“I couldn’t let IRONMAN World Champs happen without me” – Marten Van Riel is BACK

Marten Van Riel is back on course for the IRONMAN World Championship in Nice.

In fact the Belgian star has already arrived on the Cote d’Azur, saying: “I couldn’t let these IRONMAN World Champs happen without me.”

That’s fantastic news for him after what he called “a serious ankle sprain” and also for the race itself as he adds another X Factor, having bossed the T100 last year after moving up in distance in brilliant style.

His last race was back in June when he won IRONMAN 70.3 Nice but despite his injury issues since then, he’s still ranked #3 in the world.

‘Exciting times’

He confirmed the news in his latest YouTube video, which is embedded below, and suggests things are moving very much in the right direction: “I can say and announce that I will go to Nice, I will be there.

“Obviously I don’t know what sort of shape I’ll be in, but that’s actually something that excites me in a way – to see how far I can get having overcome the challenges we’ve had in the last months.

“Everything has been progressing really, really quickly which is very exciting.”

Practice makes perfect

The video shows Van Riel revealing how the ankle pain all but disappeared over the course of not much more than a weekend.

That’s meant he’s been able to get back to running quicker than expected, so much so that he adds: “I’m starting to get confident that I can do a marathon.”

Van Riel arrived in Nice on Tuesday of this week which gives him plenty more time before September 14th to recce the hilly bike course.

He explained: “It’s a very particular course, it’s technical and it’s hard so I want to get a bit more practice on the course.”