It has come to my attention that Wildflower triathlon will not continue into 2027. The number of participants was very small in 2025 and was even smaller this past weekend (2026).
I believe that if Ironman were to purchase the rights to Wildflower (maybe call it Ironman 70.3 Wildflower?) makes me very excited to race it again. I believe it would attract many professionals, as this race used to very consistently, and this would attract many more participants as this race used to have.
I understand Ironman looks for venues/cities with a certain amount to hotels/accommodations. If anyone knows anything about Wildflower, there are no hotels there; the venue is a very large campground which has held over 10,000 people at once for prior races.
Itâs a very unique and special race. I hope it doesnât go away, but I believe can be saved by an events company with a lot of muscle. Enter Ironman?
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people are not attracted to hard races anymore. down current swims, easy to draft bike, and flat run courses (ideally downhill) are the ones attracting the most people
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I agree with you. This is definitely a hard course. It would be the hardest 70.3 if acquired. However, given how well Ironman can attract participants by having a good pro field, I believe this will motivate many more participants.
One factor I might be missing is that I think most, if not all host cities, pay a fee to have Ironman put on a race in that city. There is no city in Lake San Antonio; itâs a county park with a huge campground. So, I canât see who would be paying Ironmanâs feeâŚthe county, perhaps?
Regardless, I assume Ironman has already looked into it and has probably decided itâs not economically advantageous, since thatâs the bottom line anyway.
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Ironically ironman put St. George 70.3 on Wildflower weekend and over time St. George manage to drain away from WFâŚ.and kind of kill off WF (plus the low/no water years at Lake San Antonio). Now St. George is dead and WF after a short revival, is having a tough go.
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I have a lot of thoughts and feelings about this, so..
I was at Wildflower this weekend. I was also there in 2025, and 2018 before that. Wildflower means a lot to me personally and as part of my triathlon journey. Seeing the decline in numbers over the last 3 iterations has been really sad, to put it bluntly. I love independent races, I love the non-IM vibe, and I love that triathlon becomes so all-encompassing during Wildflower weekend. You know that everyone camping around you is (almost) as crazy as you.
I canât see a world in which IM buys Wildflower. My understanding is that once upon a time, there was an offer on the table.. but that was then. Besides the obvious - IM has moved away from buying pre-existing races to just creating their own from scratch (yes, probably because IM bought or killed all of the existing successful independent races) - there are a ton of factors that other folks have already mentioned but Iâll pile on to:
- This race is HARD. It is harder than St. George was and has the potential for the weather to be just as hot. The threat of the heat is part of the course.
- Closest airport is an hour away and accommodations are either tent camping, camper/van camping, âglampingâ, VRBO/airbnb off site, or hotels (40+ min away in Paso Robles). The closest major airport is San Jose, 2.5 hours away.
- Shuttles / accessibility is super challenging in the park. Lynch Rd is the only vehicular access to transition, and it is part of the bike and run course. If you thought people were losing their mind over La Quintaâs shuttle debacle in December, this would be like armageddon.
- Cell service is super minimal throughout the area, though folks with starlink seemed to be faring ok.
- There are some technical aspects to the course, and IMâs typical athlete is going to struggle - climbs, rollers, turns, descents with turns.. trails on the run! Also, the history of low water levels in the reservoir is risky.
- The resort hasnât been open for several years, so thereâs no grocery on site or built-in restaurants. Youâre entirely relying on food trucks.
- The road surface is just as bad as it was the last time any of you were at Wildflower in the â90s or â00s (pink)
I did have nearly 9 hours of racing to contemplate some of these things, so on the other hand, I do see plenty of opportunity for Ironman to step in and âpremium-izeâ Wildflower.
- Market it as a challenging course, a la St. George or Alaska, or lean into the history like Boulder.
- VIP campsites, RVs/trailers/vans for rent through IM, etc., and glamping are all upgrade-able options that Wildflower already offers. Iâm sure parking could be upgraded, too.
- Shuttle service for VIP etc. as an option as well
- Race with the pros and potential future world champions (it is crazy to see the staircase of champions names in person)
- Include 5150 (just like Ruidoso is doing) and you can even keep the collegiate challenge and WF Squared
I think no matter what, Wildflower just isnât catered to the IM crowd. I do IM events, I even sometimes like them, but the majority of the athletes and their supporters are divas. I was at La Quinta this winter, and the social media around how awful the shuttles were from the parking to the finish was just silly (parking/shuttles in the morning? yes, awful). If the roads werenât repaved, specifically Jolon Rd., that also would kill an IM event in a single year. I do think Wildflower needs the pros to survive.
When it comes to camping and staying way outside of the race venue, Challenge Roth sure seems to have that figured out. Lake San Antonio supports a huge crowd, thatâs been proven - it just seems to be more of what kind of crowd is interested in that kind of event.
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Youâd probably be better off asking T100 to buy it. But it sounds like thereâs not much to buy but just take it over and maybe pay a few of their crew to work it.
Itâs a shame itâs gone. I would have had it on my calendar at some point but the next couple years are spoken for.
I was at the race, and with respect to Ironman, two things stood out to me.
At the swim start, there was a gentleman (around 50â65) in what I thought was the race director/announcer booth. Terry Davis (the original owner) said a few words prior to the start, so I initially thought it might have been Terry and wanted to say a few words to him. But then I noticed the guy was wearing an Ironman hat, so it couldnât have been him. It would also be odd for any critical wildflower staff to be wearing Ironman gear in the booth.
