Former IRONMAN World Champion Gustav Iden accepts he will need to be ‘a little bit sneaky’ if he is to stand any chance of taking on and beating the big-race favourites at Nice this weekend.
The Norwegian has struggled for fitness and form since his somewhat surprising win at Kona in 2022, and says he has already started planning for ‘something different’ as he seeks to gain any advantage possible over the world-class field of athletes assembled on the French Riviera.
Returning to the scene of his first ever IRONMAN world title success, Iden admits that running the streets of Nice has brought back many good memories of his 70.3 World Championship win back in 2019, when he became the youngest ever winner at just 23 years of age.
Needs something special
While he followed that up with a further 70.3 win at St George in 2021 and that memorable day in Kona a year later – crossing the line ahead of Frenchman Sam Laidlow and fellow Norwegian Kristian Blummenfelt – in what was only Iden’s second full-distance race, he goes into Sunday’s showdown knowing it will take something very special indeed if he is to be the one who breaks the tape first.
Part of the Norwegian training trio that also includes Blummenfelt and Casper Stornes, Iden has seen first hand the kind of form that his colleagues are currently enjoying, but his recent fourth-placed finish at IRONMAN Frankfurt has given him cause for hope… even if he also needs a clever gameplan along the way.
Talking to Bob Babbitt on his ‘Breakfast With Bob’ podcast – which you can find embedded below in this article – Iden acknowledges the scale of the task before him.
“I don’t think I’m able to take anyone by surprise anymore,” he says. “But this is kind of my – although I feel like I’ve been saying it for a long time – it’s kind of my comeback race in many ways. I’ve been struggling with my Achilles and so much has been going on these last few years, but now I feel like this is the race where I will be back.
“I knew back then that I’m not going to win Frankfurt, but I’m always hoping to do well. I ran like 15 minutes faster than I did in Texas, which was a huge step up. The training has been really good, my run has been progressing, no injuries now, So yeah, let’s see how it goes on race day.
All about the tactics
“If I win it, it will be because I’m a little bit sneaky. It’s all about tactics. I don’t think many people will play their cards directly against me. I don’t think I can beat Kristian or Sam Laidlow on pure power alone, I need to play my cards. And how my cards will be played, you have to wait for race day to see.”
And he believes tactics will play a huge part on a course which provides many different challenges to that of Kona.
“I do think about the other competitors,” he said. “There will be a lot of tactics going into this. It doesn’t help to be the best athlete if you’re wasting your tactics and just wasting your energy. I haven’t proven too much over the last two years, so I won’t say people are dictating their race towards me. I think people are smart enough to know that I’m not going to be the one who demolishes this race.
“I’m willing to fight for every spot here. I think one of my major mistakes going into Kona last year was that I lost myself in ambition. I started off saying that being on a start line is good, and then I somehow managed to talk myself into a top five mindset, which from my training, maybe one session could have indicated a possibility of a top five.
“Your mind can just be too strong and you can fool yourself into thinking the craziest things. But now I’m going to fight for whatever spot. If I’m 30th, I’m still going to fight for 29th, 28th, 27th. I’m a guy who’s willing to push it all the way to the finish line.”
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