If so can you provide me with some feedback on the event.
Bump. Im very interested in doing this race next summer as well.
What happened to the Ironman retirement? ; )
I know the bike is hilly and the run is flat…think of doing laps down on the boardwalk in Newport/Balboa. Or so I’ve heard.
Hello Chad and All,
Haven’t done IM France, but DNF percentage is interesting:
http://www.triresults.com/dnf.cfm
2006 - Ironman Western Australia TR Dec 02, 2006 803 35 4.36 -
Ironman Florida TR Nov 04, 2006 2192 83 3.79 -
Ironman Hawaii World Championship TR Oct 21, 2006 1689 62 3.67 -
Ironman Wisconsin TR Sep 10, 2006 2439 266 10.91 -
Ironman Canada TR Aug 27, 2006 2352 177 7.53 -
Ironman USA Lake Placid TR Jul 23, 2006 2160 115 5.32 -
Ironman Austria TR Jul 16, 2006 2200 155 7.05 -
Ironman Coeur d’Alene TR Jun 26, 2006 2227 287 12.89 -
Ironman France** TR Jun 25, 2006 1061 187 17.62 -**
Muskoka TR Jun 18, 2006 745 41 5.50 -
Eagleman Half Ironman TR Jun 11, 2006 1400 53 3.79 -
Honu Half Ironman TR Jun 05, 2006 861 43 4.99 -
Ironman Lanzarote TR May 20, 2006 967 87 9.00 -
Ironman Arizona TR Apr 09, 2006 1943 218 11.22 -
Ironman Australia TR Mar 20, 2006 1445 0 0.00 -
Ironman South Africa TR Mar 19, 2006 947 0 0.00 -
California Half Ironman TR Mar 18, 2006 2031 87 4.28 -
Ironman Malaysia TR Feb 26, 2006 259 17 6.56
And this table gives some comparitive course data that might be useful:
http://www.neilhammond.com/...IMCourseProfiles.htm
Cheers,
Neal
.
I did Ironmman France 2 weeks ago. Finished 12th overall 
Ocean swim but mostly calm in the morning
The bike course is tough with a climb of 19km, 7km and 4km. The last 45km are downhill ore flat On the way back you have a strong mistral wind.
The run course is flat. 4 laps on the famous Promenade des Anglais. Mostly strong wind and hot!!
In the position where i was there was no drafting.
I may or may not do it, but I got the ok from the family to go at it. Travel, vacation, and IM so there is something for everyone. I am going to wait and see after Kona how I feel. An IM in June will give me a longer break after Kona which is something I have not tried. We will see, just doing some research on it right now.
Ironpete,
Thanks for the input on IM France.
I, too, am thinking about pulling the trigger for IM France. Any other input would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
Mike
It’s a top race, but tough. The bike has a lot of climbing which, whilst not particularly hard, it all being relatively low gradient, is fairly attritional. The flip side is that it is a beautiful course and there is a lot of very quick descending, so so long as you know where to attack the course, there are time gains to be had. As someone else said though, once you get on to the flat section of the course in the first and last 20 km, or thereabouts, there is a fierce wind in your face both ways, as it reverses in the middle of the day!
The run is a dead flat loop which you run 4 times, and the only down side is that it is round the bay in Nice so you can see the entire run course at all times, which mentally can be a bit tough, and it has, in the last few years been very very hot.
Great spot for a well organised race on a beautiful course. Thumbs up from me.
Chad,
Not too sure exactly what sort of feedback you are looking for…
I did it in '05, and this is my MOP perspective.
Compared to what (I am guessing) you might be used to in N America, the whole expo etc.might be low key. It’s all fairly close to the waterfornt and, from my take, the Nice crowd seem to adopt a laissez faire sort of attitude. By that I mean you won’t get the crowds that you get at IM Germany, Austria and the Quelle Challenge Roth races.
The swim is, well, a swim!!
The bike is awesome. Lots of climbing, great/spectacular scenery and by a country mile, what makes the race. You do get some crowds out on the bike which passes through some great French countryside.
The run is pretty deadpan flat and, like IrnBru said, out and back along the Prom des Anglais and, in all truth, a bit dull.
I didn’t do the pasta party and, away from the expo, there’s not much that suggests a big sporting event is going on in town.
I’ve done 3 Euro IM’s - Lanza, France and UK. France was my favourite, despite what I’ve said, and even when the temp in '05 was low 30’s and raosting hot to be doing that sort of race.
