Last week the organizers of this year’s European Multisport Championship in Coimbra announced the course details as well as the race schedule and other details of the event. It’s a nine-day event packed not only with seven European Championships in several Multisport disciplines – of course in including aquabike on Saturday, June 22nd – but also with quite some more side events, including two more aquabike races. So if you’re going to Portugal you should definitely consider to participate in more than “only” the European Championships. However, also the European Championships race itself is worth the travel. Because there will be a premiere for aquabike athletes which they will certainly enjoy.
The Neon Night Swim
The night before the triathlon and aquabike European Championships there’s the Neon Night Swim. According to event organizer Ricardo Lacerda “[…] a must do! You will regret if you miss it!” And don’t worry – since the start of the aquabike race is not that early you will still get enough time to sleep and – in case you take the swim serious – also to recover. For those who would like to do it just for fun there’s a 300 m non-competitive swim starting at 9:30 pm. If you’d like to go for a more serious warm up for next day’s European Championships, you can opt for a 1.500 or 3.000 m swim.
Swimmers get fluorescent tubes and bracelets and also the buoys have lights, so nobody will get lost in the dark.
The Aqubike Racecourse
The swim will take place in Modego River, which has no notable current at that point whatsoever. There will be a rolling start with five athletes starting every five seconds. For the bike course there have been significant changes to the course of the Coimbra Multisport weekend in previous years. The character of the bike course has not changed – it’s still flat and fast with not too many technical sections as well. What did change though is the length and therefore the number of laps. It’s now a 22 km four lap course.
My first thought when I saw this: OK, with 750 athletes (that’s the number of last years competitors in the triathlon and aquabike European Championships combined) on a four lap bike course, that’s gonna be a draft party. But the good news came in when I took a closer look at the race schedule:
09:30 Sart Age Group Middle Distance Triathlon
12:30 Start Age Group Aquabike
By the time the first aquabike athlete starts his first bike lap, most of the triathletes will already have left the bike course. So this is the first time that aquabike athletes basically have their very own race where they have all the race course for themselves in an international championship race. That is certainly great news!
The finishline of the aquabike race will be the dismount line. This would be not ideal in championship races where aquabikers go all out to the finishline together with triathletes who are preparing for the run and usually not in hurry at that point of the race. However, since we basically have an aquabike only race here, taking the final time at the dismount line should not be an issue at all. Also because it’s a rolling start, so there really isn’t a need for a sprint finish towards the dismount line.
More Aquabike Races
If the European Aquabike Championships on Saturday is not enough for you, you can add some more racing kilometres the next day. On Sunday there is a “Standard+” distance triathlon with an aquabike option starting at 8 am. It’s a 1500m swim and a 45 km bike leg. For the really brave ones there is also a full Ironman distance race with an aquabike option starting at 7 am.
If you are one of those weird guys who also like running, you can also participate in the marathon on Sunday. If you like running not quite that much you can also go for the half marathon or the 10.5 km run.
Registration still open
While you can register for the side events directly through the event website, for the European Championships you have to register at your national triathlon federation. There is currently no qualification required in any country for the European Championships, so everybody who has a licence from his national federation can register. If you are new to this process, take a look at How to qualify and register for Aquabike World and European Championships, where we explain the requirements and also provide more information and links to the registration for most European countries.
The registration deadline for European Championships is usually 5-6 weeks prior to the event. However, some national federations set their deadline a bit earlier. If you want to register, better check the deadline form your national federation as it is might come up soon.
Travel & Accommodation
Coimbra is located right between Lisboa and Porto, with a 1:20h drive from Porto Airport and a 1:45h drive from Lisboa Airport. As you can see here accommodation close to the race venue is still available in all price categories.
If you are travelling to Coimbra and think about exploring the city and also doing some not multisport related stuff, you can get some nice impressions from Portugal’s third biggest city in this video:
Unfortunately I won’t be able to go to Coimbra myself, but I hope to see a big number of aquabike athletes on the startlist to appreciate the first ever “aquabike only” race in international championships.