A Pro Triathlete on Meltdowns, Comebacks, and Series Standings in Challenge, Ironman, and XTERRA

Everyone loves winning – the adrenaline and endorphins make for an incredible feeling. It doesn’t happen for me that often (especially not in recent years), so I’m always grateful when it does. I often wish I could have bottled the feelings and emotions. It’s an addictive drug.

When not racing myself, I love seeing friends and good people taking the win. Knowing what goes into that performance—not just the athlete but the team behind them. Seeing how much it means to them, the emotion and elation. So (and yes, I’m taking a little bit of writer’s liberty here), it was pretty damn cool to watch Matt Hanson run through to take the win in the men’s race at Ironman 70.3 Chattanooga, and Emma Pallant-Browne grabbing two wins in as many weeks (in other words, it’s back to business as usual for Pallant-Browne).

But there’s so much more from the weekend of racing. With the T100 Tour and the Ironman Pro Series both already in full swing, it was time for Challenge Family to shine with their Championship race of the year, and it was hot. We saw blistering times, course records, and spectacular performances by Kyle Smith and India Lee.

Also, just three hours south of Chattanooga was the next stop in the XTERRA World Cup Series, and for the first time in the series, the athletes raced the full distance with the short track the following day. No directional errors this time, as Felix Forissier returned to the top step and Sandra Mairhofer took her first win of the year in the full distance. In the short-track race, it was the first win of the year for the reigning World Cup Champion Arthur Serrieres, and a return to the top of the podium for Solenne Billouin.

Challenge “The Championship” 2024 results: Lee defends title, Smith continues hot streak

It’s the seventh year of The Challenge Championship, the flagship race for The Challenge Family where athletes have to qualify for a spot on the start line. India Lee went two for two at The Challenge Championship, defending her title and breaking her own course record.

Caroline Pohle led out the water, with Fenella Langridge and Lee hot on her heels. Els Visser, in her seventh race of the year, had a great swim and was only 1:40 back. Pohle held the lead on the bike for over half the distance, as Lee chased hard behind, with Langridge dropping back. Laura Madsen, the youngest athlete in the field (at 21 years old), moved into third. Over the second half of the bike, Lee just slowly turned the screws, breaking away and coming into T2 with a 40-second lead over Pohle. A chase pack of Madsen, Visser, and Kaidi Kivioja fought it out behind.

As she did on the bike, Lee continued to do the same on the run, extending her lead and putting the pressure on the chasers. Pohle was strong in second, with the battle for third continuing behind before Madsen started to make a move at half way, breaking away and chasing down Pohle.

Lee was out of trouble at the front, and of course had the biggest smile as she crossed the line, the double Challenge Championship champion.

 

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In the race for the minor places, Madsen made the pass on a struggling Pohle, to make a statement as a young-up-and-coming athlete. Pohle, who unfortunately suffered in the last stages of the race, collapsed just a few hundred meters from the line, unable to finish, allowing Anna Bergsten, who put in the fastest run of the day, to run through from 12th off the bike, to the final podium spot! (Fun fact: Laura Madsen last raced The Challenge Championship as an age grouper, where she met her partner, pro triathlete Thor Bendix Madsen.)

In the men’s race, it was New Zealander Kyle Smith who continued his fantastic start to the year, taking the win and the course record. It was great to see how much the win meant to Smith, who was very emotional at the finish, but also a testament to the hard work he’s been putting in.

All of the men’s field exited the water together, and were out of T1 within thirty seconds, meaning there was going be some solid attacks on the bike to break up the race. Reigning Ironman 70.3 World Champion Rico Bogen took the early lead on the bike, but not for long, as the powerhouse bikers of Kristian Hogenhaug, Freddie Funk, Jan Stratmann, and Kyle Smith were close behind, exchanging places and pushing the pace. Over the rest of the bike, the lead changed hands, as athletes tried to break away and were reeled back in before Funk made a decisive move in the later stages. He arrived in in T2 with a gap, Bogen and Smith following just under two minutes down, while Hogenhaug was in fifth, just over two minutes back. Funk rode 1:48:48 for an average speed of nearly 30mph. That’s smokin’ fast!

But it was Smith smoked the run out of T2, chasing down Funk and making the pass for the lead by the 5K mark. From there it was Smith’s to lose, as he was on fire and extended his lead over the rest of the field.

It was a fantastic win for Smith over a great field. Smith really seems to be finding his form in the middle distance this year: He burst onto the scene a few years ago, moving up from short-course racing and made a name for himself with his from-the-gun, go-till-you-blow racing style. He began with an impressive win at Challenge Wanaka and then a fourth place at the T100 Singapore (as a wild card), and now he’s taken The Challenge Championship title! Next up, Smith will take on the T100 San Francisco (obviously again as a wild card) to see what chaos he can cause there with the contracted athletes.

