pace the bike a bit more than I normally do so I was a bit more conservative in the beginning. I managed to catch the front guys one by one and then after 80k or so I got a gap on the other guys and it was just full pedal from there.

“It was super funny with the tailwinds and headwinds – you were going either 30k an hour or 60!”

‘I bonked completely on the last part’

Moving to the marathon, Ditlev revealed: “I said to my coach yesterday that I would do the first half in 1:15 and hopefully have a big enough gap to be able to cruise a 1:20 home.

“But I bonked completely on the last part of the run so that’s the only part I’m a little bit… maybe I ran a bit too fast in the first half.”

Ditlev was almost bang on the 1:15 for the first 21km but slowed slightly in the second half as he clocked a 2:40:38.

But it was very much job done and he added: “The Pro Series is a really big goal of mine and also qualifying for Nice was another big objective so it’s a super good way to start the season, that’s for sure.”