Thanks for the above input on locations.
For next year it looks like:
Same day
Taupo
Port Macquarie
Cairns
WA
Nice
Same weekend but separate days (interestingly all scheduled within 6 weeks of Kona )
Tallinn
Wisconsin
Italy
Portugal
Previous locations hosting both
Mallorca, Barcelona, Vichy, Aix-en-provence, North Carolina? Probably others that I can’t think of.
Cork and Israel are still technically listed and Cork was separate days
My point being there are plenty of places that have hosted both. Whether they can handle 5000+ numbers is debatable with accommodation. But the impact on a rotating location will only be felt for 1 year and not likely again for maybe 10 years.
Barcelona currently gets big numbers because it’s flat.
The 70.3 used to go up into the hills with ~1300 metres of climbing. I wonder if they could do a loop of the old 70.3 followed by the current 140.6. That would break things up a bit. Or just have an entirely different course for a one-of. For example Tour of Catalunya regularly has a stage in Calella.
So it’s still an excellent location for a rotating worlds with a major international airport 1 hour away, good transport options and loads of accommodation.
Agree that it could be a good location, all factors considered (also the fact that it naturally happens end-of-season). Very similar setup as Nice or Emilia Romagna.
It just cannot have the current course for the current number of participants.
Up until a few years ago Wisconsin used to host both on the same day IIRC. Madison has the capability to host a large enough event like the WC but not sure what kind of draw it would really have. The city has been willing to rework the course as needed to avoid shutting down a critical campus bus line see 2024 run course. Biggest hurdle that a 2 day WC would face if it would go to WI is that IM would have to set the date around there not being a Saturday football game in town at the same time rather than the typical 2nd Sunday of September structure they been using.
Unless you think the Ironman World Champs is NOT going to be in Nice in mid September 2026 (Men), the 70.3WC has to be (latest) 20 August or earliest end October (after Kona). Pretty clear the rule of thumb IM have been using is three weeks’ separation.
And this is even more important with the inception of the IM Pro Series for which the top athletes will aspire to race both.
I don’t think this has been brought up in all these pages, but while we’re on the topic, one of the benefits to having an IMWC that rotates around the globe is that it opens up options to have the 70.3 in different configurations.
Because you have Kona in October and Nice in Sept, you’re limited to locations which can host 70.3 worlds either July/Aug or Nov/Dec. You could certainly host 70.3 worlds in the spring, but it seems like IM wants to make it later in the season so that the WC events mostly function as caps on the season-long narrative.
Even if the IMWC reverted back to just being in Kona, the October timeslot prevents 70.3WC from having a September or a November time slot - which may eliminate a few host cities from putting on a show.
Lahti works because August is fine for Finland, as do Taupo and Marbella later in the season due to climate. But what if you wanted to host your 70.3WC in a location where Sept-Oct is the optimal climate?
But if both WCs rotated, you could set up your WC calendar in any order, and your host locations could expand.
Agree thrust.
I suggest a tweak that a second week in October IMWC (wherever) allows a subsequent 70.3WC to be as early as second week November (as this year) as opposed to ‘not in November’.
We’ve seen the 70.3 mostly before IMWC but after in 2022 and also this year.
There’s no doubt that 2022 70.3WC at St George suffered from its calendar proximity to Kona and Lahti suffered from a Singapore/Nice sandwich.
I don’t think lahti suffered from timing as much as zero accommodation. Many of us raced lahti then nice actually was ideal set up for mid level athletes to do lahti as a prep for nice and minimised travel from memory since both close by, it was 2 weeks gap which is perfect to recover then race again. Cannot easily be the other way, kona to nz 6-7 weeks would be minimum gap the other way for AG mid level imho. Pros tended to pick one in both cases they might have wanted a bigger gap