Freddie Funk still had a great run off his ridiculous bike, finishing in second and just holding off Hogenhaug in third. (Fun fact: Both Funk and Smith are coached by Dan Lorang.)

Challenge “The Championship” 2024 results

Ironman 70.3 Chattanooga 2024 results: Two wins in two weeks for Pallant-Browne, Hanson tops podium (and Ironman Pro Series)

Missed the action in Chattanooga? Outside+ members can replay the entire race (and all races in the Ironman Pro Series) on demand with Outside Watch.

In the fifth race of the Ironman Pro Series, we head to Tennessee for Ironman 70.3 Chattanooga. With a few races under our belts, we are starting to perhaps get an idea of the key players for the series, but as iron-distance events are so heavily weighted (and only one has counted), there’s tons of movement still to come.

Emma Pallant-Browne did what Emma Pallant-Browne does, taking another win on her growing resume of titles only seven days after she won Ironman 70.3 Mallorca. That’s a maximum of 2,500 points from both races, and with a second-place finish at Ironman 70.3 Oceanside, she’s trying to rack up as many points as she can. She’s unlikely to race a full Ironman, so she needs five strong 70.3 races to put her in the mix at the end of the year. But more on the series rankings later.

It was great to see a return to racing for British athlete Jodie Stimpson, after a few years battling injuries. It’s also always good to see American Sarah True on the start list—who exited just behind Stimpson out of the water in first and second, respectively. Pallant-Browne would be out of the water over two minutes back with a strong group of riders including Jackie Hering, Lisa Becharas, and Alice Alberts. American Grace Alexander (who’d swam with Stimpson and True) did much of the work at the front of the bike for the leading trio, before they were caught by the chasing three Hering, Becharas, and Pallant-Browne. It was these six who came into T2 together, making it a true running race. Of course, didn’t take long for Pallant-Browne to take the lead and run her way to the win, holding off a late surge from Jackie Hering who finished in second. Sarah True finished on the podium in third.

Danielle Lewis still sits at the top of the Ironman Pro Series standings with her fourth place in Chattanooga. Lewis has raced all but one event in the series so far, and her fifth-, ninth-, sixth-, and now fourth-place finishes show it’s about consistency of racing (especially early in the season). Pallant-Browne moves up six places to second in the series, but it’s worth a reminder that she’s focusing solely on the 70.3 distance, the T100 series, and 70.3 World Championships in December.

The big mover in the series standings is Chattanooga’s second-place finisher Hering, who has jumped 12 places to make it into the top 10, and she sits in eighth as of this writing. Hering has been a regular podium finisher in almost every half distance she’s raced over the past few years, but this year, with the Ironman Pro Series, she’s decided to fully commit and return to full-distance racing. Hering last raced a full in 2015, and while we are unsure when her first full will be again, her consistency could well put her in the mix at the top of the rankings by the end of the series.

Now sitting at the top of the Ironman Pro Series on the men’s side is Matt Hanson after collecting maximum points in Chattanooga. Using a blistering run, Matt came from 4:29 down off the bike in seventh to take the lead in the final mile.

The Ironman Pro Series is almost tailor-made for an athlete like Hanson. If the series had happened in 2023 (in hindsight, of course), Hanson would have won. Hanson can race a lot and with consistently good results—the amount of work he can absorb in training is impressive and it will serve him well for the series.

Another big mover in the Ironman Pro Series rankings is Jackson Laundry, who jumps nine places now up to third, after finishing in second at 70.3 Chattanooga behind Hanson. Laundry has three races in the Pro Series so far, with a third-, fourth-, and now second-place finish; we are yet to see if he’ll be tempted to throw a full-distance race in, or if, like Pallant-Browne, will just try to lock in as many good results over the 70.3 distance.

Laundry was 51 seconds down out of the water in Chattanooga, but bridged up to the leaders by mile 37 on the bike. He was with a group of five men that came into T2 together, but it was Nicholas Quenet who took charge on the run while Laundry sat in second for most of the race. That is, until Hanson plowed them all down in the space of a few kilometers to take the lead with just a mile or so left.

Unfortunately, Quenet suffered badly in the final stages, stumbling off course and taking a little bit of a time out on the side of the course. He went all in, courageously taking it to everyone else, and led until mile 12, when he hit the wall. Quenet is a talented athlete, and it’s only his second year racing the half distance. He’s had some solid results already, and I don’t think it will be long before he takes his first win.

