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Thoughts on the Mallorca IM
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Have any Slowtwitchers had a look at the full distance IM being held this September in Mallorca for the 1st time?

I'm signed up, and wondering how many others of you are as well?

For those of you that have had a good look at the course notes, or that have raced the 70.3 course here, what are your thoughts on the various legs?

The swim seems quite standard in a relatively sheltered small bay, so no surprises there.
The bike will be interesting, with a few nice hills and some nice views. How many of you have ridden the 70.3 course here, how did you find it?
Thoughts on the run?

And general thoughts on the organisation of the 70.3 races in the past?

Its getting close, and I've read as much as I have been able to find. But its always nice to hear more.

For those that looked at it and passed, why?

For those of you that are going, are you staying around for a while after the race?


Its about the entire journey, not just the moment you cross the line.
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Re: Thoughts on the Mallorca IM [HendrikMDik] [ In reply to ]
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Hi,

[Edit: Disclaimer: Everything below are just my observations based on GPS mapdata. Since my post, a lot of people that have actually ridden at least parts of the course have commented, so please read their posts!]

I'm all in!
Have not ridden there, but many of my friends do spring training camps there regularly (I'm in Europe).

I mapped out the bike-course on ridewithgps (link), to look at the elevation data more closely.
I plan on riding with power and expect that a lot of people will fry themselves in the rolling first half.

In my opinion, the race starts at 120km (74 mi, you're welcome) on the bike, when the road tilts up toward the monestary Lluc.
That's a 8 km climb averaging 5,3%. Then another 8 km up and down, before descending (somewhat technically) for another ~8k.
The last 40k (24 mi) are mostly flat, which means you can lose a lot of time there if you cooked yourself up the hill (esp. if windy).

I have a special treat for you:
One of the main guys of german site/magazine tri-mag.de did the 70.3 with cameras on him permanently. You get to see a good portion of the bike course (the whole descent from Lluc in ffwd).
Link to Video (Credits: http://tri-mag.de - Frank Wechsel)

I heard conflicting info about the run course regarding how many ups and downs there are...
Maybe somebody else can elaborate...

enjoy your prep,
cu you in 7 Weeks!!!

if you can read this
YOU'RE DRAFTING!
Last edited by: flogazo: Aug 19, 14 7:07
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Re: Thoughts on the Mallorca IM [HendrikMDik] [ In reply to ]
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I'm in for this as my debut ironman.

A few friends did the 70.3 and very positive feedback

Swim is usually sheltered apparently.

Bike starts out a bit of a rough road before it turns back to transition and then heads out the 70.3 course.
The 70.3 course sounds like excellent road surface.
There are a few technical turns on descents but hopefully not too bad. A guy did die crashing on the 70.3 course though so take care, may he r.i.p.

Wind. Wind. Wind.

The bike is prone to wind, and apparently can feel like it's a head wind the whole way!
If the winds are out, this will be a challenging bike course.

Run course sounds flat and fine. The above is the first I've heard of rolling parts. It may be part prone to wind also but am told it should be relatively sheltered so hopefully fine.

7 weeks and counting!
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Re: Thoughts on the Mallorca IM [flogazo] [ In reply to ]
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Thanks Flogazo/Fazz,

I have a similar plan for the bike, mapped the course on map my ride and uploaded that to best bike split to create a power profile for the race.
I'll use that on the day to ride with power, and have been using it to train on the wahoo kickr as well. Thanks for the link to the vid, its appreciated!

The wind sounds worrying... hills give back what they take if you pace yourself, but if you don't get a tailwind, then winds just keep on taking!

The run is what I'm worried about, but mainly cause its my first marathon as well as it following what should be a good long ride in the hills!
Rolling, could mean just the way it feels after a lot of km, even a few meters could feel 'rolling' in tired legs or for those of us from flat places like Australia.

7 weeks!


Its about the entire journey, not just the moment you cross the line.
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Re: Thoughts on the Mallorca IM [flogazo] [ In reply to ]
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That link is great!


