No less than 567 athletes from 30 countries all around the world have signed up for the third edition of the standard distance aquabike world championships. By the number of athletes this will be by far the biggest aquabike race in the still young history of this multisport discipline. And potentially the most chaotic one.
The Swim
The race starts with a 1.5 km one lap swim from Playa de los Álamos. Aquabike athletes will start in seven start waves with one wave starting every five minutes between 11:00 and 11:30 am. It’s an open sea swim in the Mediterranean. With all sources currently showing water temperatures slightly below 20°C (68°F) it will definitely be a wetsuit legal swim.
The Transition
It’s only a short run over the beach to the transition zone. According to the race map there is an aid station on the way – I’m assuming mainly a freshwater station to wash off some of the salt water before you hit the bike. Before you enter the transition zone there will be a small bridge to cross the run course. As the first triathletes start their race at 9:00 am, there will already be some traffic on the run course when aquabikers come out of th water.
The Bike
Speaking of traffic, well… Let’s start with some numbers. It’s not only a record number of aquabike athletes competing in Torremolinos. 1626 athletes have signed up for the triathlon. While the first wave of triathletes starts at 9 am, the last one will leave the shore at 10:55 – so there is no break between triathlon and aquabike start waves. Obviously not all athletes will be on the bike course at the same time. But having some of the biggest tri age groups starting just before the aquabikers and having the older (and potentially slower) aquabike age groups starting first, the faster aquabikers from the later starting waves will have quite some traffic. OK, let’s be honest. Everybody will. Going by some rough calculations I did there will be up to 1300 athletes on the bike course at the same time. On a 13 km lap. If you think bike courses at Ironman races are crowded, welcome to Torremolinos.
The majority of the bike course takes place on a big road with two (or sometimes three) lanes in each direction. And at least on this map provided by the organizer it looks like both sides of the road will be used, so there should be two full lanes in each direction. Nevertheless, with those numbers of participants, even on a wide road, some drafting and blocking seems unavoidable. But the worst is yet to come.
The Finish
While most of the bike course is on a wide road with hopefully enough space for the large number of competing athletes, the last 400 metres are on a rather narrow street leading to T2. And the finish line is – once again – at the dismount line.
Over the last few years, we had neat solutions for the aquabike finish in international championships in Austria, the Netherlands, Abu Dhabi, Belgium and Australia. But for organisers on the Iberian Peninsula, this seems to be a mission impossible.
I feel like a record that has skipped and is constantly repeating itself. Am I the only one who thinks that having aquabikers sprinting for world championship medals next to triathletes who are slowing down to get ready for the run on a narrow piece of road is a bad idea? And once again I also should point out that according to the World Triathlon competition rules there is no penalty possible for aquabikers for getting off the bike a little bit too late. You can only be disqualified for “Not attempting to dismount at the dismount line and cycling in Transition”. But for getting off the bike the proposed penalty is “Warning and amend” – which is obviously without any effect since your race is already finished at that point.
Now in the previous races the incidents I heard about where rather limited. But in Torremolinos the number of participants will be much bigger. And in a standard distance race with that many participants starting in waves, sprint finishes for the medal ranks are more than just likely. They will happen. And I certainly would not like to be the triathlete who gets in between.
But at least there are some good news for the “after finish”. Other than in this year’s European Championships in Portugal, aquabikers can hang their bikes in T2 and then walk or run (yeah, sure) to the finish line to get their finisher medals and finish pics.
The Weather
Six days before the race the weather forecast looks like we will have perfect racing conditions. While we have some rain predicted throughout the week, it looks quite sunny with some clouds over the weekend. Temperatures should be in the range between 19 and 22 °C (between 66 and 72°F) throughout the race. There could be some wind from the northwest. As the route runs mostly on a straight road from north-east to south-west, this would mean there’s some crosswind for most of the race.
The Favourites
The Men’s Race
The clear favourite in the men’s aquabike race will have his first appearance in an international aquabike race. Former Olympic swimmer Filip Zaborowski has a 1500 metre PB of 15:27 in the olympic pool and a whopping 14:36 in the 25 metre pool. Those times might be from 2013, but the 30-year-old Pole still clocked an impressive 08:08.42 in an 800 metre competition less than a year ago. In both aquabike races he did this year he was clearly faster than the calculated benchmark time. In other words: this guy swims faster than the fastest swimmers amongst the elite triathletes. In those races Filip also proved that he is everything but slow on the bike. It certainly won’t be easy to catch him.
A swimmer who might be able to hold Filip’s feet at least for a while is young US athlete Julian Barre. His 1500 metre PS is just under 18 minutes – impressive but still significantly slower than Filip. It will be up to his drafting skills if he really can hold on to the Pole’s feet. Julian is probably not amongst the fastest cyclists, but should have quite a gap after the swim – so he should have a chance to fight for the overall top ranks as well.
Though he will have some strong competition in his age group. While we had barely any competitors in the lower age groups in recent years, there will be another young gun to swim and bike with the best aquabike athletes in Torremolinos. Tyler Mumby will travel all the way from New Zealand to compete in the aquabike world championships. In his only aquabike race he yet competed, he took a clear win in the national championships last February. Quite contrary to his US rival, Tyler comes from a cycling background. While his bike performance at the Kiwi championships was certainly outstanding, it’s a bit hard to assume his strength in the first discipline. He didn’t lose much time, but due to the conditions the swim was shortened to only about 300 metres. We will see how competitive Tyler will be in a 1500 meter swim.
However, the man who had to settle for second place by almost three minutes at the New Zealand championships is actually everything but slow himself. Terence Jack was fifth at last year’s world’s in Pontevedra and will also travel all the way to Spain again for this year’s race.
