After years of growth the Long Distance Aquabike World Championships will see a significant drop in the number of participants in 2025 – despite the number of aquabike athletes still being growing year by year all around the world. In this race preview we will not only – as always – take a closer look at the race course and the race favourites but also analyse why so much less aquabike athletes will be competing in Pontevedra next weekend.
The Swim
For the second time the city in northwest Spain is hosting the Long Distance Aquabike World Championships as part of the World Triathlon Multisport World Championships. In 2019 the swim leg had to be shortened to 1.5 km, due to the cold water temperature of only 14 °C. Back then the event took place in early May though. And while the water in Río Lérez will certainly be a bit warmer by the end of June, you are still well advised to better bring your wetsuit. With somewhere between 18 and 20°C water temperatures will still not be on the warm side. It’s a tidal river swim with the high tide being at 07:44 on race day. By the time the aquabike race starts (first wave at 9:30) there should be a significant outgoing current – even more so towards the end of the swim. It starts with a stretch of about 1 km against the current, followed by a 1.5 km downstream swim, before you turn to swim upstream again for the last part. So you better keep something in the tank before the last stretch of the swim.
Edit: According to the race briefing the swim is actually the other way around. So you start with a short downstream swim, then swim 1.5 km upstream and then turning again for a longer downstream swim.
Aquabike athletes will start in three waves with the first one starting at 9:30 and the two others five and ten minutes later. The last wave of age group triathletes will start 40 minutes earlier. Certainly better than in some previous championships races in Spain where we often had barely any or really no time gap between triathletes and aquabikers. So at least the swim should not be congested really.
The Transition
As always in Pontevedra the transition zone will be in the football stadium of the Centro Galego de Tecnificación Deportiva. From the swim exit there will be a run of about 200 metres on tarmac to get there with roughly another 200 metres to get all the way through the transition to the mount line to start your bike leg.
The Bike
While the first 27 km of the 40 km bike lap will seem rather familiar for those who already participated back in 2019, the second part is new for 2025. The shortening of the northern part of the loop leads to the second of the two turnarounds to be approached at high speed on a descent. On the map this really looks anything but ideal – we will see how this turnaround point then looks in the real world. But obviously the more demanding parts are usually those which go uphill. In this case you basically have to tackle three climbs within 10 km, with a length of 2.1 km for the first the 1.2 km the two following, with max. gradients close to 10%.
In previous announcements the second part of the bike lap included not only an additional climb, but a quite steep one as well, which probably should have some athletes rethinking their gear setup on their TT bikes. This climb was later removed though, making the second part of the bike lap predominantly flat. Basically, a long straight road alongside the coastline.
Despite the northern part of the bike course being shortened comparted to 2019, the lap is now a bit longer, summing up to an overall distance of more or less exactly 120 km, while it was about 10 km shorter five years ago.
The Finish
If you haven’t heard about it yet, World Triathlon changed the Competition Rules this year regarding the location of the finishline of an aquabike race. It now has to be set up between 100 and 200 metres before the dismount line. For the race in Pontevedra the athlete guide states that “Athletes will finish the competition on the straight line (+/- 200m meters before the dismount line) at the end of the bike course.” Checking the point they marked on the map it’s rather 130m. Which actually would be fine. If it wouldn’t be right where you hit a roundabout at which you have to take a right turn to get to the dismount line. If you have sprint finish with another athlete, you have about 30m to hit the brakes and take a right turn. However, if you don’t make it and go straight to then turn around and go back on the course to get to the dismount line, there is no possible consequence. Unless they put up some barriers at that point. In this case you better make sure to take the right turn correctly.
While this solution is perfectly compliant to the new World Triathlon competition rules, I wonder why they don’t make it 50 metres earlier. Would be fair and safe. But let’s see, maybe the marked point on the map isn’t the real finish on race day.
The Weather
Despite the weather in the area right now being quite cool and rainy, the forecast for race day looks much better. At least for those who like it hot. On Sunday we expect the sun shinging down on us all day, which is certainly nice in the morning before the swim start. Although 24°C in the sun can feel pretty warm in a wetsuit. In the afternoon temperatures hit up to 33°C. So you can leave your arm and leg warmers at the hotel. Winds are expected to be rather light, coming from the west. For the flat straight stretch on the coast – where wind is most relevant – that means that you will have a light headwind going out and a light tailwind coming back to Pontevedra at the end of each lap.
The Favourites
The smaller number of athletes did not lead to a less competitive field of aquabike athletes – neither in the men’s nor in the women’s race. With no clear favourite in both races I’m expecting an exciting and pretty close race for the top positions.
The Men’s Race
We have a pretty dense field of top competitors at the men’s aquabike race in Pontevedra. Last year’s European Champion Tommy Nielsen is definitely one of them. In the Danish national championships, a few weeks ago he had to settle for second. It seems like his form still had some room for improvement there. Though there’s little doubt that he will play a major role I the fight for the top ranks this Sunday.
