Had not seen this one before - looks like [Challenge is stepping up in Barcelona, offering Half Distance with a pretty amazing course on the 26th of October 2025 (Middle Distance - Challenge Barcelona Triathlon)
Swim:
Looks very much like the old Garmin Tri course, which is a great swim venue.
Bike:
This puzzles me. For the race org getting access to close down that much real estate up the coast is gonna be super tricky between Barcelona Olympic Village and up to Masnou. Many sections are like 4-5m wide tarmac, with double direction bikes. You actually get to bike part of the Ironman Calella bike course between Masnou & Martaro. It is dead flat.
Why not bike to the Top of Tibidabo mountain and down in the Collserola valley, which would add 2-3 nice climbs per 40 km loop?
Run:
Running on Barceloneta and the northern beaches is gonna be super nice with lots of spectators.
I did the Olympic race here in 2023 and it was amazing. Draft legal bike course round the city part of the course with views to die for. Really interested in this longer race, the bike course looks good, just don’t have the holidays for it!
Getting permissions here in Catalonia is beyond a nightmare. Each municipapilty (and the route crosses 5-6 of those) needs to give permission, then at least two police corps needs to give permission, etc etc. It´s not uncommon that permissions gets pulled (sometimes if little green notes are not passed to the coppers at the right pace).
What speaks in favour of this race/course is that the Barcelona Municipality is behind this - which obviously adds some weight and decision power.
Let´s hope it can work - it would be an amazing route, if possible.
all good
personally I would have preferred if Garmin had expanded the Barcelona race into other cities the way it was run as I think this would have been the way forward for a bigger city racing series. and I liked the 2 60 15 distance concept
which I guess works better for a city than a half. and the draft legal ager grouper oly and I think sprint as well
Well - I see the Pro men swam in 16 mins, so not 1900m, did the bike in 1h15m - so that is not 90 km cycling (not even in Barcelona ) and ran in 43 min, so not 21km run.
Dunno the distances (or course) for this race in 2023 & 2024, but I´d go out on a limp and still claim: This is the first time a triathlon race has that new Half Ironman Distance bike route, going from Port Olimpic through Badalona, up to Masnou and Mataro and back.
Here is the bike route from the “Short” (which was the longest) distance in 2024. They did 5 laps to complete 56 km cycling. That is smack in the center of Barcelona, same route as the Olympic & Sprint distance bike course:
it was shorter distance like 2 60 15 and I think last year the swim was cancelled there was the freak weather week ie the Valencia flooding was a few days earlier I think.