There’s plenty to do along the Riviera - Monaco is 20 mins away and you can go and ogle the yachts, pretend you are on the Monaco GP circuit, go to the Casino, or visit any number of swanky Riviera towns along there.
Hope that helps.
I did it two years ago and would highly recommend it. Not a fast course for me - my overall time was something like 2.5 hours slower that a race 7 months earlier - but the whole ‘destination race’ and uniqueness of the experience more than made up for it. In fact, I think i’ll have two sets of PBs in the future: IM France PB, and non IM France PB.
Nice can’t be beat. plenty to do. It’s the French Rivera, and I can’t say much more than that … it’s just beatiful. I recall seeing a photo essay on Tom D’s site a few years ago, and that should speak for itself. Accomodation was plentiful and cheap. To boot, the doorman at the hotel I stayed at would jokingly call me “Mr. Allen” (after Nice long course multiple winner Mark Allen), which was sort of nice. Actually, probably says a lot about the history of the race in the area when the hotel doorman knows the name of a past winner.
easy enough to fly into. I went Toronto ->Frankfurt (I think)->Nice.
I actually thought the expo was pretty cool and quite large. it didn’t have the whole Shock and Awe approach of a NA IM, but was still more than sufficient to stock up on pre-race goodies and find lots of stuff not normally available in Canada.
again, i think it’s definitely worthwhile. And the post-race food can’t be beat.
Just did it two weeks ago, had an absolute blast. Was my first full IM, so my comparisons are all vs HIMs…
Pros
-absolutely beautiful bike course. REALLY pretty. The kind of bike course you would travel to as the great ride day of a vacation
-fantastically run. Everything was basically perfect
-swim was great- ocean swim, some big swell, but no wind
Cons
-the bike is insanely mountainous. However hilly you think it is, its hillier than that. Out of 6 hours on the bike, a good 3 of them are spent spinning uphill.
-the bike is not very steep, its just endless gentle switchbacks. I sat there in my 27 tooth rear and spun away. This is one of the few bike courses ive seen that really alters the race results radically- its a “bike climbers” race much more than it is a triathlon- the woman pro who won it was the tiniest pro i have ever seen. She must fly up those hills tho
-the run is kind of hot/boring/lame. Its theoretically along the water, but its a bit back from the water, so the feeling is not unlike running laps in a sunny parking lot. 4 out and back laps is a lot to do without much to look at.
Net net, dont get me wrong, i loved the race. I probably wont do it again, since I am a much stronger flat-course cyclist, but it was really fun and a great experience overall
Noah
I’ve signed up, and am really looking forward to it. Whole load of us going over.
Don’t know where I am going to find the climbing to train near London though
Thats one of the main reasons im considering it, a true “destination race”. Im going to be doing silverman to see how well my climbing has progressed by the end of this year, if all goes well there i’ll be registering for France as soon as the race is over The run is with crowds all along the cote d’azur though isnt it? I saw pictures from this years race and the promenade looked pretty packed?
I wouldn’t say the run is lined with crowds just out to cheer rhe racers on. The beachfront is busy coz, well, it’s the beach at Nice so you get lots of people out anyway, undeterred by race day shenanigans!! Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of people around and about but plenty of them there despite the race, not because of it.
All told, it is a great race, made (for me, at least) in every sense by the bike course as the swim is, well, a swim and the run is pretty dull up and down the main road.
Ah alright, i was figuring there’d at least be some eye candy to take your mind off the loops, at least temporarily! Thanks for the overview, if all goes well im in for 08 and will be looking forward to it all year.
Thanks for the input. I have raced at IM NZ 2x and IM Switzerland for international events. I am looking forward to a destination race so I want to make sure it is worth the travel and the expense. Sounds like a great event and just what I am looking for.
Sounds like a great event and just what I am looking for.
I heard also only goods things about IM France and will do the race in 2008.
Felix
I would agree, the run is definetly not “lined with crowds”…there are a lot of beachgoers crossing the run with their inflatatoys for you to run into tho, and the start/finish end has got plenty of spectators…the far end is pretty empty though.
The run course was frankly a touch of a disappointment- while in theory its on the beachfront, its really on a road about 20 yards back from the beach, while the beach is down a big seawall. Its like running in a big parking lot. net net, you cant see the beach for most of the run. (which is a shame, because its mostly a topless beach 
).
Dont get me wrong- the bike was absurdly gorgeous- if you went on a really great bike vacation, you would call that “by far the best ride of the week” it was absurdly great. And also really fun to do on closed roads- a lot of the roads were really narrow and would have been pretty scary with cars on them on the switchbacks…
Overall, great race. Run was just a bit boring.