Ironman Triathlon Megastar Kristian Blummenfelt Presses Pause on Audacious Plot to Win Tour de France

Ironman and Olympic triathlon superstar Kristian Blummenfelt has pressed pause on his audacious project to win the Tour de France.

Bluemmenfelt’s trainer and confidante Olav Aleksander Bu told Velo his athlete would keep his focus on swim-bike-run after he left the Paris Olympic triathlon disappointed with 12th.

“After the Paris review we have decided to aim for Los Angeles 2028,” Bu told Velo, referring to the next Games.

“Despite the results in Paris, we are more confident after the race that going back from Ironman to Olympics is possible. We want to give it one last shot,” Bu said this week.

The news makes for a hard pivot from Blummenfelt and his visionary coach.

Bu outlined ahead of the Paris Olympic Games how he and his all-conquering athlete were mapping out a four-year project to top the Tour de France.

“In 2026, we aim to race in the Tour de France,” Bu told TV2. “In 2027 we must be in a position to take some jerseys. If we aren’t in a position to take some stage wins or be at the very top overall, it’s difficult to think we will do something magical until 2028.

“We’ll really test it in 2027, with the goal of going all-in on the Tour de France in 2028,” Bu said this July.

Bu did not indicate to Velo whether Blummenfelt intended to dovetail any ongoing pro cycling ambitions with his Olympic triathlon quest.

However, it seems the years approaching 2028 will be all about Olympic triathlon gold rather than Tour de France yellow.

World Tour cycling may be a fourth discipline too far.

Jayco-AlUla beats back Blummenfelt rumors

Bu and “Blu” stunned the endurance world this summer when they revealed their Tour de France ambition.

Murmurings of a future deal to race in the WorldTour with Jayco-AlUla were propped up by their shared partnerships with Giant bikes and Cadex wheels.

“It’s 90 percent likely that we will go cycling next year,” Bu said this July. “The reason I say ’90’ is that we haven’t signed a contract yet. There are still a few small things that must be cleared.”

Bu, who helped pioneer the revolutionary “Norwegian training method,” was touted to join Blummenfelt at Jayco-AlUla as team trainer or performance consultant.

Jayco-AlUla told Velo this summer that the rumors were indeed … “rumors.”

Sacrificing the Tour after a ‘failed’ Olympic project

Blummenfelt’s Tour de France U-Turn comes off the back of bitter disappointment at the Paris Games.

The Norwegian megastar reaped huge victories at full and half-distance Ironman world championship events in recent years but was dropped by faster-firing triathletes in the short-course canter around Paris.

Blummenfelt – who won gold in the same event at the Tokyo Games in 2021 – opened the turbos in the swim and bike segments but drastically lacked leg speed for the final run.

After years of specializing in the seven-hour slow burn of Ironman, the 30-year-old finished one minute back on gold medalist Alex Yee in the lung-bursting sub-two-hour Olympic event.

Blummenfelt now has unfinished business with the Games after his gold medal ambition got lost in the pack that ran around Paris.

“Did we fail the project [to win the Olympics]? Yes we did,” Blummenfelt said last week in a video on his YouTube channel. “When you come 12th in Paris, you are failing the project of coming back to short-course. That’s the harsh brutality.”

35 years young?

Blummenfelt burst back to the winner’s circle three weeks after the Games when he won the Ironman European championships in Frankfurt.

The next four years will likely see Blummenfelt continue racing Ironman while he applies the lessons from what he believes was a botched build toward Paris.

“We have to be honest with ourselves. The decisions we made in training, how we were weighting it the last 12 months, that was not good enough,” Blummenfelt said of his Olympic preparation. “It was obviously good enough to be in Ironman shape, but it’s been tilted a bit in the wrong direction.”

Blummenfelt will be heading toward his 35th birthday when he crosses the triathlon finish line in L.A 2028.

Too old to turn to pro cycling?

Check back in four years.