Trevor Foley finished in third on the day, returning to racing after a crash almost two months ago that took him out with a concussion. The race was only his sixth run since the crash, having only been given the green light to race just a couple of days ago. Off the back of those six runs, Foley ran a 1:14:59, still one of the fastest runs of the day.

Ironman 70.3 Chattanooga 2024 results

XTERRA Oak Mountain 2024 results: Billouin beats back bad luck, Forissier gets back on track

Finally, we move to the third round of the XTERRA World Cup in Oak Mountain, Alabama, which doubled as the inaugural XTERRA North American Championships. It was also the first time the World Series added short-track racing to the program. The standard XTERRA distance is (approximately) a 1.5K swim, 33K bike, and 10K run, which took place on Saturday. The following day, the athletes raced on the short track with a two-lap, 400m swim, a three-lap 7.5K bike, and then a two-lap 1.5K run.

Aneta Grabmuller (CZE) has been pretty dominant in the swim over the series, and once again led the charge. Current World Cup Series leader Solenne Billouin (FRA) exited the water around one minute back with series contender Sandra Mairhofer (ITA). Grabmuller led on the bike until about 5 kilometers, when the chasers closed in.

Billouin, who’s two for two in the XTERRA World Cup so far this year, but failed to finish Oak Mountain back in 2023, suffered a punctured tire, at the same spot as last year; yet despite this setback (and perhaps with a better set up), managed to continue riding on a foam insert, showing seriously impressive skills to keep the bike upright and hold it together. However, this left Mairhofer to take advantage of the opportunity and lead into T2. Mairhofer had a substantial lead and held a strong pace on the run pushing hard. She was then able to back off a little, realising the gap she had, to still take the win, but perhaps conserve some energy for the short-track race still to come. Billouin was able to fight back from the disappointing bike to move back up to second, with Alizee Paties (FRA), the 2023 World Cup winner, in third.

The following day, Billouin was able to make amends by putting herself back on the top of the podium winning the short track. Once again Grabmuller led out the water and put in a strong bike to lead onto the run. Only Billouin, the current world champion could run Grabmuller down over the short distance. Paties finished in third.

After a big weekend of racing, Solenne Billouin, consolidated her position at the top of the XTERRA World Cup ranking, having secured maximum points in three out of the four races to date and looks to be dominant over the series. Alizee Paties is second and Aneta Grabmuller in third for the series. Oak Mountain’s winner, Sandra Mairhofer, is in fifth.

Felix Forissier took another win and the full-distance title in the men’s race scoring maximum points and tightening his hold over the XTERRA World Cup series lead. Whilst Forissier is consistently one of the best across the board, putting in the fastest splits (or close) in each discipline, it was “road triathlete” Eric Lagerstrom who led out the swim, by almost 40 seconds. But Forissier’s superior bike and run soon saw him once again at the front of the race, securing another win. Arthur Serrieres finished in second, moving up a place from his third in the previous round, and clearly getting better and better as he gets back into racing. Jens Emil Sloth Nielsen had the fastest bike split of the day and finished in third.

Onto the short track, Serrieres, the reigning World Cup champion, was able to take the top step for the first time this year. Serrieres didn’t race in Taiwan at the first stop in the World Cup, but now has put his name back in contention for the series title. Felix Forissier finished in second, just ahead of his brother Arthur.

Felix still has control of the overall series, with Arthur ranked second. But Serrieres starting to make a move, now up to fifth. Next stop: Belgium, June 8!

XTERRA Oak Mountain 2024 results

Quick Notes

A few more things from the triathlon world, just in case you missed it:

• Just days after finishing in second place at WTCS Yokohama, Taylor Knibb won the USA National Time Trial Championship title and booked her ticket to the Paris Olympics in a second sport. Knibb, who also qualified for Team USA at last year’s Paris Test Event triathlon, told Triathlete last June her bike-focused block while recovering from a stress fracture in her foot took her riding to “a new level.”
• Anne Haug put down a blistering race at Ironman Lanzarote. She took the win with a 2:49 marathon, which after the bike course in Lanza is not to be dismissed. Not only did Haug obliterate the run course record (previously 2:58:37), she also set a new bike course record, on her way to taking a whopping 18 minutes off the previous record, held by Paula Newby-Fraser, from 1995! While conditions were atypically excellent, Ironman Lanzarote is probably one of the toughest courses on the circuit and has a pretty poor prize purse for a full-distance event (less than most 70.3s), so for Haug’s impressive performance she took home prize money that’s the equivalent of the fourth-place finisher at 70.3 Chattanooga.
• It’s worth mentioning that Norway and the Netherlands both secured their spots in the Olympic mixed team relay, having finished first and second, respectively, in the 2024 Huatulco World Triathlon Mixed Relay Olympic Qualifier last weekend.