Marten Van Riel and Matthew Marquardt pull off Trek 1-2 at Ironman Lake Placid

Marten Van Riel and Matthew Marquardt put a deep men’s field to the sword, finishing 1-2, respectively, at Ironman Lake Placid, and flashing their Kona bona fides in the process.

Van Riel is a maestro of the middle distance, winning the 2024 T100 World Tour title in the midst of six Ironman 70.3 race wins for his career. He had yet to win at a full Ironman distance, however, though fourth place at the 2025 men’s Ironman World Championship in Nice certainly suggested he had the potential.

On Sunday he left no doubt, leading for effectively the entire race while setting a course record. Not bad for a debut win.

“Super happy with the race today. From start to finish in the lead, and actually that was the plan because I knew that probably Matthew Marquardt and Trevor Foley were gonna be the strongest opponents,” Van Riel said. “I thought that I could maybe drop them in the swim and get a gap there.”

Marquardt indeed nipped at Van Riel’s heels throughout the entire race. For a while, Van Riel looked like he might put the competition away early. He was among the first swimmers out of the water, 2:44 ahead of Marquardt. That gap would expand above three minutes at one point on the bike, before Marquardt and others began eating away Van Riel’s advantage in the last 20 kilometers of the leg.

Entering the second transition, Marquardt was just 1:18 behind Van Riel. At that point, it was hard to tell whether Van Riel was fading or simply conserving energy for the marathon. 

“Starting the run, I started quite decently fast, and I got some splits after a couple of kilometers, and Matthew was coming closer, so I was like, ‘Wow, what do I have to do to beat this guy today?'” Van Riel said.

Marquardt won Ironman Lake Placid in 2025, and no doubt had designs on becoming the back-to-back champ. But Van Riel managed to keep Marquardt at bay, even as Marquardt was putting in a furious effort that pushed every other competitor farther and farther into his rearview mirror. With a marathon time of 2:34:49, Van Riel finished 4:14 ahead of Marquardt, who ran 2:37:24 to finish more than 12 minutes ahead of third-place Ben Kanute.

“I’m honestly over the moon, and especially beating Matthew, who was so strong today,” Van Riel said. “I think we made it a good Trek one-and-two. And yeah, just super super stoked now to have this result to go into the championship season with 70.3 Worlds in Nice and then Kona Worlds.”

Marquardt’s second-place time was nearly four minutes faster than his winning time in 2025. He may have landed on a lower step of the podium, but he’s competing better than ever.

“I was four minutes faster than I was last year even though the conditions were more challenging on the bike. There was a strong crosswind or headwind for most of the bike and the race dynamics ended up requiring a solo effort,” Marquardt said. “It was great to battle with Marten and share the podium with another Trek Factory Racing athlete. I really appreciated that he came over for this race. While I would have loved to defend my title from last year, the best way to get better is being pushed by competition, and Marten brought that.”

There’s a long way to go until Ironman World Championships in Kona this coming October, but right now Trek athletes are positioning themselves to have a big weekend. Women’s triathlete Taylor Knibb had also put on a show, winning the sprint-distance World Triathlon Edmonton event in impressive fashion. Knibb also won the U.S. women’s time trial championship earlier this year, and has won three Ironman 70.3 World Championships. She gave one of the gutsiest performances you’ll ever see in Kona last year, abandoning the race with two miles left despite a seemingly commanding lead.

There’s less than three months until the biggest race of the year, but it will feel a lot longer knowing what Knibb, Van Riel and Marquardt are capable of doing.