Star Norwegian duo Kristian Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden have mapped out how 2026 currently looks for them, starting with an altitude training camp in Sierra Nevada.
By his own incredibly high standards, ‘Big Blu’ didn’t quite hit his main targets in 2025 but he still walked away with the IRONMAN Pro Series title as well as podium finishes in both the IRONMAN World Championship and the 70.3 Worlds.
Iden meanwhile worked his way back to something close to his best and was runner up to Casper Stornes in a Norwegian 1-2-3 at the IMWC in Nice.
‘It can work if you are smart about it’
Both Blummenfelt and Iden are former IMWC and 70.3 Worlds winners and those two races are again top of the agenda for the new campaign.
Speaking in the latest Santara Tech YouTube video, which is embedded below, they reckon the four-week gap between the two – and the fact the 70.3 Worlds comes first in Nice before they head west towards Kona – should suit.
“I think we can make it fit,” said Iden. “It just means the last altitude camp has to be in Europe. And then [after Nice] I think four weeks in a warm climate is probably a little bit too long so we have to nail down exactly what to do but it can work if you are smart about it.”
That is the focus for the latter part of the year but before then Iden explained: “The season starts in March, so pretty early and then there’s going to be quite a lot of racing until the end of April.” The duo have already nominated IRONMAN New Zealand on March 7 and IRONMAN Texas on April 18 as their two full-distance aims in the first part of the year.
A 70.3 will likely come in between and those three races should tee up another big tilt at the IRONMAN Pro Series.
Stornes led the incredible Norway clean sweep in Nice [Photo credit: IRONMAN]
Training plans ‘fluid’
“So we want to be in shape early in the season,” added Blummenfelt. “I think we will do four weeks in Sierra Nevada and then get to New Zealand maybe a week before the race.”
Stornes will again be training with his compatriots and after that first block of racing there could be a warm-weather training camp for the trio in Thailand in May or June.
“This is how the training works,” revealed Iden. “People think we are super set but it’s a fluid thing and we talk to a lot of people, some of whom come up with really good ideas, especially locals.
“We haven’t spent much time in New Zealand and Australia for example so we don’t really know where to go.”
All smiles ahead of new season
And asked for triathlon predictions for 2026, Iden joked: “More time trial bikes with integrated lap counters!”
That referenced the lap-counting fiasco at the Dubai T100, but both Iden and Blummenfelt had plenty of sympathy for the athletes caught up in that.
“People are making fun of athletes counting up to eight,” pointed out Kristian. “But to be honest it is quite difficult to count to eight in a race situation.”
Iden agreed, adding: “I have very high sympathy for Hayden [Wilde], Marten [Van Riel] and Mathis [Margirier] in this because this was hard.”
