The seaside town of Les Sables d’Olonne today played host to the tenth stop of the IRONMAN Pro Series™ with IRONMAN® 70.3® Les Sables d’Olonne-Vendée triathlon. Aged just 24 and 21 respectively, the race saw Nicolas Mann (DEU) and Laura Madsen (DNK) claim victories, as well as 2,500 IRONMAN Pro Series points and $7,500 in prize money. Mann earned his second IRONMAN Pro Series victory after winning IRONMAN 70.3 Alcúdia -Mallorca back in May, and Laura Madsen also continued her winning streak after taking the tape at IRONMAN 70.3 Valencia in April.
The race, which took place a day earlier due to snap French elections scheduled for Sunday June 30, featured some rainy conditions on the bike and run, but that didn’t stop course best times being set in both the men and women’s professional fields. Nicolas Mann broke Pierre Le Corre’s (FRA) time of 03:41:05, set in 2022, by nearly two minutes, and Laura Madsen demolished Marta Bernard’s (ITA) course best, also set in 2022, by over 6 minutes. Each held off a strong chase pack which saw the top three finishers come in within approximately one minute of the leader.
Nicolas Mann said: “To be honest, I’m a bit lost for words. I still can’t believe what I did and I’m just really happy about it. It was so hard in the end, and maybe I celebrated a bit too early because I almost cramped in my legs, but I somehow made it to the finish line.”
When asked what's next he added: “To be honest, I am doing a little off season now because the season is so long until [VinFast IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship] Taupo, and so I’ll have a few days without sport and then I will try and get some decent training in, and I hope to start at [IRONMAN 70.3] Zell-am-See.”
Laura Madsen commented: “I immediately felt super great when I came onto the run, which doesn’t happen all the time. I was able to keep the pace up all the way to the finish... I could hear her [Nikki Bartlett’s] footsteps all the way... but then when we had the turnaround out on the last lap, I really tried to set the pace a bit harder, and suddenly I couldn’t hear her footsteps anymore and then I just looked in front and counted 1,2,1,2 to the end”.
When asked if she will race the full IRONMAN Les Sables d’Olonne-Vendée next year, she said “That could be nice, maybe actually! I definitely like the place here, so maybe you’ll see me there.”
Top Five Male Professional Results
Top Five Female Professional Results
The 2024 IRONMAN 70.3 Les Sables d’Olonne-Vendée triathlon saw approximately 70 of the world’s top professional triathletes compete for a piece of the USD $50,000 total event pro prize purse, and IRONMAN Pro Series points, as well as the final three slots per gender to the 2024 VinFast IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Taupo, New Zealand on December 14 and 15.
News and Notes
- The day started with some very fast swims thanks to an advantageous current, with new course bests being recorded by South African, Nicholas Quenet (20:02) and Brazilian, Pamella Oliveira (22.04).
- Nicolas Mann (DEU) had the fastest bike of the day with a time of 2:03:02, narrowly missing the bike course best of 2:02:51, which was set by French age-grouper Aurélien Le Lay in 2022.
- Mann also took the fastest run of the day, with a time of 1:11:12.
- Despite the rainy conditions, the top 12 female professionals all broke the standing bike course best of 02:21:45 (held jointly by Emilie Morier, 2023, and Eloise Du Luart. 2022), with Maja Stage Nielsen (DNK) having the fastest female professional bike split of the day in 2:17:11.
- Seven women also broke the course best of 4:122:4, set by Marta Bernardi (ITA) in 2022, with Laura Madsen’s winning time of 4:05:51 marking a brand-new course best.
- In her first race back in over 9 months, Nikki Bartlett clocked the fastest run of the day with a 1:19:28 half marathon to take second place
- 2022 IRONMAN World Champion Gustav Iden (NOR) continued his work towards a return to form, finishing the race in 13th place, 6:18 behind first. This race, along with his finish at IRONMAN 70.3 Warsaw a few weeks ago, officially validates his start at the 2024 VinFast IRONMAN World Championship in Kailua-Kona.
- 2023 IRONMAN 70.3 World Champion, Rico Bogen, also validated his start in Taupo.
- Fan favourite, Cam Wurf (AUS) took to the start line for his first IRONMAN Pro Series appearance, finishing 18th overall.
- Maja Stage Nielsen (DEN) climbs six places to the top of the IRONMAN Pro Series standings after coming 7th and Julie Iemmolo enters the top 10 following a 14th place position in today’s race
- With a 10th place finish in today’s race, Paul Schuster (DEU) climbs eight places in the standings, putting him in fourth place, and currently the highest European. Clement Mignon also climbed 18 places, squeezing into the top 10 at eighth place
- Of the top 10 in the men’s and women’s professional field, Germany had the most athletes with seven, followed by France and the UK, both with three.
IRONMAN Pro Series Standings
The IRONMAN Pro Series™ is a year-long performance-based triathlon race series with professional triathletes being able to earn points at 20 select races in 19 locations globally. Open to approximately 1,000 eligible professional triathletes worldwide, the IRONMAN Pro Series ushers in a new era of IRONMAN racing where Every Second Matters™ with every second behind the race winner equating to a point earned or lost. For any athlete, only their top five event results count towards their overall Pro Series points and standing, of which a maximum of three IRONMAN results can be counted. How it works can be found here.
Overall IRONMAN Pro Series Standings – Top Five Female (After Nine Events)
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Total IRONMAN Pro Series Points (Max Top 5 events)
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Total Eligible Races Scored
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IRONMAN 70.3 Races Scored
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Overall IRONMAN Pro Series Standings – Top Five Male (After Nine Events)
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Total IRONMAN Pro Series Points (Max Top 5 events)
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Total Eligible RacesScored
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IRONMAN 70.3 Races Scored
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Overall IRONMAN Pro Series Event Prize Money
In addition to the IRONMAN Pro Series’ $1.7M year-end bonus prize pool, there is an event pro prize purse payout of $2,575,000, distributed across IRONMAN Pro Series events. To date the IRONMAN Pro Series has paid out a total of $787,500. Over USD $1.7 million remains to be claimed at the remainingevents.
Top Five Female Prize Money Earned (After ten events)
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IRONMAN 70.3 Les Sables d’Olonne-Vendée Prize Money
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Top Five Male Prize Money Earned (After nine events)
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IRONMAN 70.3 Les Sables d’Olonne-Vendée Prize Money
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Tomas Rodriguez Hernandez (MEX)
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Next Events Coming Up
The IRONMAN Pro Series stays in Europe with the IRONMAN Vitoria-Gasteiz triathlon taking place on July 14. IRONMAN Vitoria-Gasteiz will be the fourth full-distance IRONMAN triathlon of the Pro Series, and will offer professionals a maximum of 5,000 points towards IRONMAN Pro Series standings, a $125,000 event total pro prize purse, and three qualifying slots for each gender to the 2024 VinFast IRONMAN World Championship in Nice (women) and Kailua-Kona (men).