Høgenhaug Fifth in his first Ironman of the season at Vitoria-Gasteiz

Kristian Høgenhaug crossed the finish line of IM Vitoria-Gasteiz in 5th place. The BMC athlete briefly led the race during the run and was in contention for the podium until the very end, eventually finishing with a time of 7:44:36. Antonio Benito Lopez (ESP; 7:36:38) took the victory, with David McNamee (GBR; 7:41:20) and Cameron Wurf (AUS; 7:43:16) rounding out the podium.

Kristian Høgenhaug toed the line in Vitoria-Gasteiz for his first full-distance race of the season.

A Brutal Day

He had a solid start, exiting the water in 12th place, 2 minutes behind the leaders. Kristian used the first kilometers of the bike to close the gap to the first chase group. Once he made the connection around the 50k mark, he immediately rode to the front of that group to claim third place and started chasing down the leaders. A little later, Høgenhaug moved up to 2nd place as Laidlow was given a DSQ. In the second part of the bike, Kristian dropped all the other pursuers and claimed sole possession of second place.

Despite not having the best legs on the bike, he managed to open up a significant gap towards the rest of the field. Reaching T2, Høgenhaug was nearly 6 minutes behind leader Kallin and started the closing marathon another six minutes ahead of third place. In the first 10k, Kristian matched Kallin’s pace, but after that point, he started to close in on the Swede. At the halfway point, he cut the gap to just over a minute. Another 4k later, the Danish athlete made the pass to take control of the lead. Unfortunately, the danger came from behind. Just before the 30k mark, Høgenhaug had to settle for 2nd place. Going into the final lap of 10k, the BMC athlete was battling with McNamee for second place. Kristian kept his pace as high as possible and gave his all towards the line, but couldn’t prevent the passes by Weiss and Wurf in the final kilometers of the run. With a finishing time of 7:44:36, Høgenhaug crossed the finish line in 5th place after a hard-fought battle.

Using all mental resources

Afterwards, Kristian reflected: “It was an absolutely horrible day, actually. I was completely done from the start of the swim and completely cooked during the swim like never before. Halfway through the swim, I lost the connection with the group of athletes I would normally swim with.

On the bike, it was a long solo ride with terrible legs and on the run, it was all about surviving. I had to use all my mental resources today. Everything had to be forced through, and I didn’t have any flow. So, not much of a fun day. I’ll need to process this day.”

Sam Dickinson finishes fourth with Team GB in Mixed Relay World Championship in Hamburg

The British mixed relay team finished fourth at the World Triathlon Mixed Relay Championships in Hamburg.

Sam Dickinson raced the 3rd leg and faced a deficit of 8 seconds as he received the handover. The Team BMC athlete did well to cut the advantage on the swim to three seconds but didn’t make the front pack out of T1 as New Zealand’s Dylan McCullough, Switzerland’s Simon Westermann, and Germany’s Lasse Lührs pulled clear. At the halfway point of the 7km bike leg, the Brit was riding alone, five seconds off the leaders.

As the third run leg unfolded, the BMC athlete did well to keep within eight seconds of the lead trio, handing over to Vicky Holland for the fourth and final leg. Holland was in contention for the win during the swim and bike but lost ground on the run to finish fourth.