Triathlete Kristian Blummenfelt pushes Tour de France and cycling plans away - "We have decided to aim for Los Angeles 2028"

Kristian Blummenfelt is one of the big names in triathlon in recent years. He already won the gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, has been WTS world champion in 2021, in Ironman the same year and in half Ironman (70.3) in 2022. He said earlier this year that he aimed to race to win the Tour de France within the next few years but his plan to turn to pro cycling has seemingly been brushed away.

Last July, his coach and confidant Olav Aleksander Bu spoke to TV2 and said that the Norwegian's goal was to make his Tour de France debut in two years' time.

"In 2026, our goal is to compete in the Tour de France. In 2027, we should be in a position to win some jerseys. If we are not in a position to win stages or be at the top of the general classification, it will be difficult to think that we can do something magical before 2028. We will really test it in 2027, with the goal of going all out in the Tour de France in 2028."

"It is 90% likely that we will go cycling next year. The reason I say '90' is because we haven't signed a contract yet. There are still some little things to work out," Bu commented after Bu mentioned to him the rumors linking his mentee to Jayco-AlUla.

However, they have backed off and, in a conversation with Velo, said they prefer to focus on the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, aiming to become only the second male triathlete in history to add two individual golds after Alistair Brownlee.

"After the Paris Games, we have decided to aim for Los Angeles 2028. Despite the results in Paris, we are more confident after the race that coming back from Ironman to the Olympics is possible. We want to try one last time."

Blummenfelt himself spoke about it in a video for his YouTube channel: "Did we fail the project [to win the Olympics]? Yes, we did. When you finish 12th in Paris, you're failing the project to get back to the short distance. That's the harsh reality."

"We have to be honest with ourselves. The decisions we made in training, how we balanced it over the last 12 months, weren't good enough. It was obviously good enough to be fit enough for Ironman, but it was a little bit tilted in the wrong direction."