Denmark’s Magnus Ditlev won the first-ever T100 at the Homestead-Miami Speedway and live up to his billing as the race’s top-ranked athlete by starting the new T100 Triathlon World Tour in commanding fashion and securing the maximum 35 points on offer.
His Miami T100 win at CLASH Endurance Miami guarantees him a place in the history books as the inaugural men’s winner of the new eight-event series and a first step towards the T100 Triathlon World Championship.
“It feels amazing,” said Ditlev. “It’s a great start to the season. I’m super stoked to take my first T100 win and the first win of the season as well.”
Asked to explain how he’d coped with the extreme heat to reel in a slowing Alistair Brownlee from Great Britain and France’s Mathis Margirier, he said:
“When I arrived here in Miami I felt really bad throughout the week training here. So we made a super conservative plan for heat and cooling and so on.” Talking about how he coped with the heat during the race, he said: “I was right below the limit. Towards the end of the run I was able to reel in Alistair [Brownlee] and push a bit more. I was super controlled and just below the limit, to deal with the heat.”
With temperatures in the swim touching 81°F and a track temperature of 89°F, Ditlev was asked to explain just how the heat – which led to six athlete DNFs – had affected him.
“Already on the swim I started to feel hot. I was with the front pack after half of the swim, but I had to let them go and then on the bike I was trying to do every opportunity to cool down. And especially on the run with the sun baking on the tarmac and everything.”
Asked how he keeps so controlled, he said: “I don’t know really. It’s a personal trait I was born with or something. I don’t feel like I’m that cool actually. Maybe it just looks like that on the outside, but I’m just trying to be in control and focus on my own tasks and solve them as best as I can.” Next up for Ditlev is the Singapore T100 on 13-14 April.
Second placed Sam Long put in a storming performance on the bike and then in the run. Asked if this had proved he had the strongest legs in triathlon, Long laughed and said: “Technically no, and technically yes. You’ve got to take the swim out of it and then you look at the splits.”
Admitting this had “started as a bit of a joke and that I got a lot of negativity ’cos of that and I deserved that negativity to be fair,” he then explained how he had run through the field.
“It was less actually comparing myself to the other athletes and it was more just being really focused on myself moment to moment. Of course the spectators did get me excited every lap and it really did seem unfeasible [to make the podium] until the last ten minutes of the race. Then that belief came and it gave me a huge surge of energy.”
How The Race Unfolded
In the warm water of the Homestead-Miami Speedway, it was a swift 2km swim with current 70.3 world champ and T100 Hotshot Rico Bogen leading out the water, while Ironman world champ Sam Laidlow and double-Olympic champion Alistair Brownlee were close behind.
Once on the bike, it was all about the charge of France’s Mathis Margirier who quickly made up eight places to take the lead. Brownlee was the only athlete to go with him and the pair flew around the Homestead-Miami Speedway, distancing the rest of the field. As the 22-laps and 80km wore on, only the pure bike power of Magnus Ditlev and Sam Laidlow were eventually able to bridge the gap. That quartet came into T2 with over two minutes in hand to the rest of the field.
From there, Brownlee took pole position at the start of the 18km run. The Brit went out of transition at an awesome pace, echoing both the dominating performances of years past and the story from Ibiza in 2023 where his lead evaporated.
Behind, the fastest mover was Magnus Ditlev, the tall Dane seemingly impervious to the heat as he hunted the lead. As the run progressed, it was a sad sight for triathlon nostalgists as double Olympic champion Brownlee slowed under the punishing conditions.
The inexorable advance of Ditlev saw him catch and soon shake Brownlee to lead into the closing phase of the race. Meanwhile American favourite Sam Long, eighth off the bike, was also storming through the field, showing no sign of fatigue under the sun. Long found his way into the podium placings and then overtook Margirier to take second.
No one could stop Ditlev, however, the Dane’s class and 100km specific training paying off as he wrote his way into the history books as the first-ever T100 winner, taking a full 35 points. Long claimed second and 28 points and Margirier third and 25. Youri Keulen finished fourth for 22 points and Brownlee managed his efforts to complete the top five and scoring 20 points.
How the they finished
Magnus Ditlev (DEN) – 3:09:08 [24:28/1:41:45/1:00:55]
Sam Long (USA) – 3:09:43 [26:55/1:42:10/58:44]
Mathis Margirier (FRA) – 3:10:08 [23:44/1:42:30/1:01:59]
Youri Keulen (NED) – 3:10:47 [23:45/1:45:01/1:00:12]
Alistair Brownlee (GBR) – 3:11:43 [32:39/1:42:39/1:03:38]