1 Review

1. This review was submitted for Frankfurt City Triathlon 2024

   Year of participation: 2024   I participated in Aquabike

   Here some quick impressions about the Aquabike race within the Frankfurt City Triathlon which I participated in for the first time in 2024. Upfront, the fact that T1 and T2 are about 15km removed from each other results in a hard question. Where do I leave my car: in T2 (Frankfurt city) with the benefit of being able to leave quickly after bike pick up…or in T1 (Langener See) with the benefit of being able to sleep 1 hour longer in the morning (start time around 7AM)? Since I value sleep more than anything, I decided to for option 2…and slept in a hotel close by the swim course (Walldorf) which had the additional benefit that I drove my bike to the check in only an hour before the official start of the race on Sunday. So I had the warm up under my belt already.

   The Swim. The lake is beautiful, soft and clean water (at least that was my impression). The important question like always: neo or not. In 2024, the situation was a bit peculiar. On the day before the event, which I had used for a brief swim, the water temperature was 24,6°C…0,1°C too high. Many people, like myself included, had hoped that the constant rain forecast for the night would cool down the temperature to make it neo-approved…but it turned out that sometimes cold rain miraculously heats up the water temperature (24,8°C on race day) which rendered the neo option an unachievable fata morgana. The race itself was nice: after the pros, there was a wave of top 100 athletes (gold hats) that started together (not sure how to get into that group)…after that less good swimmers, which were left to race in packs of 6 people every 10 seconds or so. Not once was I in contact with anybody in the water despite me swimming the closest line (I hate the usual washing machine of smaller events). As well, the course is nice since they let you go about 800-900 meters straight to the other end of the lake which tremendously thin out the field – before taking the first right hand turn…nice, soft water, although sometimes during the middle of the course very shallow water at points.

   T1: finding the bag was easy (much less complicated than any of the Challenge events), the run to the bikes is pretty long but OK

   Bike course: pretty flat yes but with at times pretty bad asphalt quality. Also there are quite a few hairpin corners to take which are quite disruptive and heavy cobblestone which need careful attention (a rider in front of me lost his water bottle). From the lake to the city is about 15km and then you go a couple of times around the city. The longer the day went, the more head winds in the west direction, as I guess could be expected. I did not prepare myself well for the event, so I did not know where the T2 was…I only looked at my GPS and knew that it should be coming up soon…and thankfully I found the right exit.

   The exit zone is loud and obnoxious. Nobody knows anything…for example – where is the entrance for the bike exit. In the hours between the finish and the bike pick up, there is really not much to do other than go for some food (you need cash!) and pick up your after bag to take a shower and get dressed. Nicely organized access to local fitness clubs for showering, that was great. This is actually the nice thing about being an Aquabiker: if you do not completely mess up, you arrive at a time that allows you to attend the Sunday church ceremony and remove yourself a bit from the chaos of the inner city (which is exactly what I did).

   All in all, a nice event, I recommend (although I did not achieve my goal to stay below 2hours on the bike course) this event for Aquabikers although I must admit that what is really the coolest thing about this event is the half-marathon through the Frankfurt inner city (which unfortunately my knees and general lack of running talent is currently not an option for me). I do recommend that you check the bike course upfront (a bit tricky) and I also recommend that you park in the city center in one of the park houses (although more expensive): this saves you from having to take your bike in a packed bus (with no air condition) back to the lake (at the cost of having to get up one hour earlier). But as the saying goes, it is the early bird that catches the early car home…:-)

   Overall rating

   Organisation

   The Swim

   Transition

   Bike Course

   Finishline Experience

   Log in to Reply