The 25-year-old Challenge Roth winner put the frustration of last year\u2019s penalty in Kona behind him to finish third in the Ironman World Championship <\/p>
Magnus Ditlev is known for having the most powerful legs in triathlon and arrived in the south of France as many people\u2019s favourite to replace Gustav Iden<\/a> as the new Ironman world champion.<\/strong><\/p>\n But even pushing out more megawatts over the testing terrain in the Maritime Alps ultimately wasn\u2019t enough, as Ditlev\u2019s second-best 4:35:54 bike split saw him give up 4 \u00bdmin to eventual winner Sam Laidlow<\/a><\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cTo be honest, I felt I was biking really well, but I could just see that Sam was pulling away which was frustrating and difficult to handle,\u201d Ditlev said in a frank assessment immediately post-race.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBut I was looking at my numbers thinking it was really good, so I had to stay positive and try to race my own race and make some smart decisions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Laidlow stated post-race that it was a clear tactic to up the pace midway through the 2.4-mile swim off the Cote d\u2019Azur to try and shake off Ditlev before the bike leg because he had \u201c500 watts in his back pocket.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n While it paid dividends for the new Ironman champion, Ditlev was still able to claim a World Championship podium to match his 70.3 worlds result in Utah last year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It was almost one more step up too, but after duelling with Rudy Von Berg for much of the 26.2-mile marathon, Ditlev would eventually be overtaken by Patrick Lange<\/a><\/strong> for the runner-up spot.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOn the run I knew immediately that I didn\u2019t feel as fresh and bouncy as in Roth [where Ditlev set a new course record in June<\/a><\/strong>] so it would be a long one,\u201d he explained. \u201cI still managed to do the first two laps at a really good pace, but then had to turn it down a notch.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAs soon as I made the decision to lower it to 3:55min\/km pace I knew that Patrick would catch me. After that it was more about making sure I could secure the podium.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n While Ditlev might have been frustrated by not catching Laidlow, his sanguine post-race demeanour contrasted sharply to 11 months earlier in Hawaii, where, hit with a disputed drafting penalty, he\u2019d suffered 5min on the sidelines before eventually finishing eighth.<\/span><\/p>\n And he had plenty to be content with about the performance in Nice. After a 49:14 swim that left him less than 2min off the lead, he also delivered a fifth-best 2:41:07 marathon that saw him hold off Von Berg by 74sec. Given Ditlev only took part in his first full distance race in April last year, it has been a fast progression.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m generally super happy about the way I fought and stayed positive throughout the entire day,\u201d he added. \u201cOn the uphills I was going well, and on the downhills I was with Rudy, who didn\u2019t go past me on the first couple of downhills which was a sign to me I was biking the downhills well.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOn the long one [in the closing stages of the bike leg] he took maybe a bit more risk on the bumps and potholes so got a little gap there, but I rode what I could on the day. <\/span>I will have a break now. Next year I really want to go back to Roth and then it\u2019s all about Kona as well.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Ditlev dropped out of his last race, the PTO US Open<\/a><\/strong>, with stomach issues, but said seeing Jan Frodeno<\/a><\/strong> win in Milwaukee had given him extra motivation. <\/span>\u201cI think that was a good slap in the face for me \u2013 a wake-up call after Roth. It wasn\u2019t that I hadn\u2019t been doing the work, it was just a bit difficult after Roth to mentally focus 100%.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Frodeno said that the Ironman World Championship would be his final race after a stellar career that has reaped three Ironman world titles and Olympic gold. It turned out to be a disappointing farewell as the 42-year-old eventually finished in 8:48:42 and 24th place,<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know what happened,\u201d Ditlev said. \u201cI overtook him on the main climb and could see he was not himself, then I saw him on the turnaround on the bike and it was a big gap that surprised me. It\u2019s a shame that his last race \u2013 if it\u2019s going to be his last race \u2013 will end like that. He deserved better.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Pic credit:<\/strong> Donald Miralle for IRONMAN<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n The 25-year-old Challenge Roth winner put the frustration of last year\u2019s penalty in Kona behind him to finish third in the Ironman World Championship <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":25377,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"4"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2023\/09\/magnus-ditlevs-megawatts-earn-giant-dane-a-podium-in-nice-scaled.jpg",2560,1703,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2023\/09\/magnus-ditlevs-megawatts-earn-giant-dane-a-podium-in-nice-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2023\/09\/magnus-ditlevs-megawatts-earn-giant-dane-a-podium-in-nice-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2023\/09\/magnus-ditlevs-megawatts-earn-giant-dane-a-podium-in-nice-768x511.jpg",768,511,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2023\/09\/magnus-ditlevs-megawatts-earn-giant-dane-a-podium-in-nice-1024x681.jpg",800,532,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2023\/09\/magnus-ditlevs-megawatts-earn-giant-dane-a-podium-in-nice-1536x1022.jpg",1536,1022,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2023\/09\/magnus-ditlevs-megawatts-earn-giant-dane-a-podium-in-nice-2048x1362.jpg",2048,1362,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"The 25-year-old Challenge Roth winner put the frustration of last year\u2019s penalty in Kona behind him to finish third in the Ironman World Championship","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/25376"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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