Hi,
here's my mini-review:
Venue:
Mallorca is obviously stunning and the city of Alcudia is a typical nice tourist hot-spot with a nice beach, lots of shops and a wide variety of restaurants. It is on the other side of the island from the airport in Palma, but it is really just a 45 minute Drive in a rental car.
Race organisation:
The German IM-Team did a great job organizing this race. For me everything went smooth. There were no lines at all for registration, check-in or check-out. (I did however try to avoid the times i thought would be busy...). The race briefing(s) (English, German, Spanish) doubled as the welcome party (carbo-loading while listening to da rulz) and where held right on the beach on a beautifully sunny afternoon. Just make sure you get a spot with an umbrella for shade.
The race-course:
SWIM
The swim was beautiful, the water just right for a cosy non-wetsuit swim with great visibility and zero chop. It was a mass-beach-start where you had to run for about 80 feet before the water was deep enough to dive in and start swimming. While we were on the first out-and-back, the sun rose over the ocean. Pretty cool.
BIKE
The bike-course in itself is beautiful, but unfortunately drafting was a huge issue. I had a huge pack infront of me which i couldn't pass, so i just droped back and rode alone at my own rhythm. The major hill comes after 74 mi (120k), but you already gather a lot of climbing in the many smaller hills up to that part. The downhill is not very fast, because it has a lot of switchbacks, but they are all very well visible and the street surface in the more technical parts is excellent. After the main descent there are a couple of miles through smaller towns, where the street is pretty bad and on the last few miles we had quite the headwind.
RUN
Its a dead-flat 4.5-loop-course along the beach. Aid stations are good, but there's not a lot of shade. Crowds where pretty good along the whole course as well.
Summary:
I had a bad experience because of the frustrating drafting and a subsequent mostly heat-related DNF on the run.
That aside, if they can do something against the drafting (assuming the WTC even really wants to try) this could be a really nice race. I would suggest an AG-wave-start and the ride up to Lluc at the beginning rather than the end of the course. Even better: Just do the 70.3 course twice.
if you can read this
YOU'RE DRAFTING!
here's my mini-review:
Venue:
Mallorca is obviously stunning and the city of Alcudia is a typical nice tourist hot-spot with a nice beach, lots of shops and a wide variety of restaurants. It is on the other side of the island from the airport in Palma, but it is really just a 45 minute Drive in a rental car.
Race organisation:
The German IM-Team did a great job organizing this race. For me everything went smooth. There were no lines at all for registration, check-in or check-out. (I did however try to avoid the times i thought would be busy...). The race briefing(s) (English, German, Spanish) doubled as the welcome party (carbo-loading while listening to da rulz) and where held right on the beach on a beautifully sunny afternoon. Just make sure you get a spot with an umbrella for shade.
The race-course:
SWIM
The swim was beautiful, the water just right for a cosy non-wetsuit swim with great visibility and zero chop. It was a mass-beach-start where you had to run for about 80 feet before the water was deep enough to dive in and start swimming. While we were on the first out-and-back, the sun rose over the ocean. Pretty cool.
BIKE
The bike-course in itself is beautiful, but unfortunately drafting was a huge issue. I had a huge pack infront of me which i couldn't pass, so i just droped back and rode alone at my own rhythm. The major hill comes after 74 mi (120k), but you already gather a lot of climbing in the many smaller hills up to that part. The downhill is not very fast, because it has a lot of switchbacks, but they are all very well visible and the street surface in the more technical parts is excellent. After the main descent there are a couple of miles through smaller towns, where the street is pretty bad and on the last few miles we had quite the headwind.
RUN
Its a dead-flat 4.5-loop-course along the beach. Aid stations are good, but there's not a lot of shade. Crowds where pretty good along the whole course as well.
Summary:
I had a bad experience because of the frustrating drafting and a subsequent mostly heat-related DNF on the run.
That aside, if they can do something against the drafting (assuming the WTC even really wants to try) this could be a really nice race. I would suggest an AG-wave-start and the ride up to Lluc at the beginning rather than the end of the course. Even better: Just do the 70.3 course twice.
if you can read this
YOU'RE DRAFTING!