Ironman Worlds: “This year is a complete unknown,” says Lucy Charles-Barclay

NICE, FRANCE - JUNE 16: Lucy Charles Barclay of Britain celebrates winning the women's race at Ironman France on June 16, 2024 in Nice, France. — Credit: Nigel Roddis/Getty Images for Ironman

“This year is a complete unknown,” says Ironman world champion Lucy Charles-Barclay as she prepares to defend the title she finally claimed in Hawaii last year.

“None of us women have raced together on this course and we don’t know how it’s going to play out. In Kona, you get used to the tactics, but here we’re almost racing blind and I think that makes it a lot more exciting.”

While the switch to the south of France provides a bike course with 8,000-plus feet of ascent that dictates it will be a far slower day than the course-record 8:24:31 Charles-Barclay posted in Hawaii in October, the form and fitness of the leading Brit is the other major concern.

In her last appearance in July, Charles-Barclay pulled out of the London T100 race in front of home fans – the first DNF of her stellar career – citing it as a precautionary measure partly due to a recurring issue with a calf complaint that had almost destroyed her Hawaii chances in 2023.

“I’m as healthy as I can be,” she said. “We’ve done everything we can to be here so we’ll just have to see what happens out on the race course.”

London, England - JULY 27: Great Britain's Lucy Charles-Barclay transitioning from bike to run inside the ExCel London prior to having to withdraw with an achilles injury at the Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO) London T100 Triathlon at London Docklands on July 27, 2024 in London, England. — Lucy Charles-Barclay transitions from bike to run at T100 London, 2024, prior to having to withdraw with an Achilles injury. (Credit: Ryan Sosna-Bowd/Getty Images)

While Charles-Barclay was understandably tight-lipped about any potential fitness issues, she also wasn’t giving anything away about race tactics and particularly what she’d learnt from making the late decision to race Ironman France in Nice in June.

“I think that’d be giving away too much,” she continued, “I know I did a lot of things really badly and I want to improve on that,” before adding tongue-in-cheek: “I do love Queen Of The Mountain segments [on Strava], so I’m going for it!”

That Charles-Barclay is racing at all is an about-turn from the start of the year when she said she wouldn’t defend her Ironman title and instead would go all-in on the new T100 Series developed by the Professional Triathletes Organisation.

But following a solid start to the T100 Series (she currently sits in third place), a window opened up in her racing calendar and a three-week camp in Nice before Ironman France quickly changed her mind.

“It was during that camp that I was going to make the decision whether I’d race [the World Championship] or not,” she said. “Pretty much from the first bike ride, I was like: I love this, it is so fun.”

On a similar course to Sunday, Charles-Barclay took the tape 17min ahead of the field in 9:03:22, but will be expecting a much tougher test against the best women in the sport, including former champions Anne Haug and Chelsea Sodaro, and Britain’s Kat Matthews.

“My main goal was to enjoy it and bring that good energy into that race here,” she added. “It’s definitely a course I’m going to enjoy [on Sunday].”

Recovering from injury aside, Charles-Barclay has also enjoyed a very different build-up to her usual Hawaii prep. “It feels really different. Year-on-year, I get used to doing the heat prep for Kona and know how it all works.

“Last year, I did a really intense six-week block training completely on my own and didn’t really enjoy it. It was brutal and if it hadn’t pad off I don’t know whether it would have been worth it

“This year, we just had a lot of fun and it felt like I enjoyed it more than I ever have, so even if it doesn’t pay off I had a great time training for this race.”

Another difference is that she won’t be wearing the No. 2 bib that she’s become accustomed to following four second place finishes from 2017-2019 and 2022.

“It definitely feels pretty special to wear bib No 1,” she said. “It’s been a huge journey from racing Kona for the first time in 2017 as a rookie and coming second that year to have a feeling that I could win the race.

“But I never thought it would take so many years, so many injuries, and a pandemic to finally get there and win last year.”

As for her chances on Sunday? “Whatever happens I think it’ll be an amazing day. It’s hard to say what it’ll take [to win], but obviously it will need an amazing performance. It’s a world championship so everyone will give it everything they’ve got. I hope to do the same and whatever happens, happens.”

About

Experienced sportswriter and journalist, Tim is a specialist in endurance sport and has been filing features for 220 for a decade. Since 2014 he has also written a monthly column tackling the divisive issues in swim, bike and run from doping to governance, Olympic selection to pro prize money and more. Over this time he has interviewed hundreds of paratriathletes and triathletes from those starting out in the sport with inspiring tales to share to multiple Olympic gold medal winners explaining how they achieved their success. As well as contributing to 220, Tim has written on triathlon for publications throughout the world, including The Times, The Telegraph and the tabloid press in the UK.