Morning endurance fans…

It may be a week off for the Easter holidays as far as triathlon is concerned, but there’s no slowing down in the world of endurance sport this Saturday morning.

From triathlon news to marathon miles and cycling showdowns, the action keeps rolling – and so do the stories. So whether you’re heading out for your own session or settling in with a coffee, we’ve got you covered.

Here’s your Saturday morning lowdown from the ever-relentless world of endurance sport. 🏊‍♂️🚴‍♂️🏃‍♂️.

❌ WITHDRAWN: American star and fan favourite Conner Mantz will not run at this year’s Boston Marathon on 20 April. Mantz was fourth in the race last year but has been struggling with a stress fracture in his sacrum. Read HERE.

💊 DOPING: Albert Korir, third in last year’s New York Marathon and the winner in 2021, has been banned for five years after admitting to doping. The 32-year-old Kenyan tested positive for blood-boosting substance CERA. Read HERE.

🎽 PACER: Olympic triathlon champion Alex Yee will kick off his 2026 season not at WTCS Samarkand on 25 April but with a return to the TCS London Marathon a day later – though this time in a very different role. Read HERE.

🤰 CONGRATS: Olympic gold medallist Jess Learmonth issued a reminder to women athletes that ‘careers and motherhood aren’t mutually exclusive’ as she announced the news that she is pregnant with her second child. Read HERE.

What if your next race kit wasn’t just another suit… but YOUR suit – built exactly how you want it, inspired by one of the best in the world?

Most athletes show up on race day looking the same. This is your chance to stand out; whether you’re chasing your first finish line or your next podium, this is the kind of upgrade that changes how you feel when you race.

We’ve teamed up with triathlon superstar Georgia Taylor-Brown and Tactic to give one lucky athlete the chance to create their very own custom performance tri-suit, just like the pros wear on race day.

However, this isn’t just any old suit off the shelf. This is YOUR design, YOUR fit, YOUR identity on course.

THE PRIZE
✅ A fully custom-designed Tactic tri-suit.
✅ Inspired by elite-level performance standards.
✅ Built for speed, comfort, and race-day confidence.
✅ Designed by you — with guidance from the experts.

It’s the crossover we have all been waiting for. Aussie short-course superstar Matt Hauser announced this week that he will be making his T100 Triathlon World Tour debut in Singapore later this month.

Adding to an already stellar field for this opening race of the men’s season, last year’s WTCS world champion will also be looking to renew his ongoing battle with the reigning T100 tour winner, Hayden Wilde, in what promises to be a truly titanic struggle of two of the best triathletes in the business.

The pair have raced against one another seven times over the last two years, with Hauser winning two, Wilde winning two, and both also picking up a second place along the way.

Other leading names in the starting line-up include Mika Noodt (GER), Mathis Margirier (FRA), Jonas Schomburg (GER), Youri Keulen (NED), Sam Dickinson (GBR) and Kyle Smith (NZL).

More than 7,000 amateur participants have also signed up for the T100 and other various events associated with the T100 weekend in Singapore. For more information on these, click HERE.

While Kristian Blummenfelt, Jonas Schomburg and Casper Stornes were battling their way to an epic Oceanside 70.3 finish on Saturday, one of their fellow competitors was already at the hospital and awaiting major surgery.

American Justin Riele didn’t make it past the bike leg, as he suffered a ‘blow-out’ and crashed onto his right-hand side, breaking his clavicle and scapula.

Luckily, his helmet also did its job and took the full force as he crashed to the tarmac, with Riele admitting: “Fortunately, my helmet saved my life.“

Posting updates on his Instagram page, he explained how, less than 24 hours after Oceanside, he had undergone successful surgery to ‘plate’ up his damaged shoulder, having driven to Las Vegas for an immediate operation.