Its about the entire journey, not just the moment you cross the line.
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Re: Thoughts on the Mallorca IM [HendrikMDik] [ In reply to ]
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My wife and I raced the Mallorca 70.3 in 2013. The race was great! Very well run.

You are right that the swim is sheltered. It is calm, cold (in May anyway), salty and fast. One thing to note is the beach gradient is very flat which means the distance from dry land to swim depth is something like 100+ yards. With the IM course having you return to the beach at mid-swim this will mean traversing the shallows 4 times. I'm not sure what an Australian swim exit, as listed on the race web site, describes?

The bike course will roll quite a bit. The race profile looks deceptively flat up against the climb to Lluc. The southeast first section of the bike course will offer some challenges. This area could have a lot of exposure if the wind is blowing, which it usually is in Mallorca. The second part of the course that follows the 70.3 course up to Lluc comes later in your race which is a challenge. It is a very long climb, but grades aren't that steep for most of it. The Pollensa side can be hot if the sun is out. Once over the top it is usually cooler and sometimes misting. The descent from here is one of my all time favorites! More for being scenic than challenging. The road switches back a number of times. This wasn't a problem for us as the entire road is closed and we were allowed to cross the centerline. You can also look down and see what is coming up for turns and plan ahead. The last part of the descent through village streets is very memorable. In places there are residents and cafe customers just a few feet off the road while you are flying by. From here back to the coast was challenging. Looking at the course profile you think you will get a rest as the trend appears to be all downhill. This section took some serious power output trying to race it. Rolling terrain, lots of turns and lots of wind. It rarely felt like we were traveling downwind because you are always working towards the coast and that's where the wind is blowing from. Preview the course where it turns into Muro just past 160 for the IM. The 90° turn at the edge of the village takes you immediately into a steep climb. Not bad in the overall race, but it is a spot that you should be ready for dropping from the big ring to the small ring and low gearing. For my race the bigger issue was all the race traffic congesting at this point. Perhaps less of an issue for the IM distance.

For anyone worried about the run I would say it shouldn't be a concern. The IM course looks to be the 70.3 course stretched up and down the coast and traveling a block or two further inland at one point. The 70.3 run is a PR course. I would expect the IM course to be the same. I don't recall any part of Alcudia near the run course that climbs. This course is pretty much dead flat. The aid stations can get a bit congested on this course and the traffic patterns near transition and the finish are confusing. You are constantly dealing with slower traffic from laps ahead and faster traffic for racers laps behind. We had 3 laps and it looks like you have 4.5 laps. Again, the IM may be different with a mass start vs. our race where it was AG starts spaced over about 2 hours. So you have new traffic entering the race loop from transition every lap and then the finish chute leaves the course by turning back against the flow of loop traffic. It makes things congested. One other thing I had not experienced before is that they count your laps here by forcing each racer through a few chutes that give you a fabric bracelet, one for each lap. This was crowded for our race and after waiting in line the first time I raced this section a little harder to be in front for my last two laps.

I don't know how big of field you'll have for the IM so I'm not sure if you'll face what we did with participants. Our race had about 3000 solo and relay racers. Transition is huge. Take time to note exactly where your bike is located. I know this is kind of standard. In my race they had the bike exit more open during the exit than for the return. This threw me off on row count and I ended up on the wrong side of T2 and gave a lot of my extra bike effort back screwing around in T2. Looking at my GPS track for T2 is still painful;)
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Re: Thoughts on the Mallorca IM [SummitAK] [ In reply to ]
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I did the 70.3 course this year. My thoughts:

Swim: out and back, out and back. If it is a mass start, there will be congestion on the first out leg. But the bay is secluded and calm and the beach is very flat, so good conditions.

T1: a bit of a schlep from the water to T1 and T1 itself must be close to a km long. Make sure you know *exactly* where your T1 bag and your bike are.

Bike: pro teams use Mallorca as a winter training base for a reason. He first 3/4 of the bike is relatively flat, but it will all about the wind. The last 1/4 is decidedly lumpy. The climb sounds ok at ~5% ave, but rides more like ~7% ave for 13k or so. There's a first peak, then undulations, then a downhill to a 90 degree left turn that kicks straight up to the second and final peak. So. Complete loss of speed! The descent is Euro-switchback style - technical and very difficult to hold high speed on. The last 20k or so is a wind battle again.

