A return to Roth is definitely on the cards for rookie Rico Bogen after the German athlete produced a stunning full-distance debut in Bavaria on Sunday.
Having been set the goal of securing a top-five finish by his coach Philip Seipp, the 25-year-old middle-distance specialist exceeded expectations with a blistering display which saw him set the day’s fastest times in both the swim and on the bike to take third.
Indeed, his 3:54:45 in the saddle was quick enough to set a new record time for the Challenge Roth course, smashing the previous best of 3:57:45 set by Dane Magnus Ditlev back in 2023.
Plan in place to get as far ahead as quickly as possible
Admitting that there was a definite plan from the three Canyon riders – Sam Laidlow (FRA), Jonas Schomburg (GER), and he himself – to get away as quickly and as far as possible from the running powerhouse that is Kristian Blummenfelt, he says the plan worked perfectly… up until the marathon.
The farthest he had run before Sunday was 32km, and he revealed how there was a moment as he headed up towards BĂĽchenbach that he questioned whether he was going to have enough left in the tank to finish the race.
“I am super happy with the race; my legs are tired for sure, but I am super happy with the performance and the outcome,” he said. “I know that I am a good biker, and I wanted to stay with Sam. I didn’t know if it was going to be possible around the 80km mark, but in the end it was quite good, and it was fun to take turns at the front with him.
“It was really fast, a new bike record, so I was really happy to stay at the front and share in the work. We had a plan: the three Canyon athletes, Jonas, Sam and me, because we are good bikers and good swimmers, to stay together and share the work. The plan worked perfectly. From kilometre one we were able to stick together.
‘The goal was for me to finish in the top five’
“The goal was for me to be able to finish in the top five; that would have been a great result in this stacked field, but I stuck to my numbers and executed the plan – the swim and bike were perfect, and the run was, for sure, hard, but we didn’t know how I would perform, and in the end it was quite good.”
It was Seipp who convinced him to carry on and get the job done. Already passed by Blummenfelt, he was clearly struggling to keep it together.
“My longest run before this race was 32km, so it was a little bit of an unknown length for me, and already, the last 30km on the bike had been a bit harder on the legs for me, but then I started OK on the run,” he said. “Going up to Büchenbach it was really hard. I started to get a little bit dizzy, and I thought I might have to quit the race, but Philip said it was normal and to just keep going… so it was step by step to the finish line.
Finishing third in your debut full-distance race is a great achievement in itself, but to be able to do it at Challenge Roth – a festival of triathlon which assaults your senses like no other – shows just how much potential Bogen has in the longer format of the sport.
‘It was just so loud – an emotional moment’
Pleased with how the initial experience played out, he will now go back to his usual T100 Triathlon World Championship commitments before planning more long-distance adventures in 2027 – with Roth at the top of his hit list.
“I think I will be back at Roth. It is a great event; I have never had this experience before, and it makes you want to come back,” he said. “It was my goal to be going up Solaraberg in first position, and it was crazy; looking up and seeing the crowd was amazing, and going through them, it was just so loud – an emotional moment where you have goosebumps while riding.
“In future years I will be looking to race more full-distance, but for this year, probably not. The plan was to get the experience and do the first one; we didn’t expect such a good result, but this year the plan is to go back to middle distance and the T100.
“We will see what the plans are for next year, but I will be looking to do more long-distance.”
A special weekend in the Bogen family was then rounded off when his sister Bianca won the IRONMAN 70.3 Jönköping, securing the European Championship in the process.
