2026 IRONMAN 70.3 WORLDS RECAP: QUINTANA ROO SPEEDS THROUGH NICE
Quintana Roo was front and center on the Côte d’Azur with our signature free pre-race mechanical services at our showcase within the IRONMAN Village expo. All told, we serviced over 160 bikes, ensuring every QR athlete had flawless shifting and torqued-checked bolts. We want every Quintana Roo athlete to go to bed the night before with one less thing to worry about, and to start the race knowing their bike is going to soar.
We were also thrilled to give our athletes special edition World Championship tees at check-in to celebrate their start. Race day delivered the action, with hundreds of QR athletes seeing their World Championship dreams come true. We caught up with three of our amazing pro women to find out how their races unfolded.
Bridget Theunissen: A Good Day to Have a Good Day
The South African short-courser turned middle-distance ace went into Nice with big smiles, and left Nice all smiles. The media jumped on her for some background on her and her bike.
“Going in, I didn’t have a placement goal of top 30 or top 20 or anything,” she said. “I just had execution goals.” She had a swim that she says could have been better, but added with a laugh, “It’s not terrible coming out of T1 in front of Laura Philipp. I was fangirling!”
Theunissen was excited to get onto her V-PRi and hit the hills. She crested the ascent with 242 watts normalized.
“I climbed really well and was happy about that.” But there were still challenges. “I lost my bottle with 90g of carbs, and turned around to get it. And on the descent, I dropped my chain. Some things didn’t go according to plan, but when you’re racing for such a long time, you’re going to go through ups and downs. It’s not always smooth sailing.”
Off the bike, she assembled a fantastic run to secure her best run with a 2:30.
“I loved the crowd and was smiling and waving at my parents and my friend who were there. The finish was amazing,” she said. “It was all in all a good day to have a good day!”
Marta Sánchez: Testing Crazy New Aero Pieces
As the top-ranked IRONMAN Pro Series female making the start in Nice, there was lots of excitement surrounding the Spaniard. How much focus did Sánchez place on this race? Was she training through it for Kona? And… what were her V-PRi modifications for Nice?
For those paying attention, Sánchez made a few modifications to her bike for Nice, à la Kristian Høgenhaug, who last year rode without his Q-Box rear storage for a bit of weight savings on the climbs. To achieve more weight savings, Sanchez removed her FuelBay hydration bottle and gel storage, and instead had a nifty custom creation, courtesy of her husband, Arnau: a flush-mount top tube cover, designed to seamlessly cap the void that the removal of the bottle and gel storage created.
“Arnau bought a 3D printer about a month ago, and since then he’s gone a bit crazy designing new pieces to make them as aero as possible on the Quintana Roo,” she explained.
For Sánchez, the race served two purposes. Yes, she has her return to the Hawaii IRONMAN World Championships next month squarely in her crosshairs next. But she wasn’t “winging” it in Nice. Instead, it was a perfect speedwork session, designed as one final shock to the system before she settles into final prep work for Kona over the next few weeks in Flagstaff, AZ.
“It was very hard and very fast,” Sánchez says. “As always, I raced aggressively. It’s clear I need a bit more speed for the half distance. That’s something I’ve always had to work on and improve on next year.” But her eye is clearly on Hawaii in October. “It was great building toward my big goal in Kona.”
Against a field full of middle-distance aces, Sanchez was thrilled to finish top 15. The result helped her retain a third-place standing in the IRONMAN Pro Series.
Caroline Kaplan: Tennessee Represent
The American (and Tennessean, from just outside Nashville) did her pre-race hill-climbing prep at Quintana Roo HQ in Chattanooga. After racing Worlds in Marbella a year prior, this would be her second 70.3 Worlds as a pro, and a bit of extra training certainly helped.
“The course was very challenging, but just about how I expected it to be,” Kaplan said. “I had only two days of practice in Chattanooga for that type of riding, and even with two days it really helped so much. Looking back, I feel like I could have pushed the climbs a lot harder. I’m still figuring out my limits.”
On the run, she continued to rip.
“My run legs showed up, and I had a run PB,” Kaplan said. “Which also shows I could have pushed more on the bike. Overall, I’m proud of the accomplishment of competing against the best in the world!”
By finishing 36th, she has improved on her 40th-place result in Marbella in 2025. It’s all made more amazing considering that earlier this year, Kaplan was taken out by a state trooper at IRONMAN 70.3 Dallas that destroyed her Quintana Roo V-PR and sidelined her for several months. Now, she’s put the crash in the rear-view mirror and is mentally getting on with the business of being fast again.
“I’ve made huge strides since last year, and even after the crash I’ve been able to improve still,” she said. “The bike has been the hardest because of the trauma from the crash, and that played a role here too, but I’m hungrier than ever to keep improving, and I’ll stop at nothing to see how far I can get in this sport.”
Next year, Kaplan will have home-field advantage, as Chattanooga plays host to 70.3 Worlds.
“I could not be more excited to have a World Champs in Chatt, getting to train in Tennessee and prepare the best I possibly can.” Just one small detail, which, with plenty of time, she’ll no doubt work out. “Now I just have to qualify!”
