You should do the worlds. Did Duathlon in Penticton in 2017 and really enjoyed the experience. They had an opening ceremony were each country marched through the streets kind of like the opening ceremony at the olympics. I'm not sure what USA will do, but I think most countries put on some team events which is a nce change for an individual sport. Also there is a lot of other races happening whoch adds to the atmosphere. Don't worry about not thinking you are that fast. There will be some super speedy racers there , but there will also be plenty of people who are not so speedy.

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instagram.com/42pointtwo

If you can afford it, why not? Gives you something to train for and an opportunity to have tri fun.

I squeaked into sprint Worlds in Chicago and had an awesome time. Not close to the front, but not last. It was a blast!

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Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team

It's definitely a luxury item as all of it is expensive but I did Pontevedra this year and it was loads of fun. There are multiple races including pros, people from all over the world, various events like the parade but also plenty of time to sight-see if you are there long enough and are so inclined.

Go and do it have fun, but don’t be one of those middle of packers wearing the national kit and carrying on like they are a national champion. Frame that kit up and make it a nice momento at home.

Go for it.
It’s a nice place to visit with Amsterdam a 20 minute train journey away. The Dutch put on a good weekend and the support round the course is fantastic.
Make sure you are comfortable being down in aero though, it’s flat and relentless with a good chance of high winds.
By the way, there’s nothing wrong with wearing the national kit- if you’ve qualified you’re entitled to and it’s just a bit of fun so why not.

Did the race last week. Its great fun. The swim is a bit busy, but the bikeride is pretty cool. Tougher then you might think. Very few corners but fully exposed to the wind for about 80% of the time of the ride. If the wind is coming from the wrong direction, its not so fun anymore.
I really enjoyed the race.

Almere is really close to Amsterdam with plenty of places to stay, so logistically it shouldnt be too expensive or time-intensive to get there.

Im to non-talented to compete for my country, but i would love to do it. I would take the chance if you got the opportunity.

We got lucky with the wind last week!

I did the half last week in Almere. Very well organized event. We were lucky with the wind, very little wind and from an unusual direction so in our back on second half of the lap. Usually you would have a wind in your back when cycling in a straight line, on dike, for about 25 km. The roads are flat, Strave told me 140m of elevation in 1 90k loop. I think that was exaggerated, the only ups and downs are onto and off dikes and over bridges. Both of those only happen a few times. The roads are supersmooth. I live in the UK and was told there's bad, rough stretch for about 2-3km in the loop. It turned out that 'bad' stretch is comparable to the better roads I'm used to riding on in the UK. I never biked faster in a tri, not even in sprints or Olympics.
The run is a 7k loop around the lake you swim in, not very exciting, but a nice flat run, if not a bit exposed.
Overall it can be a fast course, winner Matt Trautman went 7:50 and winning Yvonne van Vlerken (in her last LD race) went sub 9 hours for the 17th time in her career.
This year was the European Championship Long Distance and I saw a lot of GB suits, and a fair share of those weren't superfast, so I wouldn't be concerned about speed. Just give your country the best you have and represent them as well as you can!

This woman however won best finish!

https://www.facebook.com/...sts/2464327280311688

Is it usually wetsuit legal?

Last week water was around 19C. So really cannot imagine this race not being wetsuit legal if date remains mid september.
Swim loop is quite nice, small lake, however last week we were swimming into the sun so no visibility for half of the swim.
Bike loop can be superfast, unfortunately with a lot of unintentional drafting (too many riders of similar strength) esp. last week when half and full distance more or less started the bike together. (Rumours for next year are there will be no half distance on the same day as the full though)
No idea on the run as I dnf-ed with a flat tire.

First, congratulations! Qualifying for a national team is a fine accomplishment.

I was curious about your thread because I qualified last year via Miami Man and had to decline due to some family plans and work conflicts but I do hope to earn a spot again this year. We shall see on that!

I wasn't thrilled that Almere was given permission to have a full-length course as opposed to the length used the last few races (triple-Olympic). I have not done a full and I'm not sure about traveling that far to do a first (again, IF I qualify).

One thing that struck me in looking at the results of the race this year; did you notice that in about all of the age groups the last-place finisher was just about 14 hours? I wondered where all the people are who would finish up until the buzzer at 17 hours? Maybe that race has a shorter time-to-finish? Even if the course is flat as a pancake you would think that some people would have an off day and would make a strategic decision to pace it in just under the wire.

And as I type I went to see if I could answer my own question... looks like a cut-off of 14:45?

Its a world championship

The time cutoffs are shorter

I raced it and pretty sure it was a 15 hour cut off. I think it was probably pretty quiet out there on parts of the run course for any 13+ hour finishers. Six lap run though so you’re back in to the main part quite quickly.

That said, the course is very quick and good for a PB!

It wasn’t a world championship this year.

It was the Euro championship though.

I did the ITU World Long Course Tri in Almere in 2008 and, barring an injury, hope to qualify to go back in 2020 for the aquabike this time. Here's the deal:

- 2020 will be contested at the full IM distance; only the second time ever for ITU LC WC. This is turning off a lot of people and is likely to be less competitive than typical years.
- Course is pancake flat but open to the wind. If it's a windy day there's no place to hide.
- Almere is nothing but a suburb of Amsterdam on a man-made island. Nothing special there, the attraction is Amsterdam, an easy train ride.
- If you are OK being MOP at a WC then it's a great experience. I've done 4 ITU WCs always knowing that I am just pack fodder.
- ITU Parade of Nations is kind of cheesy, but the IM/70.3 WC Parade of Nations is far cheesier so there's that.
- It is cool racing when everyone is in a national uniform ... which you must buy ... ka-ching, ka-ching!
- IMO, the festival is spread over too many days which dilutes the so-called festival atmosphere; but it isn't worth coming for the other events just to watch. And you would probably miss the Parade of Nations anyway unless they do another one late in the week. Boo-hoo, did I mention that the real attraction is Amsterdam?
- Go for it and good luck.

