It wasn’t the day Kristian Blummenfelt had expected or hoped for at IRONMAN 70.3 Oceanside, but maybe it ended with a silver lining at least.
The 31-year-old Norwegian superstar came into his 2025 season opener hoping to banish the ghosts from a disapponting 2024 season, notably a 12th-place finish in the Olympic Games at Paris 2024 and 35th at the IRONMAN World Championship in Kona.
‘Big Blu’ and compatriot Gustav Iden both lined up in California on Saturday after their decision to go all in on the IRONMAN Pro Series this year – complete with its $1.7m bonus pool. But they had very differing fortunes.
While Iden grabbed a podium finish behind winner Lionel Sanders to confirm that he is now well on the way back to his best, it was another tale of what might have been for Kristian.
Bike misery, and a run record
Things looked good early for the man from Bergen when he quickly made up a 57-second deficit from the swim to lead on the bike leg. Then disaster struck as a flat front tyre cost him more than 14 minutes – and any hope of victory.
There was no thought of mailing it in for Blummenfelt though – he decided to extract maximum value from his day out in California by finishing the race. And his ‘training session went quite well as he smashed the course run record with a blistering 1:07:19 half marathon.
That was still only good enough for 15th place (he had been 55th in the immediate aftermath of ‘tyregate’) but it showed that the 2021 Olympic champion is in shape to fight the very best again this year.
Next up for Blummenfelt (and Iden) is IRONMAN Texas on Saturday April 26, as the pair look to qualify for the IRONMAN World Championship in Nice later this year.
