Comedy sticky bottle crash sends Ironman Sub 7 pace setter on bike tumbling

A pace setter riding a bicycle alongside Kristian Blummenfelt as he attempted to become the first person to complete an Ironman-distance triathlon in under seven hours briefly stole the limelight with this comedy of errors sticky bottle fall.

Blummenfelt took a bottle from the runner, who had completed his pacesetting duties and swapped onto two wheels to keep up and offer nutritional support, but when the Norweigian went to hand it back, the Kenyan marathon runner hit the deck.

"He's a runner not a cyclist," said the amused commentary team on Pho3nix's YouTube live stream of the event from the Lausitzring in Brandenberg, with the mishap happening about 6 hours 20 mins into the stream. 

"It's not going to affect the race, but the big man is down [...] sticky bottles on the run as well!

"No damage, he broke his fall and almost just tripped over in the end so I'm sure he'll be back."

He was back...making a heroic (and slightly wobbly) return moments later...

"He's back! There he is! He's in the wrong gear but he's coming slowly," the commentators rejoiced. "He's not having a super time on that bike, now he's run off into the grass, no he's okay."

"It looks like he's got his Asics on Speedplays which isn't the best base!" the co-commentator noticed.

British pro riders Alex Dowsett and Harry Tanfield were part of the team pacing Blummenfelt's rival Joe Skipper through the 180km bike leg, with Skipper stepping in to replace injured double Olympic gold medallist Alistair Brownlee with just eight days' notice.

Tanfield shared a picture of Skipper's monster front chainring for the ride, and Dowsett has since uploaded his ride to Strava. The group covered the 180km in 3:16:07 at a mind-boggling average speed of 55.2km/h (34.3mph), as Dowsett put out a normalised power of 334w (4.11w/kg).

Ultimately all four triathletes taking part in the unique event were successful in completing the Ironman-distance triathlon - a 3.8km swim, 180km bike and 42.2km marathon run - in under eight hours (female) and under seven hours (male). 

Britain's Kat Matthews completed the course in a blistering 7:31:54, with Nicola Spirig of Switzerland arrived under three minutes later to also finish very comfortably under the sub-8 target in 7:34:19. In the sub-7 challenge, ultimately Blummenfelt's faster run was enough to see him overtake Skipper to finish in 6:44:25, while the Briton gritted his teeth to cross the line in 6:47:36.