Magnus Ditlev turns out to be the “smartest” racer of the day
Photo by:
Kevin Mackinnon
If you ask Denmark’s Magnus Ditlev what the key to becoming the first person to win a T100 Triathlon World Tour event was (which we did), it all came down to racing smart.
”I think I was the smartest guy today,” he said in an interview after the race. “I had a really conservative pacing strategy. I did a proper heat prep coming to Miami, but struggled a bit in training leading up to the race, so we had a made a clear plan, which I followed. I stuck to my own numbers and didn’t really react too much to those around me until the last few laps of the run and it all came together.”
While Ditlev appeared to be in control as he powered to the win over the last few kilometres of the race, he certainly was left to wonder how things would go as he chased down some of the sport’s top pros. Considered possibly the best cyclist in the sport, the 80 km bike in the T100 distance (2 km swim, 80 km bike, 18 km run) didn’t allow him to surge clear of the rest of the field to start the run. Ditlev hit T2 in a group of four that included two-time Olympic gold medalist Alistair Brownlee, reigning Ironman world champion Sam Laidlow and Mathis Margirier.
“I was a bit worried how quickly everyone started out on the run,” Ditlev said. “My plan was to go out really slowly, but they ran really quick the first few laps. I reeled in Mathis (Margirier) and then I got some positive vibes from that. Then I reeled in Sam Laidlow, which I was really satisfied with. Alistair had a huge gap at one point.”
Despite that gap, Ditlev was able to see the Brit and could take his own splits. Once he saw that Brownlee was starting to slow, he realized he was in a position to win the race.
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”He has a tendency, when I’ve raced him previously in these races, to blow up on the run,” Ditlev said of Brownlee. “Pretty quickly I could see that I was gaining on him.”
The win in Miami serves notice that Ditlev is becoming much more of a threat over shorter distances.
“Previously the full distance has been my best distance,” Ditlev said. “My team and I have always felt I have a lot more to offer over this distance than what I have showed before. I am really looking forward to the next events.”
Ditlev isn’t worried about any extra pressure that might arise as he heads to Singapore as the T100 series leader.
“It’s good,” he said when asked if it’s good or bad to arrive at the race with a target on his back. “It means you are doing the right stuff and you are successful, but it’s not something I worry about. I do my own training and I focus on myself and not what everyone else is thinking.”
