Sam Laidlow, the Frenchman who challenged eventual Challenge Roth winner Magnus Ditlev throughout the swim and the bike in Bavaria before slowing to a walk on the latter stages of the marathon, has revealed the injury that hampered his race.

The PTO World #4, who in the end finished eighth last weekend, shared on social media that he had suffered a torn calf from the run in Roth and now faces an uphill battle to not only recover from the injury, but also to get back to full fitness ahead of the biggest races of the season.

Second last year in a breakthrough performance at the IRONMAN World Championships in Kona, Laidlow has been tipped as a favourite for this year’s championships on home soil in Nice, but will face a race against time with only ten weeks to go until the starting gun goes off on the French Riviera.

“I knew something was definitely wrong”

Posting on his Instagram page yesterday, Laidlow initially tried to make light of the situation, joking that the tear came about because of Ditlev’s immense bike power, before providing a proper injury update.

“Turns out the pain was real in Challenge Roth and Magnus really did rip my legs off. I tore the muscle in my calf at the 10km mark of the marathon! I knew something was definitely wrong during the race and stubbornly I tried my best to get to the finish line as fast as I could.”

Laidlow added that going forward, he cannot say what the injury will mean for races such as the PTO US Open, PTO Asian Open or even the IRONMAN World Championships, but will prioritise getting back to where he needs to be as quickly as possible.

“I’m not too sure what this means for the second half of the season, but all I can say is I will try my very best to get back to full fitness for the big races.”