Despite being contracted to race the T100 Triathlon World Tour this season, Magnus Ditlev has said that he still fully intends to chase a maiden IRONMAN World Championship title in Kona.
The Danish powerhouse, who finished third behind Sam Laidlow and Patrick Lange in Nice last year, will be looking to improve on his debut eighth place finish in 2022.
Two years ago, the 26-year-old saw a penalty derail his podium ambitions. This year, Ditlev told TRI247 that he is going back to Hawaii in search of redemption.
“I have a pretty good schedule”
Revealing most of his schedule for the upcoming race season, Ditlev confirmed that he will start his season at the T100 Miami event, before also racing the second stop on the tour in Singapore.
“I haven’t booked everything yet, it’s not as fixed as having booked flights and everything, but I have like a rough ideal scenario if everything goes well and no injuries and no sickness for those races, then I have a pretty good schedule.”
Rumoured to be racing Challenge Roth, Ditlev was noncommittal on the topic of chasing a third straight title in Germany, but shared his T100 plans leading into Kona.
“I think I’ll probably do both London and Ibiza, but more to train through them, because they are close to where I live, so it’s probably not going to be such a demanding trip.
“I would say that my schedule is the one that allows me to best peak for Kona. That’s one of my main goals, to see if I can become an IRONMAN World Champion in October.”
T100 the perfect prep for Kona
When asked if he would change anything in his training when he switched focus from the T100 to Kona, Ditlev said that there would need to be some adjustments, but not as many as you might think.
“I think you really need some specific Ironman work. Probably not as much as people think, but still you need some. Training wise, it’s obvious you also need some weeks of really specific Ironman training.
“That’s one of the reasons we have such a long base period, as it’s important to see if you can keep building throughout the entire season. However, I think the T100 races are actually pretty good for an athlete like me that hasn’t come from a short course background.”
The Dane said that a lot of the racing skills gained from the 100km distance help him hone his overall ability, which in turn makes him stronger over the full distance.
“I don’t have the experience [of racing short course] but the 100km distance is probably the closest I can get to short course racing.
“So I have learned so much from the race dynamics, such as the swim starts and the tight racing on the bike and really just generally the dynamics from the T100 that I can kind of bring to the full distance, which makes me stronger there.”
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