It was a slow day for me in Nice (another one, after the one in June) but still fun to be part of Worlds.
Full report: Ironman world championship 2025 race report - Powerful Problem solving
First off congratulations on even starting, and being able to finish. Nice race report, especially for someone like me who knows nothing of the intricacies of Ironman. I though you might be interested in the views of an unwashed.
I happened to be in Nice at the time, at the end of a long bike tour from Germany. On arrival it became clear why there were few hotel rooms available and so expensive! I knew some event was on during the ride in from the airport direction, and it was a little pain coming in on tour bikes with all the closed roads, but am always happy to see events happening. I watched a fair amount in the evening. I don’t know about other locations, but Nice seems very good for spectators. I could watch cyclists coming in and ultimately runners going in both directions. With the laps and cycling and running courses beside each other there was lots to watch. Way better that a pro cycling race with 5 minutes of excitement.
I have done a little randonneuring so some idea of the mind and body requirements, but I was totally in awe of all the competitors, but particularly the “slower” ones. The struggles are clearly visible, but so is the dogged determination. Some were barely moving at times but still putting one foot ahead of the other. I think it was more inspiring to watch than the top finishing pros. The fans were very enthusiastic as well, encouraging the participants with cheers and high fives, and you must have seen the highly energetic (all day) three sharks! Watching the event was actually one of the highlights of our trip, and so happy we got the opportunity to witness it.
Congratulations to everyone who participated.
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if you don’t mind me asking: how’s that even the case at World Championship? I understand people pushing their limits in a local gravel race. But you have to qualify for the Worlds, so you gotta be a hell of a decent athlete to even get to the start line. Is it just strong athletes having a really bad day, or am I missing something?
I am speculating here, but the water seems a little rough to be, there was definitely a lot of climbing on the bike, and it was a little on the warm side. But also probably just some having a bad day, and some just going at a recovery pace at times.
Not all athletes qualify for world championships on time alone - some qualify on quantity of IM events they participated in, some lottery, some fund raiser/buying in. Some of the athletes may be the fastest 70+ racer’s and they take longer, some athletes may be quicker but seriously hurt because hey its the worlds etc.
So there are many ways into the event - its not always the top athletes you are watching.
That was fun to read. As someone that knows nothing about the drown, bike, crawl world it sounds like an amazing experience. That’s way more climbing than I would have expected to see on an Ironman course, really impressive.
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In addition to the reasons already cited (bad day, lottery entrant, “frequent flyer,” etc.), you also have some people whose A race is the qualifier not the championship, so if your last block is six-month old, that can make a long day. And some of the older age groups will have even the fastest athletes going at a pace that looks slow for us youngsters.
The course is pretty hilly, yes. Ironman Switzerland is also hilly (2,400m) but in Nice most of the climbing is concentrated in the first 1/3 of the course. Try going up 10% grades on a 1x TT setup (at least those are really short sections). 
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