Germany’s Lars Wichert, who holds the record as the fastest Ironman age-grouper thanks to his record-setting performance at Ironman Hamburg earlier this year, says that it appears his bike was tampered with in transition at last weekend’s Ironman World Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. Wichert says others in his age group also reported having issues with their bikes.
After checking his bike into transition on Friday afternoon, Wichert, 38, was doing some final checks on race morning and noticed that the bolt on his seat post had been loosened, so the saddle was moving around. He tightened the bolt, then checked the rest of his bike to ensure everything was OK.
When the two-time Olympic rower exited the water and hit T1, he was surprised to find that his rear tire was completely flat. After the race he would learn that countryman Fritz Ferner also found the bolt that held his saddle had been loosened, while 2022 Kona 35 to 39 age-group world champ, Tom De Bruyn, also arrived in T1 to find there was no air in one of his tires.
All three men have reported the issue to Ironman, who are reportedly looking into the matter and plan to review video footage from the transition area. (We reached out to Ironman but had not heard back as we published this story.) There are reports that other age group athletes in the men’s 35-39 age group also had issues on race day.
Fastest age-group bike split
About an hour into his race Wichert got another flat, which he fixed on the side of the road. Despite losing between two and three minutes, the German was able to get back on his bike and charge to Hawi and back with the day’s fastest age-group bike split, 4:21:13. That was the 37th fastest bike on the day and got him to T2 with a 32-second lead over Great Britain’s Neil Eddy and 35 seconds ahead of the eventual champion in the age group, China’s Miao Hao.
Eddy and Hao would quickly move ahead of the German, but he was able to remain in third place until he was coming out of the famous Energy Lab, where American Andrew Hall ran past. Wichert was able to stay with the American, though, and would surge back to the top-three over the last few kilometres of the race. His 3:07 marathon split got him to the line in 8:36:17. (Hao won the age group in 8:30:10, with Eddy taking second in 8:35:12.)
Outstanding season
Even though the flat might have cost him a spot on the podium, Wichert was thrilled with his race.
“I had the right mindset at the time (to deal with the issues on the bike),” Wichert said. “I had a really good race.”
It was just one of many great races the father of three enjoyed in 2024. After retiring from Germany’s national rowing program in 2019 – he represented the country in the lightweight fours in 2012 and 2016 – Wichert started cycling and then turned his sights to triathlon in 2021. He won his age category in his first triathlon, Ironman Hamburg, finishing in a speedy 8:12. In 2022 he was part of the Zwift Academy team in Kona, finishing 18th in his age category despite struggling with stomach cramps on the bike that almost saw him pull out of the race.
In 2023 he didn’t compete in any Ironman races, choosing to compete at Challenge Roth and then the prestigious Norseman Xtri event.
He started off the 2024 season with an age-gr0up win at Ironman 70.3 Valencia and followed that up with his record-setting age-group win in Hamburg. He turned down his Kona slot in Hamburg because of the cost of the Hawaii trip. After the speedy race in Hamburg, he was back to the gruelling Norseman event, where he finished second overall.
After a friend offered to sponsor him to Kona, Wichert went to the Ironman European Championship in Frankfurt just two weeks after the Norseman race, once again winning his age group and earning yet another Kona slot. This time he took it.
While Wichert remains thrilled with his Kona finish, he would like to see steps taken to ensure something like this doesn’t happen again.
“It would be good for Ironman to make changes in the future to ensure the safety and fairness of the race,” he said. “What if someone were to do something to the brakes? Even riding on a flat tire could be a safety issue.”
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