Julie Moss kicked off the swim and did a lot of announcing throughout the day, with plenty of references to her Ironman debut and how it brought people into the sport.
Both anecdotes gave me the sense that Ironman may have been invited to check out the race vibe again and evaluate whether thereâs an opportunity to take it over.
As for the course:
the swim is great.
The bike is tough, sure, but Iâd argue itâs no longer fun. Itâs basically 44 miles of chip-seal pavement leading up to the descent after Nasty Grade. The first mile is completely untenable. Youâre riding on a dirt road with scattered potholes (some filled, some not). The road is open to the public during the race, and I donât believe any sections are fully closed to traffic. Interestingly, I only saw one flat.
The run is tough but fair. Itâs an amazing run course compared to a lot of Ironman courses, especially if youâre ready for it.
Ironman could probably draw enough participants for at least a year from a semi-local (LAâSF) crowd. I canât imagine many people flying in from out of state just to pitch a tent, rent an RV, or stay an hour away from the course. That would make a tough long term viability. If Ironman signed up for this race it would land somewhere between a Redding 70.3 and Santa Cruz 70.3 turnout.
In terms of the chip seal, it was already rough in 1996âŚ.and I was riding on a softride bike too. By 2015 (11 years ago) on a Cervelo P3 my teeth were rattled to the bone. I canât imagine how much worse it got. If I recall correctly as soon as you cross the county line at the top of Nasty Grade the pavement got good all the way until just before you enter the campground area. Maybe that was 5-8 miles of the course though. Is that correct?
Iâve done Wildflower long course in its very crowded heyday and the Olympic course on Sunday. This is easily the hardest Olympic race Iâve ever done. The water was a comfy 65 degrees or so. The bikeâs first mile is an 11 percent grade uphill. And I just donât remember all those climbs on the Olympic course from prior years of racing the long course and doing training camps there. The run is scenic and legit hard.
What was interesting was that some major sponsors came out and flew the tri flag and staffed booths for an admittedly sparse population of racers. Roka, Zoot, Precision, USAT among them.
The volunteers from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo were top notch, including those from the universityâs triathlon team, who, in light of the ban on Naked Aid Station, gamely put on a No Pants Aid Station. No laws were broken. Fun kids.
Is it an Ironman style experience? Not even close. Could Ironman embrace the race vibe as something completely different from the typical IM-branded race? Maybe, if they adopted the free shuttles up and down the hill, crowd-friendly festival atmosphere and variety of camping/glamping options that existed back before drought and St. George and Covid nearly killed this race.
I heard more talk about SuperTri taking it on versus Ironman. Everybody who was there talked about their hope that some credible organization could save the race and build it back up.
Here was my admittedly excessive camping setup at the L.A. Tri Club Redonda Vista Loop G, and the pickup truck for hauling it all there. We had probably 30 athletes racing, about half stayed in RVs and the rest tent-camped. All the newest athletes were astonished at the reality check of this very difficult course.
You gotta ask yourself if Ironman is really ready to host thousands of athletes who slept cold overnight (mid-40s), who had to walk a quarter-mile to get to the porta-potties in the middle of the night, whose sleep is disturbed by zipper noise pollution and untamed snoring. It takes a particular kind of athlete to put up with all that.
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Fun camp setup
Looks like you brought everything including the kitchen sink? But no grill? How long did you stay for?
I was there Thursday-Sunday with an option to stay âtil Monday. I had a cast iron grill for the top of the butane stove, so my chicken got grill marks. No grill available in that grassy enclosure. And the black changing tent was my neighborâs, not mine.
I missed a key detail of the camping experience that is classic Wildflower. A teammate who was RV camping left his cooler out overnight and a 200-pound wild boar tore it open and crunched open all the canned beverages within.
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Your recollection is correct, Dev - that county line pavement difference is still very apparent.
I pulled a muscle in my forearm after this weekend, and Iâm pretty sure it was from holding on for dear life on the Jolon chip seal.
Just for the record, I flew in (with my tent camping gear) two years in a row now. But I think youâre right, basically any one else flying in would at minimum be renting a bell tent, more likely an RV.
I think Julie has been an announcer for the race for a while! I love that sheâs there.
I had the honor of racing Wildflower as a Pro during the Jesse Thomas era. Now wearing my business hat, I was there last year and this year with my distribution business. Eric asked me to write a little blog last year, itâs on the site somewhereâŚ
Having been to UTMB Canyons the weekend prior I was pondering an idea all weekend. Imagine a Wildflower Experience with a UTMB Thurs and Friday and triathlon SaturdayâŚ.Letâ Colleenâs team run the events as they do an incredible job!
And I was thinking with all that stuff piled up there must not be much wildlife causing issues!
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Agree. A run-focused sports festival with sprint distance triathlon could keep the activity inside the campground, at less cost.
1996 and 2007 I flew from Canada with my camping gear. Itâs not really muchâŚ.a tent and sleeping bag that I would strap on the back of my bike for bike packing back in the day. For two days I donât need cooked food just cold food stored in my rental car. Itâs all doable, but its not what most people are willing to do and you need âmost peopleâ to make an Mdot scale event work.
Thanks for the confirmation on the âcounty line effectâ on the bone jarring!!!
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