In most parts of North America and Europe the Triathlon and Aquabike racing season has not started yet. For many athletes it will start with the biggest race of the season. After the Multisport World Championships had to be split up to several events the last two years, there will be a fully packed racing programme this week in Ibiza with Duathlon, Aquathlon, Cross Triathlon and Duathlon, Mixed Relay and the Grande Finale on Sunday, May 7th – the Long Distance Triathlon and Aquabike World Championships.
The Swim
It´s a 3 km open sea swim in the Mediterranean Sea. The course starts and finishes at Playa Figueretas, quite near the centre of Ibiza Town. It´s a one lap swim around the little island Illa de Ses Rates. With water temperatures currently around 16°C/61°F this will definitely be a wetsuit swim.
Aquabike athletes will start in four waves. The first wave with all male athletes under 55 starts at 08:45, five minutes after the last wave of the triathlon race. So the fast swimmers will have quite a bit of traffic on the swim course. Male athletes of age groups M55 and higher will start at 08:50, followed by female athletes under 55 at 08:55 and female athletes over 55 at 09:00. The cut off time for the swim is one hour and forty minutes after the start of each wave.
Speaking of waves… the weather forecast predicts some waves of 0,5 to 0,6 metres for raceday with only a light breeze from south / southwest. It might not be sunny, but air temperatures should be around 20°C/68°F at the start of the race, rising up to 24°C/75°F at noon. Really doesn´t look like it will be a heat race.
The Transition
The transition zone will be a long-stretched zone alongside the beach. The total distance from swim exit through the transition zone and all the way to bike out is about 600 metres. With almost a thousand athletes starting the long-distance triathlon and the aquabike race it´s hard to avoid to have a rather long run through the transition zone.
The Bike Course
This will not be an easy ride. No less than 1.280 metres / 4.200 feet of elevation gain are waiting for the triathlon and aquabike athletes on the 116 km / 72 miles bike course. It´s up and down most of the time, though there isn´t really a major climb and the road never gets steeper than 7%. But the few flat parts of the course are rather false flats. Most of the bike course is on main roads or even highways, so there should always be enough space. And besides the seven U-turns the course is not technical at all.
The Finish
Oh well, how can I say this. I really don´t want to be the guy complaining about the finish line over and over again. At last year´s World´s in Samorin we had an 800-meter run to the finish line after T2 – quite a long way for those athletes who chose aquabike racing due to an injury. After I sent an open letter to World Triathlon the rules were thankfully changed back again, so now – like in previous years – the finish line has to be before T2. The rule – in my opinion – is fine. But what the organizers in Ibiza made out of it is just… well… maybe insert your own adjective here after reading more about it.
The aquabike finishline in Ibiza is 15 meters before the dismount line. Making the dismount line the finishline like we had it at last year´s European Championships in Bilbao is certainly not an ideal solution. While triathletes get off their bikes rather slowly preparing for the run (also because it´s rather the slower triathletes coming in together with the aquabikers who started later), aquabikers are going all out to the finishline. But at least they also have to break and get off the bike at the same point. Now putting the finishline only 15 meters before the dismount line is probably even worse. If it comes to a sprint finish between two aquabikers, it will not be the better one that wins. It will be the one who takes the higher risk, has the better brakes, or can just better estimate his braking distance.
But hold on, there is a solution to this! This is what the Athlete Guide says about the Aquabike Finish Procedure:
“Finish Time”: 15 meters before the dismount line. This is where the official timing will stop and the ranking will be established. No need to sprint.
Oh, there is no need to sprint. Good to know. So, if I approach the finish line together with another athlete, competing for the win in our age group we will both get the gold medal?
