How close was that? Kristian Blummenfelt clips a wheel during the Sub7/ Sub8 project

While Kristian Blummenfelt would end up blasting the sub-seven hour mark in style at yesterday’s Sub7/ Sub8 Project in Germany, there was a moment when the Norwegian Olympic gold medalist came very close to having his day come to an abrupt end.

Blummenfelt’s team on the bike averaged an impressive 52.8 kph, finishing the 180 km bike leg in 3:24:22. (Joe Skipper’s squad averaged 54.9 kph and finished in 3:16:42.) At one point on the bike, though, Blummenfelt found himself scrambling to stay upright as one of the pacers ahead of him came close to going down. As you can see in the video below, Blummenfelt himself appeared to hit the wheel of the rider ahead of him, but managed to stay upright.

That was a near miss for Team Kristian as one of the pacers clips a wheel!#sub7sub8 pic.twitter.com/dFF2sDsq7p

— Pho3nix Foundation (@Pho3nix_Fdn) June 5, 2022

There actually was a bike crash during the race when Lani Rutto, the backup pacer, who was handing nutrition and hydration to Blummenfelt and his pacer Barnaba Kipkoech. While handing a bottle back to Rutto, the Kenyan lost control of his bike and went down. Luckily, though, Blummenfelt was taken down and Rutto bounced back quickly.

The bark heard around the world

Another funny video that has been making the rounds on social media is when Skipper’s team went past Blummenfelt’s crew during the bike leg. As he went by, Skipper “barked” to the team.

That moment when @Noaveragejoe88 passed @kristianblu #sub7sub8 pic.twitter.com/a9oqYCg7kc

— Pho3nix Foundation (@Pho3nix_Fdn) June 5, 2022

Blummenfelt returned the favour as he passed the Brit on the run.

While Skipper was a late addition to the event after Alistair Brownlee was forced to pull out with an injury, he acquitted himself well. His pre-race bike prediction of 3:20 was seemingly extremely ambitious, but in the end his 3:16:42 bike split proved him right.