I've raced ITU Du worlds many times, and will be racing in Almere (although I prefer the sprint distance these days, but the first couple of times I did worlds, I raced standard). Especially when the race is in Europe, there tend to be very strong fields, the Multisport Festival is a great concept with lots of racing over a week or so, and chances to do multiple events or to watch others outside of your own race. I raced a couple of standalone Du worlds, and this year will be my 3rd time racing in the MultiSport festival (I skipped Pontevedra last year). The races in general tend to be well organized, and the events tend to be bigger with the festival, because you are tying in other disciplines as well... The races tend not to be inexpensive, high-ish entry fees, and expensive travel (depending on where you're coming from), not to mention purchase of national kits, etc, but I have never regretted going when I've taken part, even if I get my ass handed to me...

I did worlds in Canada a few years ago. Definitely worth doing once. I wouldn't fly to it, but if it was someplace driveable, I would race again.

It was well run, fairly priced, and just fun for lack of a better description.

Based on the ETU mention, I assume the OP is based in Europe, so the travel will be drastically cheaper than for us in North America for Worlds over there.

I don't find flying that bad, breaking down and flying with a bike is pretty basic, and in some cases air travel can be a lot less expensive... Just make a vacation out of it and stay and do the tourist thing post race. Some years when my wife tags along, I'll fly over early, and do my pre-race thing (course fams, and whatnot), and she'll come over just before the race to watch me race, and then we'll do the tourist thing afterwards...Otherwise she gets board just hanging around the race city while I've got all of the lead-up stuff...

Except when the airline cracks your frame and you don’t unpack the bike right away as you had to go on a business trip the day after you got home. Then traveling with your bike gets expensive.

That said. I love destination races. Just wouldn’t go specific for worlds unless it was at a place I wanted to see as a tourist.

Hi A

The race in Almere is great. From the same team that organizes the Challenge Almere triathlon in September.
The duathlon is 1 of the pilars of that multisport festival together with a TT and some other stuff.

Great race to do!

Cheers,

Jeroen

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Owner at TRIPRO, The Netherlands

I raced ITU Du Standards 2x. 1) Ottowa, CAN in either '14 or '15. Quick trip and didn't find the things to do there that interesting. Nice course, raced bad (70.3 five days rest prior before). 2) Pontevedra this year, showed up injured but loved the course. Much more interesting/sightseeing than Canada I felt. Same result in the race as '14 or '15 in the AG.

Had I think like 5 days rest before the LC Tri Worlds in Pontevedra which was way less enjoyable. Didn't enjoy the Tri as much as the Roka suits sucks arse and sizing was off, couldn't get in & out of it in T1/T2 (literally stuck outside of my suit during the potty stops). Spain doesn't understand athlete to porta potty ratios or believe in supplying *products* to them once they run out.
I will say the big climbs were totally awesome and virtually the same terrain I ride weekly, so could large ring it up the 4-6% grades. The run...what I did NOT like about it was passing thru the same aid stations a total of 8 times in one section of the run and losing count as to what run lap I was on (GPS stopped working), there was no mechanism to track laps aside from a tired brain.

The big difference I think was available information to athletes who do not speak Spanish vs Canada who were bilingual was quite simply to get the information. It was less stress in Canada to know what the h*ll was going on. Both had wonderfully nice people in the race organization, but I'd have to say the outside race part of ITU Spain Worlds was more fun. The marshals seemed to ignore drafting more in Canada than the Spain race which I appreciated. Both have their pluses. But specifially to Duathlon, I'm going to say I enjoyed the one in Spain more because it wasn't a flat wimp course and required you to be a strong runner and biker as both had hills that challenged. Flat tends to reward the drafters more I think. On mountains and technical decents, you can drop people or crush their legs for the second run if you're a strong biker. I tend to be fairly even the run/bike in both with no strong suit so I do not favor flat or hills.

Correct - based in France so both Spain and the Netherlands are good options for racing with limited travel.

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Thanks Jeroen - will you race there this year?

Btw if you have a chance to look at this thread, your input will be much appreciated ;-)

A

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Thanks - so what distance will you race in Almere? Based on what you mentioned, I assume the field should be quite strong which is an additional incentive to give it a go :-)

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