From pro cyclist to age-group triathlete: “I just have to take as much advantage as I can on the cycling!”

I started triathlon when a friend took me to Sgrail [Jan Frodeno’s gravel ride triathlon] a couple of weeks after I retired, and it was so much fun that I carried on. I did an Ironman 70.3 in Knokke-Heist [in Belgium] in 2024 and qualified for Marbella. I was already following triathlon and thought that I might take it up after my cycling career.

The approach is to do as well as possible. I just have to take as much advantage as I can on the cycling! I swam quite well given my ability in Marbella and I had a really good run. It’s strange to become an Ironman 70.3 age-group champion because I didn’t know the level of the racing, or what to expect.

I don’t think my wife would let me turn pro, but it’s fun and to see how far I can go. It was always on my mind that after my career in cycling I wanted to do something like this, out of my comfort zone. But you have to train a lot for this kind of…