Blummenfelt won the inaugural CLASH Daytona, a middle-distance event held at Daytona Speedway in Florida. The Olympic champion came from behind on the 21.1-mile run, chasing down Magnus Ditlev of Denmark to add one final victory to his amazing 2021 win streak.
Blummenfelt’s win at the iconic motorsports venue earned him the $15,000 winner’s purse. It came just two weeks after he shocked the triathlon world by setting a new world record time at Ironman Cozumel in his first-ever attempt at a full-distance Ironman. The 27-year-old Norwegian also won the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in July as well as this year’s WTS World Championship title.
The CLASH Daytona event, formerly known as Challenge Daytona, hosted more than 2500 competitors from around the world for the three-day festival in Florida. It featured a 1.9-mile swim, 90-mile bike, and 21.1-mile run.
American Ben Kanute was first out of the water, with Blummenfelt close behind in a large chase group about 20 seconds back. From there, Blummenfelt powered through the 90-mile ride with his CADEX Aero WheelSystem combo of a 4-spoke front wheel and full disc rear wheel, along with CADEX Race tubeless tires. He stayed near the front of the pack to the second transition and started the run about 2 minutes behind Ditlev.
In typical form, Blummenfelt began closing in on the leader immediately. Halfway through the run, Ditlev’s lead was down to 57 seconds. Running four laps of the speedway, Blummenfelt made the catch near the end of lap three.
“I thought I could just kind of pass without him trying to stay on my feet,” Blummenfelt said. “But then I saw in the shadow that he was trying, I just tried to kind of cut that elastic band as fast as possible and open up the gap.”
Leaving the Dane behind, Blummenfelt kept the jets on, running away to win with a time of 3:08:31. Ditlev held on for second, 1:37 back. Rudy Von Berg took the final podium spot, 2:58 off Blummenfelt’s winning time.