Sam Laidlow thanked the two men on the podium with him for helping him set the fastest ever full distance time at Challenge Roth.

The Frenchman rewrote the record books as he defended his Roth title in thrilling fashion, crossing the line in 7:21:04, eight seconds under the previous best.

That was set in 2022 at IRONMAN Cozumel by none other than Kristian Blummenfelt, who was in full ‘Terminator’ mode as he tried to close down Laidlow on the run at Roth.

Laidlow briefly faltered at around the 30km mark and was reduced to a walk for a few strides before he somehow found hidden reserves to claim a famous win.

His time was all the more impressive as the swim was non-wetsuit and the bike and run both took place in breezy conditions.

Credit where it’s due

Speaking afterwards at the press conference he first nodded to runner-up Blummenfelt, who along with fellow Norwegians Gustav Iden and Casper Stornes, has won every race that matters and raised the bar in the process.

“I would like to thank these guys for setting the standard these last few years and especially this year too,” said Laidlow.

“That was definitely a big part of the motivation in training.”

Then he turned his attention to Rico Bogen, who was a brilliant third on his full-distance debut and helped Laidlow drive the swim and then distance the rest with a course-record bike split.

Laidlow added: “I’d like to thank Rico for the shared work on the bike – the world record wouldn’t have happened without that.

“I’m genuinely so impressed with his performance. Most people on their first full-distance race, the last 40 to 50k on the bike is where the legs usually go.”

As to his scare on the run, Laidlow added: “I felt really good in the first 26-27k and then I could see my heart rate was dropping a bit and I obviously hadn’t quite fuelled enough on the bike probably.”

‘It’s a must to win here’

Laidlow had been a key part of a five-man supposed ‘WhatsApp group’ on the swim, which worked superbly together to gap the rest.

They were nearly three minutes clear of pre-race favourite Blummenfelt when they exited the water and Laidlow and Bogen then drove that to more than 12 minutes on the bike.

It is a measure of just how highly his rivals rate Blummenfelt. And the Norwegian had no complaints, saying: “I think the tactic was quite clear from everyone and they executed it really well.”

Speaking the morning after the race to Laura Siddall on behalf of TRI247 and asked how he was feeling, Blummenfelt said: “Beaten up! Smashed in the quads and hamstrings because yesterday was a tough race from the gun.

This was his first visit to the iconic Challenge Roth and is unlikely to be his last. He explained: “It’s a race that I think all pros need to experience because it has the best crowds we have in the sport – it was just so loud and an epic experience.

“It’s a must to win here in my career – it’s a monument race in the sport.”

Why wasn’t I added?

And when Laura asked him about the WhatsApp group, Kristian said: “I find it strange because Sam has my number so it’s odd that he didn’t add me into the group!

“They know my strength and my weaknesses – that’s just racing.”

And talking through the run, when he cut the 12-minute gap down to five minutes, he admitted: “I set out at 3:30/km pace but then I didn’t catch up too much time for the first 10k so I realised if I was going to be in a position to win the race then it was going to be down to what happened to Sam.

“He was running too fast for me to catch him and I was hoping that he would start walking a bit – with that gap it was more that he needed to fade on the run rather than me having a great run.”