IRONMAN World Championship Nice results 2025: Stornes leads HISTORIC Norwegian clean sweep

Casper Stornes led home an historic Norwegian one-two-three at the men’s IRONMAN World Championship in Nice.

He saw off former winners – and training partners – Gustav Iden and Kristian Blummenfelt in a sensational race on the French Riviera.

The same trio claimed an iconic podium clean sweep in short course racing at WTS Bermuda in 2018 when Stornes was again on the top step. And they repeated the feat at IRONMAN 70.3 Bahrain later that year.

But Stornes, for whom this was a first IRONMAN World Championship, has been relatively in the shadows of his better-known compatriots in the years since so his triumph in the biggest long-distance men’s event goes down as one for the ages.

He put the cherry on top of the icing on the cake when he became the first man to clock a sub 2:30 marathon at the IMWC, his 2:29:25 helping him stop the clock in 7:51:36. That was two-and-a-half minutes ahead of Iden, with a similar margin back to Blummenfelt in third after he suffered with cramp late on the run.

The race had everything, starting with a nightmare swim for Sam Laidlow (FRA) who won the IMWC the last time it was held on the French Riviera. He recovered brilliantly though to finish fifth, just behind Marten Van Riel (BEL).

Here’s how a drama-packed day unfolded…

Swim – Laidlow comes to a standstill

Conditions were relatively calm for the non-wetsuit swim in the Mediterranean Sea and as many had predicted beforehand we had a super-fast start.

Jamie Riddle (RSA), Andrea Salvisberg (SUI), Jonas Schomburg (GER) and Van Riel, who overcame an ankle injury just in time to make the start line, were the ones setting the pace, with Laidlow initially nicely positioned in the top 10.

However the Frenchman would suddenly come to a halt and tread water for a while and you can read more about that here.

It meant he lost touch with the leaders and up front Riddle rolled over and swam backstroke for a little while as he surveyed the damage they were doing in behind.

The speed continued and to put it into context Salvisberg was out first in 45:11, way quicker than the corresponding time of 47:46 from 2023.

Schomburg was a second behind and Riddle and Van Riel just a few seconds after that as just 14 seconds covered the first 12 and at this point the only Norwegian in the front group was Stornes.

Blummenfelt was in the first chase pack, just under a minute behind, and alongside fellow big guns Magnus Ditlev (DEN) and Rudy von Berg (USA).

Laidlow was now in the next group at just under two minutes adrift as were fellow former champions Patrick Lange (GER) and Iden.

Others expected to challenge on the bike or run were Cam Wurf (AUS) at +6:12, Leon Chevalier (FRA) +6:14 and American duo Matt Hanson and Sam Long, both at +6:15.

Bike – Big guns make their moves

Schomburg was onto the bike course first, just ahead of Riddle.

Laidlow lost more ground in transition and was now at +2:42 and when the first checkpoint came, 10km into the scenic and hilly 180km loop in the hills above Nice, the front 12 had been whittled down to five.

They were Schomburg, Van Riel, Riddle, Salvisberg and Jan Stratmann (GER).

Laidlow was now at +3:18 and Matthew Marquardt (USA), who had been among the leaders in the swim, was now suddenly over six minutes back.

The attrition continued and the front five became a trio as Van Riel, Riddle and Schomburg forged clear.

Moves were happening in behind though – Blummenfelt was up to 7th at +2:01 while just a handful of seconds separated von Berg, Iden, Ditlev and Stornes.

Laidlow was starting to work his way back into contention too but Lange was moving in the other direction as he began to drop down the standings.

Suddenly as we approached the 50km mark, Laidlow was now up to fourth at +1:44 and leading the chase group with Stornes and Blummenfelt just behind, soon to be joined by Ditlev and Iden in a power-packed combo.

As things continued to play out we were left with a three versus six battle up front, with Nick Thompson (AUS) having joined the Norwegian trio, Laidlow and Ditlev in the chase pack.

But in the last 60km things really started to change. Schomburg was the first of the leading three to be caught by Laidlow and Blummenfelt. Then it was Riddle, so with 50km to go Van Riel was holding strong on his own at the front, 26 seconds ahead of the charging dynamic duo.

With just under 30km to go Laidlow and Blummenfelt had bridged up to Van Riel – and Laidlow was the one to jump past and into the lead, an incredible transformation from his position of 29th at T1.

But he, Blummenfelt and Van Riel all stayed together at the front, while Thompson, Iden and Stornes were only around 40 seconds back in fourth, fifth and sixth respectively.

Going into T2 and it could hardly have been closer – Van Riel six seconds ahead of Laidlow and Thompson, who was now into third. And then the three Norwegians were locked together 20 seconds back!

Run – Compelling all-Norway finale

Stornes had to work hard in the first 5k after losing a little bit of time in T2 but bridging up to the others was critical as it was pretty windy out there.

We now had the incredible scene of five men running together – the Norwegian trio along with Laidlow and Van Riel.

Thompson was a minute back now in sixth, while Riddle was over six minutes adrift in seventh.

But early on the second of four run loops was the first time we had that Norway one-two-three and the absorbing drama that would bring.

Blummenfelt and Iden were around 30 seconds ahead of Stornes at that point, with Laidlow fourth and Van Riel fifth.

Blu and Iden were both running well together and taking turns in the lead as we approached the halfway point but Stornes wasn’t letting the elastic snap.

More than that, he was back alongside his training partners at the end of lap two, all three having run between 1:14:27 to 1:14:40 half marathons. Laidlow and Van Riel were hanging tough at +1:26 and +2:34 respectively. But Thompson was now over six minutes back.

The gloves were starting to come off though – first Iden and then Stornes tried to get Blummenfelt to come through to take a turn on the front but he wasn’t having it. Or maybe he didn’t have the energy?

Iden was first to be distanced and both he and Blummenfelt then suffered rocky patches. Not Stornes though – he looked super smooth and took advantage as he glided into the lead and before long he was a minute clear.

That was towards the end of the third lap and on the final loop the pattern continued as he went further and further ahead.

So much so that he became the first man to clock a sub 2:30 marathon in the IRONMAN World Championship and was still able to high five his way to the finish line.

Iden was a clear second, with Blummenfelt battling bouts of cramp but having easily enough in hand to round out that historic one-two-three.