“Broken clavicle and scapula confirmed, but 🧠 is the same as before the crash 🙏 (so it’s mostly fine 😂). Got that bad boy plated up, so front swim pack gonna be easy on the other side of it. Time to hit the trainer for a while. Gonna come back stronger and see you in Lake Placid. Thanks everyone.”

His fellow pros were quick to send him their best wishes, with race winner Blummenfelt responding to one of his updates: “A shame to see you hit the tarmac. You looked great just before. Have a speedy recovery.”

Ben Kanute added: “Dude. I’m so sorry. I heard it was right behind me. Missed your power on the front of the bike today. Heal up quickly, and you’ll be better than ever!”

And the GOAT, Jan Frodeno, added: “Sorry to see it, dude! Heal up and use the time wisely🙏.”

Tom Pidcock pronounced himself “very lucky to be OK” after his potentially catastrophic fall into a ravine at last week's Volta a Catalunya.

But for all Pidcock’s insistence that he is alright, the team is taking a cautious approach to his recovery. His Pinarello-Q36.5 Pro Cycling team boss Doug Ryder has now said that it is not yet clear when he'll be able to start riding again.

Speaking to Domestique, he said: “There’s no firm idea or understanding of when he will be back on a bike or racing at the moment. We’re just trying to get the fluid off the knee and the swelling down and all that kind of stuff, so we just have to wait.

“As the swelling goes down, we can start to use the CT scans to understand more of the details. There’s been some trauma there, but it all depends on how he responds, so we’ll just have to wait and see. We’d rather be a bit more cautious.”

You can read a full report on this story at Cycling Weekly, HERE.

Tour of Flanders: One of the most iconic races of the year will take place this weekend as the world’s best cyclists prepare to once again do battle against the bergs of Oude Kwaremont, Paterberg and Koppenberg in the 278km beast that is the Tour of Flanders.

Belgian star Remco Evenepoel will make his debut in the race, riding for Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, with the former world champion, Olympic road race champion and two-time winner of Liège-Bastogne-Liège now lining up against Tadej Pogačar and Mathieu van der Poel in what promises to be a thriller in Flanders.

You can read a full preview of the race at Cycling Weekly, HERE.

The story seemed plausible enough. Harry Styles, the former member of boy band One Direction – and massive running fan – was being linked with a starting spot at the world-famous Marathon Des Sables, due to start in the Moroccan Sahara this weekend.

Famous for such hits as ‘Sign of the Times’, ‘Watermelon Sugar’ and ‘As It Was’, the pop prince has already completed two marathons (Tokyo and Berlin), and was recently pictured on the front of Runner’s World, complete with a headline that read ‘One of Us’.

In a world where we have celebrity chefs competing at the IRONMAN World Championships in Kona, and a whole host of stars from stage and screen throwing themselves into ‘bucket list’ endurance challenges, it really wasn’t too much of a push to accept that a man who ran last year’s Berlin Marathon in 2:59:13 was looking for his next big challenge.

The article, posted by the Marathon Handbook, even included a quote from his management representatives at DawBell Agency, so why wouldn’t the Daily Split team start to pull their own version of the article together?

It didn’t take us long to realise that yes, this was in fact an April Fool’s, and that no, Mr Styles was not in fact headed out to take part in the self-supported, six-day, 250km trek across the Moroccan Sahara – although it would have made great TV.

Instead, it got the team thinking about some of those big names who have, in fact, signed up for their own endurance challenges. And it didn’t take us long to come up with a roster of A-listers from Hollywood, music superstars and sporting legends. You can see our final triathlon-focused top ten listed below.

With it being Easter, and the new season taking a short – if well-earned break – this weekend, we thought we’d have a bit of fun and dedicate this section to those stars who have ventured away from their pampered make-up cubicles and given it their all in a zone which nobody could ever describe as comfortable.

While not comprehensive, we do think our list highlights both those who have embraced the sport, together with a few surprises that we hope will make you think… ‘really?’.