T2: long and thin, again remember exactly where you are.

Run: flat, flat course. On paper should be fast, but two thing come into play. First, heat. If it is hot, it will be properly hot, and there is very little shade. Secondly, there are a few long straights with turn points so far in the distance they are hard to see when you hit them. Can be mentally difficult.

Other: if you are a fussy or careful eater, you will need to hunt a bit to find a good supermarket for decent food. Restaurant food is stodgy and unimaginative. There are lots of good bike shops in the area, but take your own energy bars/powders, as you can't rely on them having what you want.

It should be a tough but satisfying course.
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Re: Thoughts on the Mallorca IM [SummitAK] [ In reply to ]
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The Australian exit is when you get out of the water and run around a timing mat on-shore and then enter the water again to swim another loop. Common term in Europe. Never heard of it in OZ or the US when racing multiple swim loops.
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Re: Thoughts on the Mallorca IM [djmsbr] [ In reply to ]
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Ah. Got it. Thanks. I kept wondering what would be different about exiting to T1.
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Re: Thoughts on the Mallorca IM [HendrikMDik] [ In reply to ]
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I'm in for the IM in September and had a week out cycling in Mallorca earlier in the year which gave me the opportunity to recce the course on a nice long sociable ride!

I'd echo most of what has been said although I'd say the first half is more than rolling. There are a couple of significant inclines after a flat start and a few longer drags. The flip side of that of course is there are some fast sections as well. One of the sections I found the hardest was the section that turns inland towards Petra. The road surface wasn't the greatest and while it's not steep at all you are slowly climbing for 10km straight into the likely wind direction. It was a hard section to ride on the day I did it and there are also a couple of sharp corners on the few bits that were downhill to stop you from getting the speed back up. Heading back to the coast was bit easier!

Leading away from Pollenca before the climb is another drag of around 11km all gently uphill to the base of the climb to loop which is likely to be into the wind with not the finest road surface as well. The climb is the climb. Nothing too steep and fairly consistent with a few steeper sections of 9-10%. It is steeper than the average 5.3% suggests as there is a section of decline in the middle which skews the average gradient somewhat but as long as you've got the gearing right just settle in and enjoy the climb.

Over the top there are a couple more shorter climbs of around 1.5km at around the same gradient as the main climb before the descent. Having been already climbing for a good period before that you'll wish they weren't there.

As said it is a technical descent with quite a few switchbacks but generally the sightlines are pretty good and you can see the turns fairly early.

As you head back to the coast there are a couple of villages to negotiate and need care especially some of the sharper corners. Like a lot of old European villages the housing can crowd the narrow roads and there was one short section in that part where the road was little more than a track. There was talk of resurfacing before the IM but who knows.

If it sounds like the roads are crap from the above that's not really the case. The vast majority were great but there a just a few sections that aren't as good as the rest. I would also echo the advice about the left turn in Muro when you turn from a fast run up a very short, steep section of road. You'll (almost certainly) need to be in the small ring for that section.

The run is slightly different to the 70.3 and if I read the map right does have one climb per lap. Again nothing too steep but I imagine it will feel much like a mountain by the last few laps. Most is flat, out along the paved beach path and back down the inner coastal road before the uphill heading inland (if I've read the map right and the course doesn't change in the meantime) I don't think the 70.3 includes that section of run.

Below are my Garmin files of the course. The extra on the bike is me riding to the start and back from where we were staying in Pollenca and I think the route doesn't go all the way to the roundabout in Arta which I did. I had what I thought the course was at around 185km and if it doesn't go all the way to that roundabout would account for the difference.

Again I think the run is right as far as I can tell from the course maps but I think I again went slightly too far up the hill maybe but I don't think its too far off.

Mallorca bike

Mallorca run
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Re: Thoughts on the Mallorca IM [JulianM] [ In reply to ]
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Nice one Julian,
Thanks for taking the time to reply. I'm out of the race this year, issues at home have put my training and race on hold for a while and I had to withdraw.
Seriously gutted. But another year. It would have been great to be part of the 1st experimental run at this course...
Good luck in your race people!


