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IRONMAN 70.3 RÃœGEN DISCONTINUED?
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Hey folks,
Since many of us like to race the 70.3 races later in the year in middle Europe I was quite disappointed when I read that the 70.3 Rügen at the coast of Germany might not continue.

The webpage of Ironman is still saying "Opening Soon". According to the information from the Ironman HQ in Germany they wanted to open the registration already 2 weeks after this years race. But they had to wait for the local council to decide if they want to have another Ironman event on their island in 2019 or not. This took until Christmas and according to the local newspaper it is most likely that there won´t be another Ironman 70.3 Rügen in 2019.
(Please find the link to the article and some rough translation down below).
Basically the council came together and half of the people voted against the event. Eventhough the vote was 50/50 the mayor of Binz said that it would need more supporters than only 50% within the community to continue such a large event and therefor the mayor himself does not believe that there will be any chance for the event in 2019.
There will still be another council in Binz to decide about how to go on from here but unfortunately it sounds to me that there are to many unresolved issues.

What are your thoughts and information on this? Do you think there is still a chance for the event?
Did you also think about participating in Rügen and what would be your alternative.



The article:
http://www.ostsee-zeitung.de/Vorpommern/Ruegen/Ironman-Ruegen-vor-dem-Aus


The keypoints are:
The vote of the council;
unresolved issues regarding how to finance such a race since the previous ways seem not to be valid anymore.
unresolved issues regarding the bike course. The current bike course won´t be available in 2019 and so far there are no plans for the new course.


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Re: IRONMAN 70.3 RÃœGEN DISCONTINUED? [Chris_Mint] [ In reply to ]
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This sounds a little like the IM Regensburg situation a few years back; that race only lasted 3 years including a date change in that time, it became all too difficult for the locals and particularly the farmers iirc. Although I struggle to see how one Sunday in August would affect farming too much. Challenge tried it there for a couple of years soon after, and again they met the same issues of local support and had to can-it.

29 years and counting
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Re: IRONMAN 70.3 RÃœGEN DISCONTINUED? [Jorgan] [ In reply to ]
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I was fortunate to race IM Regensburg in 2011 - the second year and one of my favorite trips. Germany appears to be more sensitive to local citizen's input than in America where the economic impact is a bigger factor on whether a race continues or not.
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Re: IRONMAN 70.3 RÃœGEN DISCONTINUED? [HuffNPuff] [ In reply to ]
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Yep, 2011 for me too. Bit wet eh? But a PB for me that day, that still stands.

29 years and counting
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Re: IRONMAN 70.3 RÃœGEN DISCONTINUED? [Jorgan] [ In reply to ]
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Jorgan wrote:
Yep, 2011 for me too. Bit wet eh? But a PB for me that day, that still stands.

It kept me cool, but I had a death grip on my brake handles for the descent on each loop!
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