Do let us know if we have missed anyone out…

Hands up, how many of you were suckered in by one of this year’s many and varied April Fools’ stories? Come on, we are all friends here on the Daily Split… there’s nothing to be ashamed of.

Some of them, such as Harry Styles signing up for Marathon Des Sables (as mentioned above), were a little too close to the believable, while the one below, from specialist seat manufacturer Ramus, was surely one of the most bizarre of the day.

Don’t worry if you were fooled this year… It happens to the best of us (says the reporter who spent three hours trying to confirm whether a certain former One Direction Singer really was about to take part in the MDS). 🙄

April is London Marathon month, and anyone signed up to tackle this year’s trek around the streets of England’s capital will no doubt be starting to feel the nerves.

Whether you’re racing in London this year or simply feeling inspired and wondering where you might place should you be lucky enough to get a spot in future years, we’ve done some number crunching to give you an idea of what a ‘good’ London Marathon finish time might be.

Before we dive into the average finish times, let’s first take a quick tour of the London Marathon course to help put those times into context. Overall, the London Marathon is considered to be a fast marathon course. The route is point-to-point, which means it’s actually technically net downhill. It’s relatively flat all the way through, though there are a few little rollers along the way.

Congestion in the first few miles can make it tricky to get settled into your race pace. There are three different start points to spread out the tens of thousands of runners, but these obviously have to converge fairly soon into the race to make sure everyone is racing the same distance!

It’s also worth knowing that your GPS watch might drop signal, particularly around the tall buildings of Canary Wharf. Use heart rate as well as average pace to manage your effort so that if your watch drops out for a while, you’re not flying blind.

The twists and turns as you make your way from the Isle of Dogs to Poplar might disrupt your flow a bit. But after that, the last 10km is more or less a straight line until you hit St James Park on your way to the finish line.

Let’s first accept that what is good or average for one athlete can differ greatly from another, and in no way is this designed to diminish the efforts of anyone who has completed a marathon… as always, we salute you. 🫡

In 2025, the average London Marathon finish time for women was 5 hours and 1 minute, while the men’s was 4 hours and 23 minutes. These times were slower than 2024 (4:49 women and 4:11 men) due to the significantly warmer weather last year.

Because the 2024 race times were not affected by on-day racing conditions as much as they were in 2025, we have decided to use those numbers for our calculations.

We have suggested that a ‘good’ time would see you across the line, but place you outside of the top 30% of runners, while an exceptional performance places you in that elite band of 30%. Anything inside the top 10% is incredible.

Good luck to everyone who is currently in training for this year’s London Marathon… we believe in you… You got this!!! 💪

Alex McCormack will no doubt be looking for somewhere soft to sit over this Easter holiday weekend as the British endurance cyclist recovers from his world record-breaking distance challenge that saw him ride 3,826km in just seven days.

Canyon spokesman Markus Schweikert told BikeRadar that McCormack had ‘pushed himself to the absolute limits of endurance’ and simply had ‘nothing left’ when he finally completed his mission.

“The last 48 hours were so painful – he slept only an hour in the last 40 hours. Last night, he was singing karaoke with the driver [to stay awake],” said Schweikert. “Right now he’s completely passed out, and we have someone watching him 24-hours. The important thing is he’s in full health, though – we took safety very seriously.”

McCormack rode a custom Canyon Speedmax CFR for the whole attempt, which included 168 hours of ride time at a staggering average of 18.5 hours each day.

He also packed away 14,000 calories each day, with a menu that included overnight oats, 6x brioche buns, 2x bags of strawberry laces, 4x chicken and rice burrito wraps, cheese and ham toastie, a bowl of pasta carbonara and various sweet snacks and energy drinks.

The latest record forms part of his preparation for a summer campaign targeting the Triple Crown of US ultra-distance events: the Tour Divide, Colorado Trail Race and Arizona Trail Race.

Together, we go the distance. — @247_endurance 🏃‍♂️🚴‍♀️🏊‍♂️