The world's best female triathletes showed on the Côte d’Azur how to handle extreme courses. Here is how you can use their tactics for your own race.
The Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Nice has once again shown how demanding triathlon can be at the top level. While the American Taylor Knibb stormed to her fourth World Championship title with a dominant performance on the bike and a new bike course record of 2:32:07 hours, things were extremely tactical behind her. For recreational athletes, the race on the Côte d’Azur provides valuable lessons in pacing, course knowledge, and mental strength.
The bike course in Nice is infamous: over the 90 kilometres, the athletes have to tackle a total of 1,247 metres of elevation. The long climb to the Col de Vence demanded everything from the competitors. Knibb made her decisive move right here. But behind her, it also became clear how important correct pacing is. The Frenchwoman Marjolaine Pierré, who knew the course inside out from training, used her course knowledge for a controlled, tactically clever descent and temporarily moved up into second place.
For your own training, this means: if you do not overextend yourself on the climbs and specifically train for descents, you save valuable energy for the final run. Caroline Pohle, who finished in a strong tenth place, jokingly commented at the finish line on her risky descent, hoping her mother had not watched it. However, controlled risk management is always the safer path in amateur sports.
How to roll up a race from behind was demonstrated by the Swiss athlete Julie Derron. With the fastest run time of the day (1:13:04 hours), she stormed to the silver medal position. The Norwegian Solveig Løvseth also showed an impressive chase: she was over eight minutes behind the lead after the bike leg, but moved up to fourth place with the second-fastest run time (1:16:03 hours).
These catch-up chases show that a triathlon is only decided at the finish line. If you lose time during the swim or on the bike, you must not break down mentally. A stable rhythm and trust in your own running strength are the keys to success on the run course, which was flat but windy in Nice.
The external conditions also played a major role in Nice. With water temperatures of 26 degrees Celsius, wearing wetsuits was banned in the pro race. In addition, the stony beach at the start in the Mediterranean Sea required a lot of sure-footedness from the athletes. If you prepare for different scenarios in training – such as swimming without a wetsuit or a quick transition under difficult conditions – you will not lose your nerve during the race.
Your takeaway: Pace yourself wisely on the climbs and trust in your running strength to finish the race mentally strong in the final stages.
This article was generated automatically with AI from the sources listed above and has not been editorially reviewed.