An athlete who will also definitely challenge the young athletes is newly crowned European champion Tommy Nielsen. After his third place at last year’s event in Pontevedra, he certainly comes to Torremolinos to defend his spot on the podium.
And that’s where Thomas Winkelmann would like to get to as well. In both previous editions of the standard distance aquabike world championships he came in fourth and is certainly eager to finally make it up to the podium.
Of course we must not forget his fellow countrymen Frank Erk. With his 7th place in last year’s race he took the lead in the Aquabike.World ranking. With consistently strong performances throughout the 2024 racing season he clearly defended this position ever since then.
Irishmen Ross Hamilton will also be competing in Torremolinos. The 8th place at the European championships in June is certainly not what he is capable of. We will see if he can do better in Andalucia.
Other athletes we also should mention are Frenchman Bernard Thierry who was 5th in Abu Dhabi in 2022, US athlete Brendan Mueller, 12th in last year’s race and Karol Jopkiewicz, another strong athlete from Poland.
From the Spanish aquabike athletes who performed well on home soil in the most recent international races there a few names missing on the start list. Though last year’s top 10 finisher Victor Sánchez García should be able to leave his footprint again in this year’s race. And you certainly should watch out for 2023 national champion Ángel Ramón Ruíz López who will give his first appearance on the international stage.
As always there will be a big number of UK athletes competing in the aquabike races. Man to watch from Team GB will be Simon Woodcock. Simon has not competed in an international aquabike race yet. But four wins in four local races this season show that he is coming to Torremolinos not only for the nice view.
There are two more athletes who will not be racing for the overall top places but still should be mentioned. One of them is Eduardo Oliva Calderón. The 45 year old Spaniard will be the first ever para athlete competing in aquabike world championships.
The other one is 1937 born US athlete John Charman. If he finishes the race, he will not only be the oldest ever finisher of an aquabike world championship, but possibly also the oldest athlete to finish an aquabike race at all. We only have one other athlete finishing an aquabike race in the year he turned 87 in our records. But since we do not have the exact birth dates I cannot say who actually was the oldest on race day.
The Women’s Race
Team GB is even more strongly represented in the women’s race. While the top 10 in our competition analysis for the men’s race come from seven different countries, the prediction for the women’s race shows quite some British dominance with 6 out of the top 10 representing Team GB.
For the overall win chances are good that we will see a duel at eye level. In last year’s race Amy Pritchard and Andrea Damiani were separated by one second in the swim and 24 seconds on the bike. The main difference between them was made in the transition though, where Amy distanced her Canadian competitor by more than half a minute, to take 2nd place overall, while Andrea had to settle for 4th place. However, in her only aquabike race this year she was by far the fastest through transition. We will see if she can keep up with Amy through T1 at the world’s this time. And since the two Kiwi girls who completed last year’s podium won’t be travelling to Spain this year round, it seems likely that Amy and Andrea will fight for the overall win this time.
There is a second British athlete who might be up there to fight for the overall win. In her only aquabike race in 2024 Victoria Rothwell showed a great performance at the European Championships in Coimbra and quite an improvement to last year’s European’s to take the overall win.
Before we get to the other GB athletes let’s take a look at the international field of female aquabike athletes. First one to mention here is Julie Balcarova. In her still only aquabike race, the now 21 year old girl from the Czech Republic was third overall at the European Championships in Bilbao in 2022.
Another strong athlete from Canada is Debra Parker. In September she took the win in the middle distance race at Challenge Almere in the Netherlands for the second year in a row with a strong performance especially on the bike.
Two US athletes to have an eye on are Melissa Langworthy who finished just outside the top 10 last year and Melissa Puppa-Lasher who will have her first appearance in an international championship race but showed some strong performances in local races lately.
Strongest athlete from New Zealand competing in Torremolinos is Jessie Coxon. The young Kiwi athlete finished 3rd in the traditionally strong field of the New Zealand national championships.
Gabriele Keck and Kai Sachtleber from Germany are both regulars in the top 10 in international aquabike races and will once again be competing in Torremolinos.
Probably the strongest swimmer in the race is Brooke Davis-Goodall. The 19-year-old Girl from Downunder started competing in aquabike races after struggling with injuries from the running training and focused on swim training after that. With the performances she showed earlier this year, it seems likely that she will be the first woman out of the water. Her bike performances would suggest that she won’t be able to stay up in the top places on the bike. Though in an interview she stated that “My bike is my strongest leg”. So those “weaker” performances in March and April might still have been due to her past injuries. If she could train well on the bike throughout the Australian winter, Brooke might be up for a surprise in Torremolinos.
But now it’s time to get back to the strongest squad in the women’s aquabike race. Eleanore Nash and Rosalind Davies-Jones finished 5th and 6th in last year’s race in Pontevedra, separated by five seconds and only about half a minute behind the podium. They will definitely be back to fight for the top ranks.
Hannah Potter and Georgia Hamblett showed remarkable performances in local races this season which suggest that they can also be amongst the front runners in an international race. Though for both of them it will be the first time competing in a world championship race.
And one more we must not overlook is Anel Meyer. Her only aquabike race so far is more than two years ago. However, at the Bournemouth international triathlon she finished, sandwiched between Amy Pritchard and Eleanore Nash, two of the race favourites for this world championship race.
Good luck to all aquabike athletes competing in Torremolinos! I hope you all have a great time in Andalucia. Take care and have a safe race, especially a safe finish.
Some helpful links:
2024 Aquabike Long Distance World Championships Torremolinos Race Details