Honestly, I really hope we will not see too many dangerous situations here. Unfortunately, I´m afraid they are pre-programmed. But there is also an issue regarding the rules and possible penalties for dismounting after the dismount line. According to the World Triathlon Competition Rules the penalty for this is “Warning and amend”. “Amend” is usually a stop and go penalty. But the aquabikers have already finished their race at that point. So, a time penalty is just not possible here. I also pointed this out in a facebook comment on the event´s facebook page. Maybe this was the reason why the Athlete Guide was changed later. I was hoping that the change would be that the finishline would be a bit further away from the dismount line. Instead, they added the following sentence: “Not dismounting at the line could lead to disqualification.” Could? You might wonder what kind of rule that is. The explanation probably lies in another part of the World Triathlon Competition Rules where they state that “Athletes who make no attempt to dismount at the Dismount line causing them to cycle in Transition will be disqualified.” In other words: At least you should try to get off the bike at the line. Disqualification is only a penalty for athletes who don´t even try and just cycle into T2. If you just underestimate your braking distance and make it off the bike a little too late, there is – as of my understanding of the rules – no possible penalty for aquabike athletes.
Now don´t get me wrong. I´m not writing this so all aquabike athletes sprint to the dismount line like crazy, putting themselves and other athletes in dangerous situations. I´m writing this because I really want to incentivice race organizers to take a few minutes and think about a good solution for the finish of their aquabike race.
I also want to point out that this is usually not an issue in local races. The number of aquabike athletes there is much smaller, so the chances of sprint finishes are actually quite low. And also, the transition zone and the way to the actual triathlon finishline is often much shorter. So, in most local races it´s a good choice to have the aquabike finish after T2, as it´s only a very short run. But in big international races the whole event location is just much bigger which leads to a longer way from T2 to the finish like we had it in Samorin.
At the standard distance World´s in Abu Dhabi last November we had an aquabike specific finish line right after T2. This is also perfectly fine of course. In the 2021 World Championships as well as in the European Championships we had the finishline long before the dismount line – so this was also well solved. My point is: There are several good, fair and save solutions out there. They don´t really come with a lot of extra costs. It only requires the person in charge to take a few minutes to think about it.
OK, enough moaning. Let´s get to the more pleasant part.
The Favourites
After we had no World Championships due to the Covid pandemic in 2020 the field of competitors was still quite reduced for the same reason in Almere, Netherlands in 2021. Also the 2022 World Championships in Samorin, Slovakia saw a rather small field of aqubike athletes, probably because of the pretty late announcement of date and location of the event, after it was originally planned to be held in Australia. Now for Ibiza we have more than 350 athletes on the start list of the aquabike race, making it the biggest race since the 2019 World Championships in Pontevedra.
The Men´s Race
And it´s the winner of exactly this race who is also the big favourite for Ibiza. Mathieu DUMONT came out of the water in 135th position, more than nine minutes behind the fastest swimmer. But the Frenchman is just a hell of a strong cyclist, making him the winner of the race with a three-minute time gap to 2nd and almost nine minutes to the 3rd placed athlete. Last year Mathieu competed in the French National Time Trial Championships, where he lost less than five minutes on World Class time trialist Remy Cavagna and less than a minute on some other World Tour pro cyclists. If he´s in form, he will be the man to beat – or rather the man to hold off on the bike.
But there are indeed some athletes in the pretty stacked men´s competitions who have the potential to do so. Kris Whitelaw from Great Britain was 2nd at last year´s European Championships in Bilbao where he also showed a quite remarkable performance on the bike. The same goes for Irishman Ross HAMILTON who came in only a few seconds later in Bilbao.
Brazil´s National Aquabike Champion Leandro Roberto Ferreira will also be a man to watch out for. It will be his first performance in an international aquabike race. But after strong performances of his fellow countrymen in last year´s standard distance World´s in Abu Dhabi, we can expect to see quite some performance form Leonardo as well.
Local hero Ismael PARRILLA PONCE was the winner of the European Aquabike Championships in Ibiza in 2018 and is of course also on the start list for this year´s World´s on hin home island. In 2018 the strong swimmer did might benefit a bit from the shortening of the bike course. However, you still need to show a strong performance on the bike to take the overall win – so he´s certainly nothing but a bad cyclist. And will not easy to catch on the bike course.
Also watch out for Lukas CASANOVA from Switzerland. He finished 3rd overall in the 2021 European Championships in Walchsee, a race with a similarly demanding bike course.