Its about the entire journey, not just the moment you cross the line.
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Re: Thoughts on the Mallorca IM [JulianM]a [ In reply to ]
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They may have already changed the run course on you Julian! The one I reviewed doesn't seem much different than the 70.3. The course you ran I shifted north and inland from what's currently online. It does looks like your course is still shown overlaid on the bike course map. IM making a course easier?
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Re: Thoughts on the Mallorca IM [Greg66] [ In reply to ]
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This:

Greg66 wrote:
I did the 70.3 course this year. My thoughts:

Swim: out and back, out and back. If it is a mass start, there will be congestion on the first out leg. But the bay is secluded and calm and the beach is very flat, so good conditions.
> indeed a secluded bay so not a lot of waves to fight = rather easy swim

T1: a bit of a schlep from the water to T1 and T1 itself must be close to a km long. Make sure you know *exactly* where your T1 bag and your bike are.

Bike: pro teams use Mallorca as a winter training base for a reason. He first 3/4 of the bike is relatively flat, but it will all about the wind. The last 1/4 is decidedly lumpy. The climb sounds ok at ~5% ave, but rides more like ~7% ave for 13k or so. There's a first peak, then undulations, then a downhill to a 90 degree left turn that kicks straight up to the second and final peak. So. Complete loss of speed! The descent is Euro-switchback style - technical and very difficult to hold high speed on. The last 20k or so is a wind battle again.
> don't mistake the first part along the coast, it goes up and down quite a bit more than the profile suggests. Normally wind blows from the coast so not really an issue. You might have a bad wind day but it's certainly no Lanzarotte
-> climb to Col de Femenia (you don't go to the Monastary really) is really not that hard but the 10 kilometers from Pollenca before go up at a 1-2% grade, not really hard but if you give to mucht there the climb might feel harder than it is. First part of 5k is the hardest with grades around 6-7%. After that, it goes up and down a bit to the top. Don't make a mistake of thinking you are there on de plate that reads Col de Femenia. After a little downhill, it goes back up before reaching the highest point. The descent is indeed rather technical so look out (also the first turn is no switchback but might surprise you at hign speed).
> The final part after the descent is not really an issue. Wind might come into play indeed but lot's of flat sections on really good roads. Watch out for the Muro turn indeed. You wouldn't be the first one loosing or breaking your chain there while shifting and climbing at the same time.
> In the last kilometres of the bike course, there is a little climb before turning to the beach again.

T2: long and thin, again remember exactly where you are.

Run: flat, flat course. On paper should be fast, but two thing come into play. First, heat. If it is hot, it will be properly hot, and there is very little shade. Secondly, there are a few long straights with turn points so far in the distance they are hard to see when you hit them. Can be mentally difficult.
> depending on the part of the day it might indeed be hot (although it doesn't feel like that). 70.3 is normally run on the hottest part of the day but I don't know about the timing of the full.

Other: if you are a fussy or careful eater, you will need to hunt a bit to find a good supermarket for decent food. Restaurant food is stodgy and unimaginative. There are lots of good bike shops in the area, but take your own energy bars/powders, as you can't rely on them having what you want.
> quite a lot of decent restaurants in this part of Mallorca. Lot's of rice and seafood (really good) but also pasta if needed. Off course you can prepare your own dinner to be safe or visit the pasta party the day before the race.


It should be a tough but satisfying course.

Organisation of the 70.3 is really good (lot's of excellent pro's have found the way to Alcudia) and in 70.3 the participants are above average seen in other races.

If you can stay a little longer, you should certainly take your bike to Sa Calobra and do the climb back up (after the Femenia climb, go right instead of descending left and follow the directions to Sa Callobra over de Col del Reis to get there). One of the most beautiful climbs of the Island and probably of Europe in my opinion. Really hard also with a 9-10% average over 10km and a lot of switchbacks.
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Re: Thoughts on the Mallorca IM [Kreiger] [ In reply to ]
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Kreiger wrote:
...Really hard also with a 9-10% average over 10km and a lot of switchbacks.

