Kristian Blummenfelt defended his IRONMAN Texas title in brilliant style against arguably the strongest men’s field that has ever lined up outside of a World Championship race – and he nearly did it in a world record time.
There has been much debate about what was the best time for a full-distance race, which is a 3.8km swim, 180km bike and 42.2km (marathon) run.
Blummenfelt, the Tokyo Olympic champion, held the honour by virtue of his 7:21:12 time on his IRONMAN debut at Cozumel in 2022 but plenty had pointed to the fact that event featured a down-current swim.
The argument is over now after his incredible 7:21:24 here at The Woodlands – he holds it whatever way you look at it.
Nearly everyone was in Texas too – all the IRONMAN World Championship winners this decade bar Sam Laidlow and seven of the nine leading men from the latest edition of that race in Nice last September.
That day saw a Norwegian clean sweep as Casper Stornes, Gustav Iden and Blummenfelt dominated and all three were to the fore here.
In what was the North American Championship it was a near-complete European takeover, Blummenfelt getting the better of Belgium’s Marten Van Riel on the run, with Stornes in third.
Vincent Luis (FRA) was fourth and Jonas Schomburg (GER) fifth in in what could have been a short course top five not long ago.
Swim – Salvisberg shows the way
For all the talk about the incredible amount of star names, the swim was akin to an action replay from 12 months ago – Andrea Salvisberg (ITA) leading a big front pack out of the water.
He was in the mix straight away after the in-water start for what was a non-wetsuit swim with the temperature already 21 degrees Celsius for the 06:25 start local time. And humidity was a challenging 90%.
It was Schomburg who was in front early on but after a bit of backstroke to survey what was happening behind him he was then content to swap the lead with both Salvisberg and Van Riel, with Luis, Antonio Benito Lopez (ESP) and Ben Kanute (USA).
It was one long line in what was a front group of 20 at the halfway point of the swim and in terms of the race favourites, Blummenfelt and Stornes were there as was IRONMAN debutant Jelle Geens (BEL), the reigning 70.3 World Champion.
And that was how it stayed, with Salvisberg, Schomburg and Van Riel the first three out and less than 30 seconds covering the group of 20.
Rudy Von Berg (USA), who was on the podium here last year, was in between the front group and the chase pack at +1:45.
Iden was 27th at +2:28, two-time Texas winners Matt Hanson (USA) and Patrick Lange (GER) were just under four minutes back, while Sam Long (USA) and Lionel Sanders (CAN) had nearly six minutes to make up on their strong suits of the bike and run.
Bike – Høgenhaug powers to the front
Having had a great swim, Blummenfelt made the calculated call to put on the calf sleeves before the bike which meant he dropped out of the front group.
It was the short-course speed of Van Riel which saw him exit T1 in the lead and there was soon a split on the bike as the leading 20 was down to a front 12.
They were led by Geens, with Van Riel, Schomburg, Benito Lopez, Kanute, Luis, Salvisberg, Brock Hoel (CAN), Jan Stratmann (GER), Kacper Stepniak (POL) and British duo Cameron Main and Kieran Lindars.
But a powerful group was forming behind, with Blummenfelt and Stornes joined by Iden along with the likes of Von Berg, Nick Thompson (AUS) and uber runner Jason West (USA) – 16 in total all between +1:45 and +2:15.
Meanwhile Hanson and Lange had seen their gap rise to five minutes and Long and Sanders were also surprisingly losing ground. Lange would exit soon after – here’s why.
40 miles in the position was relatively static, the front 12 were still clear, albeit their 1:45 gap was now down to closer to 1:30.
But things weren’t panning out as Long and Sanders would have hoped – they were still riding together but at +7:35.
The next check at 60 miles saw the first person shelled out of the front group – swim leader Salvisberg after a flat – and the gap to the chasers was now under a minute.
The first two groups then joined together for the last third of the bike – the leading 11 plus Iden, Blummenfelt, Stornes and Thompson
That meant a front group of 15, Von Berg again in no man’s land in 16th, 55 seconds back, with just under two minutes to the chase pack which was headed by Kristian Høgenhaug (DEN).
And no one was going quicker than Høgenhaug after that as he bridged up to the front group inside the next 20 miles and powered straight past them.