Of course, we should not forget about one of the most successful athletes in aquabike history. US boy Kurt HOLT won several titles in National and World Championships throughout the last few years. As one of the strongest cyclists he will probably be up there fighting for the to positions towards the end of the race.
And there are so many more strong athletes competing in Ibiza. With Henrique Pedroso Silverio, Thiago De Souza Caldas and Fader Luiz Muller Hidalgo there are three more strong aquabikers from Brazil who all showed strong performances in national and international championship races last year.
Guigou Yves-Antoine is another strong Frenhman who finished 8th at last year´s World´s in Samorin. Two places down in the same race was German Oliver Rau, currently #5 in the Aquabike.World Ranking, one place behind Wayne Hitchcott, who will also be on the startline in Ibiza.
Hosting country Spain will also be represented by some more strong athletes. Hugo ECIJA BERNAL and Javier MARTINEZ GRAMAGE both finished in the Top 10 of the 2018 European Championships in Ibiza. So did Javier Rodriguez Alonso last year in Bilbao.
Third placed in the first Canadian National Aquabike Championships last year was Mathieu BEAULIEU. As racing season is still a bit away in Canada, we will see if he´s already in a good shape. At the other end of his racing season is Michael CROWE from New Zealand. His season didn´t start quite well. A 53rd place in the standard distance World Championships in Abu Dhabi is certainly not what he is capable of. After missing the win by only a few seconds in biggest aquabike race in the southern hemisphere, the Tauranga Half, he took a clear win in the aquabike race of Challenge Wanaka in February. We´ll see if he could keep his good form throughout the New Zealand autumn.
The Women´s Race
In the women´s aquabike race the two big favourites come from the United States. Defending champion Amber SMOLIK is the most successful female aquabike athlete, winning no less than eight gold medals in national and international championships. Strong swimmer that she is Amber will probably be one of the first female aquabike athletes coming out of the water. On the quite demanding bike course however she will have a hard time holding off her fellow countrywoman Felicity JOYCE. In the 2021 World´s in Almere Felicity showed a stunning performance on the bike, finishing almost three minutes ahead of Amber after coming out of the water nine minutes behind her. We will see another great pursuit race between the two in Ibiza.
Another candidate to be first out of the water is Dominika JOSEFOVA, who managed to do so at the Standard Distance World Championships in Abu Dhabi last November where she finished second. The Czech girl is not one of the strongest on the bike though and will have a hard time keeping the top position over the hills of Ibiza.
The same goes for Brazilian Aquabike Champion Marina MACHADO BERTI who will do her first international aquabike race in Ibiza. At the Brazil Nationals last September, she came out of the water together with the fastest man. Her performance on the bike wasn´t bad as well, so she won´t be easy to catch for the slower swimmers.
Three strong girls from New Zealand will also be competing for the title. Kate BROWN took an impressive win in the Tauranga Half in January, about three minutes ahead of Danielle TREWOON who will also be on the start line in Ibiza. As will be Susan O’BRIEN who won the aquabike race at the Challenge Wanaka a month later.
We should also mention three strong athletes from Germany. Sandra WIRTH finished 4th in the 2021 World´s in Almere, while Elke SCHOENHARDT made it on the podium at last year´s standard distance World´s in Abu Dhabi, after finishing 13th in Samorin, five places behind Gabriele KECK who will also be competing in Ibiza.
With Gayle GALLETTA we have another Top 10 finisher from last year´s World Championships from the United States. Probably strongest of the British Athletes is Delyth WILLIAMS who came in 7th in Abu Dhabi. But you might also keep an eye on Kate ROBINSON who finished 13th in Samorin last year.
So, this was our race preview for the Long Distance Aquabike World Championships 2023 in Ibiza. I hope you enjoyed reading and I hope we will see an exciting race. For those of you who are at the startline in Ibiza, good luck and all the best for the race!
Some maybe helpful links:
Aquabike World Champioships 2023 Ibiza Race Details
Weather forecast (including wind and waves)