I would say that if you can be there to watch other events, it can be enjoyable. I stayed for the whole Festival in Fyn and saw some great racing, I stayed for a few days in Penticton to watch other races, before leaving. The spread of the festival was dictated by the old ITU 36 hour rule. With the rule being revised to 24hrs, the festival could be more condensed, while still allowing people to race in multiple events (that said, it depends on venue, if it's multiple venues like Fyn, the LOC/ITU need the day off between races to set up the next venue and move infrastructure, if it's one venue, there are still a few down days needed in terms of the LOC/ITU being able to mark courses, do elite familiarizations, etc.). There's also the road closures issue, it makes sense to run the duathlons on the LD Tri/Auqabike on the two weekends, because they require the most roads... cross-tri and aquathlon are more tenable to run on weekdays, because there's less need for roads.

But I agree, it can be expensive, but Almere will be my 5th time racing an ITU worlds, I've done a few standalone Du worlds, as well as a couple of the Multisport festivals, and have not regretted a single one, even if I get my arse kicked in the race, the experience is great, so go for it.

And agreed that Amsterdam is the big attraction toursim wise, just wait to eat the brownies until post race, THC is still on the banned list...

It's definitely a personal preference ... for me, watching another race is OK ... for about 10 minutes. I'm there for two things, my race and then playing tourist. I understand the timing of the festival, I just don't agree with ITU at all on their stupid 36 - now 24 hour rule. And the full week split between the standard duathlon and the long course triathlon eliminated any interest I ever had in doing the former. I've only done the Festival at Penticton which was nice enough, but definitely preferred the stand alone long course WC events over the new format. (I qualified for Fynn but passed on it in favor of Ironman Norway which was fantastic).

There is simply too much spacing at ITU multisport worlds to call it a "festival" in my opinion (and I'm sure others disagree). E.g, the dates for Almere are 4-13 Sep 2020 but there is no racing on the 4th, 7th, 9th, 11th or 13th of Sep. ITU should ditch the 24 hour rule and let adults decide what they can physically accomplish. Then they could eliminate the dead days in the middle. Of course, this wouldn't happen because they want people to spend those hotel nights there.

BTW, when I did 2008 ITU worlds at Almere the venue was Almere Haven. It is now in Almere Stad which from looking at a map should have a little more crowd energy.

The 24hr rule doesn't mandate the no-race days in themiddle (36hr did), but 24hr is start to start, so if every race starts at 7am, you could run everything on consecutive days. That said, in terms of the set-up of different courses for different events, or in cases like Fyn, where 3 different citiies with 4 different transition areas were being used, you need time to be able to set up to ensure a safe and fair race for each event. Having been involved with the festival, I can tell you that there's more to the down days than trying to generate revenue for the hotels (there are no down days, the race days were the easiest days...). You have familiarization sessions for the elites (that require closed courses/rolling closures, and officials involvement, so cannot overlap with other events), you have set-up, transition check-ins, Elite briefings, AG briefings, etc. None of which can be done all on top of each other... I am in full agreement that you could condense the festival a little bit, but running it on 5 consecutive days is likely infeasible. Plus then you have the traffic disruption and road closures... Realistically the calendar that minimizes traffic impact to the point where it would be palatable for most jurisdictions would be something like (Sat - Duathlon (AG Sprint/Elite), Sunday Duathlon (Standard), Monday-off, Tuesday- Cross Tri, Wednesday Off, Tursday - Aquathlon, Friday off, Saturday LD Tri/Aquabike). Which isn't much of a change from we have seen most years (save for the day off between the Duathlons). You could potentially save a day, if you flipped the cross-tri and the aquathlon (which is the shortest event), and ran those two on consecutive days (because with a single venue, you could do your cross-tri familiarizations and briefings, after the morning aquathlon, but that means either one of the duathlons or the LD Tri moving onto a weekday, which has more traffic impacts with people working, which is why it is a less palatable option.

And I've race a few stand-alone worlds, and I personally like the festival better, because there are people who do multiple races, and only having to travel once, means that you tend to get better fields. And you tend to get more buy in from the cities if they are committing to a week long festival, rather than a race weekend... Again, I get that you might disagree, and that's fine, but there's a reason beyond trying to get cash that the festivals are organized the way that they are, and the trade off for that is that people leave and don't stay end to end (in some of the host cities, where there's less available accommodations that might not be a bad thing).

Sorry for the stupid question, but I haven't been able to find any information online. When you say that 2020 will be contested at the full IM distance, does that mean if I qualify for long course aquabike in Miami (a 1/2 mile/56 mile race), I'd be doing 2.4/112 in Almere? Or are you just saying that people like the OP who qualified at an IM would be doing an IM-distance race, while those of us who qualify in other disciplines and at other distances will be racing those? Also, any idea when they post the schedule for the ITU festival?

Eileen, the long course tri and aquabike at Almere will be full distance regardless of the qualifying distance. So yes, if you qualify for aquabike at Miamiman then you will race 2.4/112 aquabike at Almere in 2020. This will be only the 2nd time that ITU LC WC will be full distance. Aquabike will enjoy the same treatment.

Edit. PS. Although the ITU website for Almere is not up the 2020 schedule is posted at challenge-almere.com

Here's the release from the ITU confirming that they granted the LOC an exemption to hold the championships over the full Iron distance.
https://www.triathlon.org/...ver_a_38km_swim180km

Just to follow up. After wanting to never do another race again as I 🤮 my way to a dnf in the Chattanooga heat, I sent in the Team USA deposit over the weekend.