Maybe a silly question, am I reading this correct that for Nice 70.3 WC, Men are on Saturday Sep 12 2026 and Women are Sunday Sep 13?
Has always been women on the Saturday and men on the Sunday, but idk.
I guess in 2029 it might be Friday and Saturday.
2025 was women on Saturday and men on Sunday so 2026 should be the opposite.
I think they do it this way since there are always more men and it keeps them there longer.
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I deduce that the new allocation method, going to the performance pool after the AG div winners (or if roll down, podium), will mean that every slot is taken up for both men and women.
So if the size of field delta was the main reason IRONMAN have always gone women, men; that will no longer apply.
Any other rationale you can think of? Is there any particular merit in having the men off on D1?
Slots will still roll through the field and enough women won’t be there at enough races to keep the ratio pretty similar to the past. They always had the option to roll those slots through the women’s field and inevitably got to the “any women want to go to …xyz?” at quite a few events with fewer takers waiting than slots.
I assume with Nice being back on the menu, that will be offered up as another reason why some women don’t want to go. And realistically, given the time caps and the difficult bike is that any surprise? The DnF rate was 300% higher for the women than the men at Marbella Worlds. Women were across the board higher in every discipline, but it’s pretty clear the run was the breaking point after the bike.
I wonder if there was more time for women if they’d grind it out? Are women arguing for that anywhere? They should I think based on finish times. I realize it plays against the women = men confusion (value is not the same as ability), but it’s certainly warranted as IM’s own finisher data shows. I wonder how that data changes if women’s swim, bike and run time caps were changed.
Or if IM has a hard time limit that is disproportionately helping slow men, make the men’s time cap shorter.
Yeah even though the new system has equal slots for Men and Women, I still think the women’s field will be smaller, but maybe not as much as previous years.
Fair enough. Is that a good reason to have the women race on Day 1?
Marbella: Men: 3738 started, 406 (10.9%) DNF; Women: 2624 started, 384 (14.6%) DNF.
Data from CoachCox: Ironman 70.3 World Championship 2025 Marbella (Men) Results | CoachCox Ironman 70.3 World Championship 2025 Marbella (Women) Results | CoachCox
[Have I got these figures wrong? I was astonished at such a low men’s dropout rate, in @Lurker 's table.]
Certainly there was a large section of transition unused on the Saturday.