Leader of the Aquabike.World Ranking Frank Erk showed an impressive performance at this year’s European Championships on a similarly hard bike course in Pamplona in May, where he only was beaten by a young Frenchman who is about half his age.
The reigning European Champion will not compete in Pontevedra, but two other strong Frenchman will. Jean Marie LE BORGNE and Paul VANOTTI came in 6th and 7th Pamplona, separated by only 35 seconds and just about two minutes behind the podium spots. They were closely followed by Cesar PEREIRA DEL PINO, who will also be in the mix for the top spots in Pontevedra.
But there is another Spaniard who has not competed in an international aquabike race yet but might mix up the game quite a bit. In his only aquabike race Igor Franko took a clear win in last year’s Spanish national championships, showing a particularly strong performance on the bike – on a bike course just as challenging as the one at the upcoming world championships.
Another strong cyclist to watch out for is Australian athlete Sam Levick. He showed some remarkable performances throughout the racing season in Downunder. If he could maintain his good form, he should be another athlete with the potential to shine in his first ever international aquabike championship race.
While there is no clear favourite for the outcome of the race, there is little doubt who will be the first aquabiker at the swim exit. Kieran Dolan is clearly the strongest swimmer in the field and should come to T1 with quite a margin to the other race favourites. The young US athlete will have a hard time to keep his position on the demanding bike course though.
The Women’s Race
In the women’s aquabike race we have four athletes who are expected to be on the same level and have a close race for the three podium spots. First one to mention is last year’s runner up Amy Pritchard. With no less than six age group titles she is the most successful aquabike athlete in the young history of the sport. She won’t have an easy time to go for title #7 though.
Because one of her main rivals overall also shares the same age group. Dutch athlete Sione Jongstra is the only athlete yet to ever beat Amy in her age group. This happened at last year’s standard distance world championships in Torremolinos. Though this was also due to some issues Amy had in T1, losing quite some time there.
In her only aquabike race yet Monika JADCZAK took a clear win at last year’s national championhips over the standard distance in Poland. She should be the strongest swimmer amongst the race favourites. We will see if she can keep up with the others on the bike in her first international aquabike race.
The last and certainly not least from the top four is 2023 world champion Katrín Pálsdóttir. With no aquabike races in her home country, the only race she did eversince then was last year’s European Championship in Portugal, where she came in second.
While those four athletes are the clear favourites for the top spots in the race, there are of course a few more athletes worth to mention. First of which is Amanda Woodd from New Zealand, who took a top 10 finish at last year’s world championships in Townsville, Australia.
Germany’s Sandra Wirth finished in the top eight in each of the four international aquabike championship races she competed in over the last five years and will certainly be up there again in Pontevedra. Same goes for her fellow countrywoman Kai Sachtleber who has five top 10 finishes in international aquabike races under her belt.
British athlete to watch is Hayley Davis, who showed a strong performance at the European championships in May where she finished 5th overall.
40% Less Aquabikers – Here’s Why
In 2019 no less than 445 athletes registered for the Long Distance Aquabike World Championships in Pontevedra, making it the biggest aquabike race in history. Until today only last years standard distance world’s in Torremolenos had more competing aquabikers. This year the numbers look quite different though. The start list of the aquabike race only shows 271 registered athletes. With a total of 450 registrations, the numbers of the age group triathlon are anything but impressive as well. What are the reasons for this low number of athletes, seeming to be willing to compete in Galicia this year?
Well, there are a few factors that have an influence here. But the most important one is certainly travel logistics and accommodation. Ryanair cut down the flights to the closest airports (Vigo and Santiago), town accessibility by car is rather limited and to get there by train is also not quite simple. But most of all the accommodation supply in the city of Pontevedra is very limited. This was already the case at the standard distance world championships in 2023, where many athletes had to stay 30 to 40 minutes outside the town. That was in October though. Now this year’s event falls right in the beginning of holiday season, with the pilgrim season (which also plays a big role in this area) is in full swing. On top of that, the supply of short-term-rentals was significantly shortened due to new regulations (national laws as well as city regulations).
Another factor is the traditional Bilbao Triathlon taking place the very same weekend. Considering all the difficulties regarding accessibility and accommodations in Pontevedra, probably many local athletes from northern Spain decided rather to race in the Basque Country than in Galicia.
For some aquabikers the repeated ignorance of aquabike athletes’ needs in past championship events in Spain might has also played a role in the decision of not competing there this time.
Nevertheless, we still have some of the strongest aquabike athletes on the start line and I’m looking forward to watching the race, this time live and on site. So, if you see somebody with this fancy Aquabike.World t-shirt at the race venue, that’s probably me (or my girlfriend – you can probably tell the difference).
Good luck to all athletes who made it to Pontevedra!
Some helpful links:
2025 Aquabike Long Distance World Championships Pontevedra Race Details
What else to do in Pontevedra?