Von Berg had latched on to him too to join them and make them 17 strong.
But there was late drama when Blummenfelt suffered a rear wheel puncture but fortunately – unlike Kat Matthews in the women’s race – it wasn’t a race-breaker and he elected to keep riding rather than get a change.
All of which meant that by T2 Høgenhaug led by 24 seconds to Von Berg with a further 20 seconds and more back to the other 15, the race living up to all expectations.
Not surprisingly, given the relatively flat back tyre, Blummenfelt was at the back of that pack but still within 1:45 and well in contention given his run!
It was nearly six minutes back to the next group, with Long at +8:03, West at 11:06, Sanders at +12:31 (he was another impacted by a mechanical) and Hanson at +13:27.
Run – Blu a class apart, again
Starting the run Høgenhaug and Von Berg were neck-and-neck up front but it didn’t take long for Geens, who was making a brilliant full-distance debut to this point, to join them before moving past.
Schomburg though wasn’t going to let him go clear and the ease with which he bridged back up to the Belgian showed he would once again be a huge contender.
West is one of the sport’s fastest runners but his marathon start was significantly delayed as he seemed to be suffering with some back pain after the bike.
As things started to settled down the position after the first 10km / six miles was Schomburg leading by 24 seconds from Geens. Van Riel and Benito Lopez were next at +45s. Blummenfelt had already cut the deficit to 56 seconds, Lindars was at +1:14, Kanute at +1:30, Stornes at +1:51 and then came Von Berg and Luis at +2:07. IRONMAN Cairns winner Main was alongside Iden at +2:30 to round out the top 12 with the rest three minutes and more back.
But approaching halfway things really started to shake out – Van Riel overtook Schomburg for first while Blummenfelt moved past Geens and soon after was up to second.
But anyone reckoning Big Blu would then power past Van Riel had to think again as MVR kept the gap constant for the next 10km as the two of them moved clear of the rest, with about 100 metres between them.
Reigning IRONMAN World Champion Stornes is the king of pacing his marathons perfectly and he was doing the same again – up to third by now going into the third of three run laps, 1:27 behind the leading duo.
However the battle between Van Riel and Blummenfelt soon became one-way traffic as the Tokyo Olympic champion surged clear with 10km to go and he wasn’t going to be beaten from that position.
It then became all about whether he would beat that Cozumel mark and he went incredibly close but ultimately it didn’t matter as he smashed his own course record as he finished 1:33 ahead of Van Riel.
The one big casualty in the final stages was Geens – a brave IRONMAN debut seeing him reduced to a walk as he missed out on one of the six Kona slots as he dropped out of contention.
But no fewer than 11 of the top 15 men were way under the 2:45 mark for the marathon, underlining again the quality on show. One of those was Long, who was a never-in-contention 15th, while Sanders had a tough day as a 3:31 marathon left him 45th.
IRONMAN Texas Results 2026 – Pro Men
Saturday April 18, 2026 – 3.8km / 180km / 42.2km
| Position | Athlete | Nationality | Swim | Bike | Run | Total time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kristian Blummenfelt | NOR | 48:33 | 3:57:46 | 2:30:47 | 7:21:24 |
| 2 | Marten Van Riel | BEL | 48:17 | 3:58:02 | 2:32:41 | 7:22:56 |
| 3 | Casper Stornes | NOR | 48:26 | 3:57:05 | 2:33:00 | 7:23:50 |
| 4 | Vincent Luis | FRA | 48:18 | 3:58:10 | 2:34:52 | 7:25:29 |
| 5 | Rudy von Berg | USA | 49:58 | 3:55:35 | 2:40:03 | 7:29:34 |
| 6 | Brock Hoel | CAN | 48:22 | 3:58:02 | 2:39:24 | 7:29:56 |
| 7 | Jonas Schomburg | GER | 48:16 | 3:58:16 | 2:39:36 | 7:30:10 |
| 8 | Gustav Iden | NOR | 50:09 | 3:55:46 | 2:40:11 | 7:30:48 |
| 9 | Kieran Lindars | GBR | 48:27 | 3:58:11 | 2:41:25 | 7:32:03 |
| 10 | Cameron Main | GBR | 48:24 | 3:57:51 | 2:43:06 | 7:33:02 |
