Norfolk’s Joe Skipper has finished seventh, sixth and fifth in his last three Ironman World Championship appearances and is unlikely to have a better chance to finish on the podium than on Sunday in Nice.
To do so the 35-year-old will need to reproduce the sort of form that he showed in last year’s Ironman Wales – one of the few courses on the circuit with a bike leg as challenging as he will face at the weekend.
During an eventful race almost exactly a year ago, Skipper lost minutes after suffering a mechanical on the bike leg – where he had to completely remove the chain – before recovering with a remarkable 2:37 run for an 8min victory over Germany’s Boris Stein.
“It was probably one of my best days,” he added. “It wasn’t a championship race and so went unnoticed a bit, but if I can feel like that on race day I’ll be really pleased and hopefully will be in the mix.
"I replicated what I did [in training] before Wales last year and hopefully I have the same legs.”
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Where it all began
A dedicated iron-distance specialist, Skipper sealed qualification by winning in Arizona in November and took his long distance title tally to an impressive 10 with victory in Lake Placid in July.
It’s a far cry from his introduction to the sport when former GB pro Lucy Gossage encouraged him to make the switch from age-group racing in 2012.
“Lucy got me into it back in the day,” he explained. “She said: 'Go and get a pro licence and you can race for free!' I did that and have been going ever since.”
An unusual race recce
With Alistair Brownlee ruled out through injury and David McNamee opting to focus elsewhere, Skipper will be the lone Brit flying the Union flag on the Promenade des Anglais on Sunday.
But while it's not the first time he has been in Nice for a race, it comes in very different circumstances to his visit in June last year for Ironman France.
“I was originally going to be taking it seriously, but I had Covid in March which set me back and I then got a late call-up for Sub 7 a week beforehand and didn’t want to do another Ironman properly in the same month,” Skipper said.
“But I had to be in Nice for a stag party because we were going on a road trip from there, so I thought I’ll give it a go and not take it too seriously.
"As it got closer to the race I thought I’d give it a bit of a crack and somehow I had a good swim and got out in the front group, which is very unusual for me, but then I was just cooked for the rest of the race.”
“I remember being sat at the top of the hill waiting for my friend Tom to come up – he had borrowed my gravel bike [for the race]. We then just cruised around on the bike to get to the end.”
While the result goes down as a DNF, it wasn’t a completely wasted effort. “Back then I had no idea this would be the world championship course for this year, so it became a bit of a recce and eye-opener, and I’m glad it’s not going to be as hot on Sunday as it was last June.”
He also agreed with Jan Frodeno that it could be the latter part of the bike that becomes critical to the race outcome.
“Everyone talks about one big climb and then makes it sound like plateau but the second one, 9km before the descent, is a sting in the tail and knowing how that feels is definitely a benefit and I think that will catch a lot of people out.”
Top image credit: Patrick McDermott/Getty Images for Ironman
