After sweeping the podium in Nice, Norway’s top men have been fine-tuning in Sierra Nevada and getting to grips with Marbella’s demanding 70.3 Worlds course.
Fresh from their one-two-three at the IRONMAN World Championship on the Cote d’Azur, Norway’s endurance powerhouses are back in focus as the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship heads to Marbella this weekend – with former winners Kristian Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden among the favourites for the men’s race.
The pair, along with compatriot Casper Stornes, who came out on top in Nice, have been training at altitude in Sierra Nevada, just a few hours from the Andalusian coast, and have already spent time familiarising themselves with the course.
A Mediterranean test
The swim takes place in the Mediterranean off Levante Beach in Puerto Banús, while the bike course delivers a challenging 90km with a net elevation gain of 1,785 metres. And from there, the run features two loops along the scenic promenade – but what do the Norwegians make of it?
Speaking on the Santara Tech podcast which is embedded below, Blummenfelt confirmed the Mediterranean conditions and time of year are likely to mean a wetsuit start: “We’ve tested the water temperature the last two Sundays – 22.8 degrees last Sunday and 19.9 degrees the one after – so it seems like it’s definitely going to be a wetsuit swim for everyone. It’s an early start too so it’s not going to be too warm.”
Both Big Blu and Iden identified in-form Jamie Riddle as one man who could animate things on the swim, just as he did at the IMWC in Nice.
Blummenfelt added that a large front group could shape the opening kilometres on the bike: “I hope the swim is going to be a little bit like it was in [70.3] Aix-en-Provence where we had a big group. If so then it’s going to probably be chaotic for the first 25k of the bike.”
St George memories
Blummenfelt, who famously won both his IRONMAN and IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship titles in St George, Utah, sees clear parallels between that course and Marbella’s hilly profile – something that makes him an obvious favourite to contend again this weekend.
He said: “When we saw over 1,700 metres of elevation we were imagining it would be one big climb and down again but it’s one medium climb and then rolling hills, a bit like St George.”
That comparison alone will raise expectations. St George has been the scene of some of Blummenfelt’s finest moments, and with similar gradients, weather and altitude characteristics, Marbella could well play to the same strengths.
The Norwegians have been putting that into practice in training too: “We’ve been finishing off every ride with a big climb,” revealed Blummenfelt. “We’ve been within driving distance of Marbella so we’ve spent weekends on the course getting an awareness of what it’s going to be like.
“But after the first visit when we saw the downhill was on such a wide road, we decided it wasn’t really necessary to go there again – though we did tick it off one more time!
“Hopefully I can stay in touch – like Nice – on the bike and be quite aggressive on the first climb and then use the second half of the bike to be in control of the race.”
A similar level of preparation and recces went into those IRONMAN World Championship in Nice – and we all know what happened there.
‘Downhill is pretty chill’
Teammate and two-time 70.3 World Champion Gustav Iden also highlighted the benefits of their reconnaissance work: “Mentally it was nice to know where to push and where not to push, just a general feeling of the course. As Kristian said, the downhill is pretty chill. It’s very different to the technical nature of Nice.”
And he’s noted one small twist awaiting the athletes on the run: “On the run and there’s a sort of gravel road next to the beach for about a kilometre which you do twice. It’s not difficult gravel but it’s slightly harder to run 3:00/km pace.”
With the Marbella course offering rolling climbs, fast descents and more, the conditions appear tailor-made for Norway’s precision-based approach – and especially for Blummenfelt, whose record on comparable terrain makes him a clear front-runner.
Given his history of thriving on courses like St George and his ability to control races from the front, few will bet against the former Olympic and IRONMAN World Champion being right in the mix when it all unfolds in southern Spain this weekend.
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