QUINTANA ROO RACES IRONMAN 70.3 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP IN MARBELLA
While we still have some races left this year, the 2025 IRONMAN Championship season is officially wrapped up. After the big IRONMAN World Championship races in Nice, France, for the men in September, and an epic race for the women at the IRONMAN World Championship in Kona in October, IRONMAN wrapped the race season in grand style in Marbella, Spain, with the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship.
“Big race on the calendar,” you say? You bet we were there. Half the distance just means twice the fun!
Quintana Roo Bikes to the Rescue
To say the Quintana Roo booth in Marbella was buzzing would be an understatement. When you’ve got thousands of triathletes packed into a tiny town, and a LOT of athletes whose bikes were stuck at layover destinations, there was a palpable sense of concern that their bikes wouldn’t arrive on time for their biggest race of the season.
Lucky for them, a Spain-based bike rental agency (which had a fleet of Quintana Roo X-PR models available) sold out of the bikes, helping save the day for so many. And it didn’t stop there—when those bikes were gone, we ended up renting out several of the display bikes from our booth. (See Joan above, who was able to use one of our Service Course display bikes for the race.)
Showing What It Means To Be “True to Tri”
Quintana Roo President, Chris Pascarella (center, red shorts), with fellow 70.3 Worlds Pro-Am competitors.
Among all the activities, IRONMAN hosted a new one: the IRONMAN 70.3 Worlds Pro-Am, pitting IRONMAN leadership against leaders from brand partners as well as former IRONMAN pros. Our fearless President, Chris Pascarella, stepped up to represent Quintana Roo in the intense swim/run event, and he flew the QR colors well, though his sighting game was a little rusty. (According to spectators, he swam for Morocco when everyone else was heading toward Italy!)
We also hosted another Race Day Prep chat, with three of our pros—Jess Smith, Matt Hanson, and Grace Thek—who shared a bit of their wisdom with age groupers on Thursday at our session inside the IRONMAN Village expo.
The Quintana Roo Pros Keep Fighting
Race day (Saturday for the women, Sunday for the men) featured some of the world’s fastest middle-distance triathletes, all chasing a spot on the podium, as well as the final payday for the IRONMAN Pro Series season-long campaign.
The course was one of the toughest on the global circuit. After a 1.2-mile ocean swim off Levante beach in Puerto Banús, athletes took on a 56-mile bike that saw a massive 5000+ feet of climbing, which is more vertical gain than the full-distance IRONMAN Nice course. It all finished with a flat and fast 13.1-mile half-marathon run.
On Saturday, Quintana Roo pros Jess Smith and Grace Thek took to the start. After a solid swim, Thek mixed it up among the leaders early in the bike on her brand new V-PRi and crossed the finish in 17th place.
Smith chased in the middle of the field. After a windy bike and a flat, fast run, she finished not far behind in 34th.
Høgenhaug and Hanson at the finish.
Sunday’s men’s race had a lot riding on it for Denmark’s Kristian Høgenhaug, and it wouldn’t be without some major drama. In the days leading up to the race, when most athletes are sharpening the blade or resting for race day, Høgenhaug was dealing with a bout of Norovirus. While it left him empty in the preceding days, he was able to rally and make the start on race day.
He was in a tight battle with several other men for a place on the podium in the IRONMAN Pro Series. With tons of thousands of dollars at stake, much of his season budget was riding on this. Luckily, his race legs showed up, at least well enough to put up a good fight. While his 21st-place result was probably not what he hoped for, it was enough—especially considering his illness from days prior—to vault him a few spots up into third place overall, earning him an $85,000 series payday.
Longtime Quintana Roo pro Matt Hanson made the start as well, and while his fitness was on, he was unfortunate enough to be swimming behind an athlete midway through the swim that was gapped off the main swim pack. With the elastic snapped, the gap was enough to tear him away from the group he needed to be with to have a shot at a top 10 result. Instead, He was forced into a chase mode throughout the bike, and even onto the run, finishing 47th at the end of the day, and 16th in the 2025 IRONMAN Pro Series standings.
The Good Times Continue
The year is all done, right? Not even close! Next weekend, we’ll be on site at IRONMAN Arizona in Tempe, Arizona, with Alice Alberts, Ben Hamilton, new Factory Team member Matt McElroy, fellow Factory Team pros Jamie Hayes, Robby Webster, and Simon Shi, plus a “maybe” from Matt Hanson (all dependent upon how he recovers from 70.3 Worlds Marbella). We’ll be well represented in the desert with a stack of athletes chasing that Kona qualification early. While we won’t be in Mexico for IRONMAN Cozumel, we will also have QR pros Jon Breivold and Brittany Vocke attempting to get their 2026 Kona qualification secured early as well.