... sure, just what I'm looking for right after a friggin Ironman!!!
I think I'll prefer the beaches and some sangria... ;-)

if you can read this
YOU'RE DRAFTING!
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Re: Thoughts on the Mallorca IM [flogazo] [ In reply to ]
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Don't worry. They have Sangria at the port of Sa Callobra. No beach though
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Re: Thoughts on the Mallorca IM [flogazo] [ In reply to ]
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Not that it's the same. But I did sa calobra with my gf 2 days after the 70.3. We also rode up it with Alex dowsett. Well. "With" is probably a lose term there
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Re: Thoughts on the Mallorca IM [JulianM]a [SummitAK] [ In reply to ]
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Changed it? Without checking with me first?

Should definitely make it easier though. While no mountain the hill in each loop was significant.
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Re: Thoughts on the Mallorca IM [Kreiger] [ In reply to ]
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I will second Sa Colobra! Great ride:)

There is a beach of sorts there if you take the Torrent de Pareis tunnel from the bay. Even if you don't ride there, I'd recommend a visit to view the scenic road.
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Re: Thoughts on the Mallorca IM [JulianM] [ In reply to ]
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I did Mallorca 70.3 this year as a tester and everything JulianM is pretty much spot on. The climbing on the run is minimal and in only once section, so pretty simple really! The bike section is managable, just dont overcook your legs in the first 90km. I know that I m going to go a little slower in the first 110km, as the climb can be a killer if you overdid it. Especially were I live I don't have any hills.

Should be good fun. Does anybody know if the swim start is a mass-start or an agegroup start?

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Re: Thoughts on the Mallorca IM [Fazz] [ In reply to ]
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Saw some stuff in the FAQs that wasn't there when I last checked:
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Swim quick facts
  • ....
  • The swim is a wave start from the beach
  • Please bear in mind that all competitors are responsible for their start position. All starters are required to cross the timing mat at start (arch), otherwise the athlete will not be officially timed for the race and will be listed as DNS!
  • ...

So what sort of waves? AG-Waves? Rolling Start?...

Quote:
How many qualifying slots are there?[/url]
Age Category Men Women
M/W 18-24 2 1
M/W 25-29 3 1
M/W 30-34 5 2
M/W 35-39 5 2
M/W 40-44 5 1
M/W 45-49 5 1
M/W 50-54 3 1
M/W 55-59 2 1
M/W 60-64 1 1
M/W 65-69 1 1
M/W 70-74 1 1
M/W 75-79 1 1
M/W 80+ 1 1
TOTAL 35 15
subject to change depending on actual starters...

if you can read this
YOU'RE DRAFTING!
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Re: Thoughts on the Mallorca IM [flogazo] [ In reply to ]
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Looks like it is gonna be pretty warm.
Likely a non-wetsuit swim unless they fake the temp-measurement.

if you can read this
YOU'RE DRAFTING!
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Re: Thoughts on the Mallorca IM [flogazo] [ In reply to ]
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I did a the Extrememan middle distance some time ago in Menorca, which is the adjacent island. That was on 25th September when I did it, so it should be comparable. Nobody wore wetsuits.
(Incidentally, it was a great race, lots of fun and the locals really supported it.)
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Re: Thoughts on the Mallorca IM [flogazo] [ In reply to ]
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The official call on wetsuit vs. not will be made on Friday according to the volunteers at registration. It seems awfully warm for a wetsuit swim though. There were a number of athletes seeking out swim skins today.

In terms of the "wave" start it seems like there is only a separation between pros (m then w) and age groupers. Am I missing something or is this actually just a mass AG start?
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Re: Thoughts on the Mallorca IM [lostinT2] [ In reply to ]
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It's a non wetsuit race - we were told at the briefing this afternoon and you're right about it being a mass start, the 3 waves being Mpro, Fpro and all the AG's
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Re: Thoughts on the Mallorca IM [HendrikMDik] [ In reply to ]
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Bump*
Looking for reviews after the race- considering it for next year.
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