I’m looking for the fastest ironman course in europe. I’ve done Tallinn. Bike is as flat as it gets. Run is rolling.
What about Kalmar, Copenhagen and others in terms of flat speed courses.
Anyone share their experience
Roth. All LD athletes I know recorded their fastest time on this race.
IM Barcelona is rated as the fastest: https://www.trirating.com/course-ratings/.
Some interesting stats about fast and slow Ironman’s course in this article. Well average finishing time anyway.
Wonder if Europe actual has faster course. Or if it is to do with more drafting. Or even higher strength of field.
Almere. Easily.
No sure I agree. it’s flat but can be very wind effected. And even on a good day, all the on and off bike paths. Means the bike is not crazy fast.
OK. Yes. It was pretty windy when I did it. Zero technicality though. Nothing to think about except pedalling.
Complete respect for Thorsten. And to share the fastest (inserting the slowest at the top for spectrum breadth, note this is ‘centred’ on a 9 hour Kona and based on Pro completion data):
| Course | Rating | Swim Rating | Bike Rating | Run Rating | Last Race |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IM Wales | -30:26 | -00:07 | -27:04 | -03:16 | 21/09/2025 |
| Challenge Almere | 20:48 | 00:33 | 17:10 | 03:04 | 13/09/2025 |
| IM Brasil | 21:18 | 01:24 | 15:51 | 04:04 | 01/06/2025 |
| IM Tallinn | 22:23 | -00:40 | 21:39 | 01:24 | 03/08/2019 |
| IM Copenhagen | 22:29 | 01:41 | 16:52 | 03:56 | 17/08/2025 |
| IM Barcelona | 24:02 | -00:11 | 21:43 | 02:31 | 06/10/2024 |
| IM Les Sables d’Olonne | 28:08 | -00:56 | 26:27:00 | 02:37 | 22/06/2025 |
Worth noting Les Sables d’Olonne has only been run once at full distance (so the data is shallow, and only WPro). I have not gone strava hunting to see how many km short the bike was. The published gpx loads up as 178.1km and 981m of climb (not flat by any means),
Barcelona is notorious for its ‘advantageous’ crowded bike ‘environment’.
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Roth actually has a rolling bike course with 1400-1500m of elevation. No switchbacks, tarmac quality is really good, but it was not the fastest bike I’ve done. With similar power numbers, Hamburg was ~10 mins faster for me (5h10), Kalmar was ~5 mins faster. Roth run course has some hills in the final 8k, but is reasonably fast otherwise and tends to run ~700 meters short. Hamburg and Kalmar are similar, I’d say the latter is a faster run course.
Hamburg has some poor road conditions in the first 20k of each loop. Your experience may vary, but that was the only event where I have launched water bottles. Kalmar has some hills in the latter part of the course, but nothing dramatic. Good tarmac as well.
If you look at smaller events, Castle Triathlon Malbork (Poland) has almost no elevation on the bike and run. Good and smooth ride for the most part, sometimes gets windy. Local event with couple hundred participants, usually the site of long distance national champs. Well organised, might be worth a look.
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Les Sables stats are really made up. Bike has many small village patches, its fast but imho Frankfurt or Barcelona are faster, and the run is actually quite hilly incl a sand section that absorbs time.
Tours should be super fast next year. River swim, panflat bike, etc. Hamburg should be also faster if they include the highway at some point, maybe next year
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The data nerd in me would also like to account for age and gender distribution. If women’s participation in NA courses is a few percent more than in EU, its going to impact overall average finish times.
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well in a way this is what happens the fastest races is a fast course with the best weahter on the day ( not too hot and not too windy) and as many people around you on the bike as possible, that makes a fast time. and in a way if you want a sub 8.45 roth is likely the best race to achieve that. and if you want a sub 10 italy and barcelona which are close to draft legal will aid a lot. and in terms of weather consistency copenhagen is prob the one that has it most often of the branded races.
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