4,400 triathletes pack Gérardmer for the 38th Triathlon de Gérardmer

Gérardmer lived up to its reputation this weekend, with a wild crowd and more than 4,400 triathletes spread across three race formats for the 2026 edition. On the XL, Pierre Dupuy and Switzerland’s Darleen Pfister took the wins.

“A crazy atmosphere, a fantastic crowd, on every climb on the bike, and honestly everywhere; for vibe, this race is just unreal.” Frenchman Pierre Dupuy, winner of the Gérardmer Triathlon XL in his very first appearance on Saturday, discovered what makes this race special: an incredible, homegrown buzz in the postcard setting of the Vosges roads, with more than 35,000 spectators counted along the course.

From Saturday, the meeting point was set on the shores of Lake Gérardmer for the XL start: 1.9 km of swimming, 90 km of cycling (almost 2,000 m of elevation gain) and a 21 km run around the lake.

After more than four hours of racing, Aix-en-Provence’s Pierre Dupuy sealed the win by nearly two minutes over Les Sables-d’Olonne’s Pierre Le Corre, fourth at the Paris 2024 Olympics and here to sharpen up ahead of the IRONMAN World Championship in Hawaii in five weeks, and Austria’s Thomas Steger, winner of the Alpe d’Huez triathlon in early August.

In the women’s race, France’s Justine Guérard (third in 2025) looked in total control through the swim and on the bike, but pulled out at the 15 km mark of the run. Two Swiss athletes, Darleen Pfister and Anja Koller , took over up front and finished 1-2 in that order, ahead of Italy’s Sara Sandrini.

XL Triathlon podiums

Men:

1 Pierre Dupuy (France) 4h19’48

2 Pierre Le Corre (France) 4h21’44

3 Thomas Steger (Austria) 4h23’48

Women:

1 Darleen Pfister (Switzerland) 5h00’56

2 Anja Koller (Switzerland) 5h02’52

3 Sara Sandrini (Italy) 5h06’14

Full results

Two all-French podium sweeps on the Olympic distance

On Sunday, you had to be by the water at 8 a.m. for the Discovery-format start, a race combining a 500 m swim, 20 km bike and 5 km run. Mulhouse’s Noé Weber won the men’s race ahead of two Belgians, Basile Deom and Jules Clément. In the women’s race, Belgium was also in the spotlight, with Lia Depret taking the win ahead of France’s Inès Oesterle and Léa Richard.

At 1:30 p.m., 1233 triathletes hit the water for the Olympic Distance that wrapped up the weekend: 1.5 km of swimming, 40 km of cycling including two trips up the famous Rayée climb (with sections hitting 15%), where the crowd turned it up for every athlete, before the final 10 km run.

France’s Keran Gallou took the win on his first visit to Gérardmer. He was chased home by Antonin Lagarde, third last year and coming back after racing the XL the day before, with fellow Frenchman Igor Dupuis rounding out the podium.

The men’s Olympic Distance Triathlon podium

The French women also delivered in the final race of the weekend, with a tight battle from start to finish and the win going to Célia Merle ahead of Elena Polaert and Manon Remy, last year’s winner.

Olympic Triathlon podiums

Men

1 Keran Gallou (France) 2h02’26

2 Antonin Lagarde (France) 2h03’43

3 Igor Dupuis (France) 2h04’04

Women

1 Célia Merle (France) 2h22’03

2 Elena Polaert (France) 2h23’18

3 Manon Remy (France) 2h25’19

Full results