Nathan is a 2021 Duathlon World Champion, the 2023 Alpe d’Huez Long Distance winner, and, since 2024, a full-time professional long-distance triathlete. His current build is pointing at 70.3 Worlds in Nice and Kona itself.
We sat down with him to talk about how he got there, what actually unfolded at his breakout Ironman performance at the European Championships, and what’s next for the new French kid on the block.
Getting Into the Sport
Every professional athlete has a first ride story. Nathan’s starts, unusually, with the finish line of the Tour de France.
Q: How did you get into cycling and eventually into racing at the pro level? What did the path look like from the first serious bike ride to where you are now?
My first memory on a bike goes back to when I was 8 years old. My mum had signed me up for a regional race, with a pretty special prize at stake: a seat on the Champs-Élysées in Paris to watch the finish of the Tour de France. That edition was won by Lance Armstrong. What a memory.
A few years later, I got into triathlon with a real competitive mindset. Even though I was racing on a mountain bike against kids on road bikes, I was already looking for ways to get more aero. After turning 18, alongside my studies, pretty much all my free time was dedicated to training. I raced on the short-course triathlon circuit, where I spent most of my time chasing down the strong swimmers. At the same time, I was also racing duathlon, a discipline that combined my two strengths and that I really enjoyed. In 2021, I became Duathlon World Champion. Then I decided to give long-distance triathlon a try. I loved the more individual nature of the effort, and in 2023 I won the Alpe d’Huez Long Distance Triathlon. The following year, I left my job to start my career as a professional long-distance triathlete.
Europeans, the Break, and How Sync Came Into It
Leading a European Championship is the kind of breakout moment an athlete plans a career around and it’s in those moments where everything has to go the right way. The body can’t let you down, nutrition has to be on point, and no mechanicals.
Q: The European Championships were a defining moment for a few reasons. Walk us through what happened.
The 2026 European Championships in Frankfurt are a great memory because I came away with my Kona slot. But emotionally, it was a real rollercoaster. The progress I’d made in the swim allowed me to come out of the water with the front group and get onto the bike right in the mix. So I decided to move up to the front and set the pace before the strongest cyclists started making the bike leg harder.
I was riding in a very ON/OFF way, pushing hard on the false flats and backing off on the faster, flatter sections. By the end of the first of two laps, nobody had come through to take a turn since kilometre 5. At around 60 km, I decided to attack on a climb. The idea was to start the second lap alone at the front, surrounded by age-groupers, so I would no longer be a visible target for the guys chasing behind. From there, I could smooth out my effort. At kilometre 85, I realised I’d lost the bottle behind my saddle. The bottle cage had cracked after going over some railway tracks in the opening kilometres. First time anything like that had happened with this bike in two years… just my luck. I told myself it wasn’t a big deal. I’m pretty good at racing on relatively low carbs, so you have to stay positive no matter what. Then I lost a gel too, because apparently things weren’t entertaining enough already.
And then came the grand finale at kilometre 105. There was more and more play developing in the front end, and I was basically praying I would make it to T2. So I finished the final 20 km of the bike leg with one hand on the base bar and the other holding the cockpit in place. I can’t describe the relief when I finally put my feet on the ground. After the race, I checked my phone and saw, among other messages, one from Martin jokingly inviting me to join Team Sync
The message on his phone at the finish is why he is on our bars now. It is also, we suspect, one of the more welcome messages he read that day.
The New Setup
Three weeks in, at an altitude camp in the French Pyrenees, is a genuinely useful vantage point for a refresh.
Q: Where are you training currently and how has the change to the AB03 progressed?
I’m currently at an altitude training camp in Font-Romeu, in the French Pyrenees, and I’ve been riding the Sync AB03 extensions for the past three weeks. When I first unboxed them, I was blown away by the quality of the components, how well thought-out the whole setup is, and the stiffness of the system. I can understand why UCI WorldTour teams use these extensions. Everything has been optimised: the bike computer mount, the between-the-arms bottle setup, and the huge range of adjustment options. It’s clean, it looks amazing, and I love it.
Controlling the Controllables
As an endurance athlete, you pour everything into your performance. Triathlon, especially full-distance triathlon is even more arduous, with well-crafted training plans only offering limited opportunities to race in peak form. As an athlete, in those moments, you need to be able to maximise your chance of success.
Q: After the difficulties in Frankfurt, what are the take home messages for you?
Experiencing an issue like this during a race is obviously difficult considering what’s at stake and the amount of personal investment that goes into competing at this level. The consequences can be huge. I need to control as many variables as I possibly can.
Right now, I’m in a phase where I need to rebuild complete confidence, and the best way to do that is by spending time in the saddle. Good news for me, because I love discovering new places by bike, and this is actually my first time riding in the Pyrenees. Since the start of the camp, everything has been going really well. I’m continuing to fine-tune my position and dial in the setup of the new cockpit, which we will be continuing after this camp.
What’s Next
Q: What is next for the rest of 2026? Where are you pointing?
The second half of the season is going to be exciting. I’m preparing for the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Nice in September, followed by the IRONMAN World Championship in Kona in October.
From the team at Sync Ergonomics: We enthusiastically welcome Nathan to the list of supported athletes - Someone who attacks the bike leg and is a truly inspirational endurance athlete.
