Nice 70.3 Worlds: Col de Vence Decides It
Two weeks out, and a course that does not forgive. Nice hosts the IRONMAN 70.3 world championship on 12 and 13 September. The women race on Saturday, the men on Sunday, both fields off at 7:00 local time. The start lists carry 72 men and 78 women, and in the middle of the bike course stands the Col de Vence, which will settle the whole thing.
Geens has a shot at something nobody has done
Jelle Geens has started the 70.3 world championship twice and won twice: Taupō in 2024 and Marbella in 2025. A third title from three starts would be something no man has managed, according to Triathlon Magazine.
His full-distance season, though, was a write-off. A DNF in Texas, then an injury that ruled him out of Lake Placid. So the Belgian returns to the distance nobody has beaten him over, after a year in which very little worked. That is a more interesting setup than a straight title defence.
Behind him stands Kristian Blummenfelt, who lost by a few strides in Marbella. In Geelong he ran down Geens and Hayden Wilde after both had ridden away from him. The general view is that whoever beats Blummenfelt wins the race. Geens happens to know how that is done.
Three former champions and one New Zealander
The full set of previous world champions is on the line: Rico Bogen (2023), Kristian Blummenfelt (2022) and Gustav Iden (2019 and 2021). Add Marten Van Riel, the 2024 T100 world champion, who also won last year’s IRONMAN 70.3 Nice and therefore knows this course from inside a race. And there is Casper Stornes, the reigning IRONMAN world champion.
The most interesting name is Hayden Wilde. He skipped last year’s 70.3 championship after finishing second in 2024, and since then he has dominated the T100 distance. He comes back to a format he has already stood on the podium in, in very different shape.
The Americans have waited since 2007
The only American ever to win the men’s 70.3 world championship is Andy Potts, in Clearwater in 2007. Nothing since.
This year’s squad is their best chance in a long time. It is led by Sam Long, second behind Iden in 2021, who has not finished outside the top five over this distance since 2023. Alongside him are Trevor Foley, Jason West and Morgan Pearson.
Three world champions on one women’s start line
Defending champion Lucy Charles-Barclay has withdrawn to put everything into Kona, so the title is open. Taylor Knibb heads the field instead, three times 70.3 world champion in 2022, 2023 and 2024. Knibb was second last year and won the T100 world title in 2024, but she has never raced the Nice course.
This is not a one-woman contest. Solveig Løvseth arrives as the reigning IRONMAN world champion, Laura Philipp as the 2024 champion, and Kat Matthews as the defending Pro Series winner. Three athletes with a world title behind them and one who has won the Pro Series. That start list is rare.
Beyond those four there are two more nobody sensible writes off. Alanis Siffert has won four of six starts this season, among them Challenge Roth ahead of Matthews and Charles-Barclay, plus a third straight win at the Alpe d’Huez triathlon. Paula Findlay won her full-distance debut in Lake Placid last month, and over the last two seasons she has won five of the eight half-distance races she has started.
There is a local angle too. Marjolaine Pierré lives in Nice, won 70.3 Aix-en-Provence and was second in Jönköping. In Hamburg she set the pace before Løvseth and Philipp came past her, finishing fourth. The shorter distance should suit her better.
Col de Vence answers every question
The course is a 1.9 km swim in the Baie des Anges, 90 km on the bike with about 1190 m of climbing, and a flat half marathon. On paper a classic mountain course, but the detail sits in how that climbing is distributed.
The climb starts at around 26.6 kilometres and runs for 9.7 km at an average of 6.6%, for 633 m of ascent. Individual ramps go past 12%. Before that, at the 10th kilometre, comes the exit out of St-Laurent-du-Var with sections up to 13%.
The key tactical fact is this: past Coursegoules, at the 44th kilometre, the climbing is over. Less than 90 m of ascent is left across the remaining 46 km. What the course does serve up instead are two technical descents: 2 km with four hairpins from the 47th kilometre, and 11 km back into Nice from the 64th.
Anyone who overcooks the Col de Vence spends the rest of the bike paying it back. Then comes a flat half marathon with nowhere to hide. That favours athletes with a sensible power-to-weight ratio and a strong run, and works against time-trial specialists.
Worth knowing as well: at the regular IRONMAN 70.3 Nice, part of the field chooses a road bike with clip-on bars over a time-trial bike. The profile is rolling enough for that to make sense.
The pick
In the men’s race, Geens takes a third title, but not by riding away from anyone. The last 5 km of the run decide it, with Blummenfelt a handful of seconds back. In the women’s race the pick is Siffert. The form from Roth and Alpe d’Huez is no accident, and the course profile suits her better than it suits anyone else on the start list. Knibb second.