Ironman Vichy 2018: Age Group Results and Kona Qualification

Latest statistics for Ironman Vichy

This week’s Ironman race analysis if for Ironman Vichy. Now in its fourth year as an Ironman, Vichy is a midsize race with around 1300 competitors for the first Kona slots of 2019. This year’s race results look to be typical for the course.

Distribution of Finisher Splits at Ironman Vichy 2018 Compared with 2015-2017

The split distributions trend slightly faster on swim and run to a significant enough extent that the overall distribution is also faster. It’s not a huge shift and the amalgamated results may be influenced by a slower race back in 2015. We’ll see in the position trends later how the last 3 years mostly line up.

DNS and DNF Rates at Ironman Vichy
Year
Listed Athletes
Swim Finish
Swim DNS/DNF
Bike Finish
Bike DNF
Run Finish
Run DNF
Overall DNS/DNF
2015
1626
1443
11.3%
1395
3.3%
1182
15.3%
27.3%
2016
1837
1667
9.3%
1616
3.1%
1551
4%
15.6%
2017
1375
1266
7.9%
1246
1.6%
1222
1.9%
11.1%
2018
1361
1339
1.6%
1322
1.3%
1275
3.6%
6.3%

As you can see above, 2015 had an exceptionally high DNF rate on the run, clearly conditions weren’t favourable that year. 2018 is at the levels we expect to see at most Ironman races, all within normal bounds for DNF rates.

Median Splits by Age Group at Ironman Vichy 2018
Median Splits by Age Group at Ironman Vichy 2015-2017

As with the distributions swim and run times do trend a little faster over most age groups. Bike medians tend to fall inline with previous years of racing at Vichy.

Top 10 Nationalities at Ironman Vichy
Country
Count
Percentage
France
739
48.4
United Kingdom
228
14.9
Belgium
123
8.1
Germany
96
6.3
Spain
73
4.8
Italy
46
3
Switzerland
41
2.7
United States
28
1.8
Netherlands
17
1.1
Russia
17
1.1
Ironman Vichy 2018 Predicted Kona Qualifiers by Country
Country
Percentage of Slots
Percentage of Field
France
25.0
48.4
Belgium
25.0
8.1
Germany
20.0
6.3
United Kingdom
10.0
14.9
Switzerland
5.0
2.7
Spain
5.0
4.8
United States
5.0
1.8
Italy
2.5
3.0
South Africa
2.5
0.5

A wide spread of Europeans race in Vichy with the slots spread quite wide over them. About half the athletes are French, but a quarter of slots stay in France.

Changes in Male Finishing Times by Position at Ironman Vichy
Changes in Female Finishing Times by Position at Ironman Vichy

Tracking the changes in times by position and age group shows how 2015 was a clearly slower year. Since then times have settled a little and there’s less year-on-year variation. that said, this year’s race looks to come in faster than last years.

Ironman Vichy 2018 Predicted Kona Qualification Times
Age Group
Slots
Winner
Average Kona Qualifier
Final Qualifier
M18-24
2
09:46:46
09:54:49
10:02:53
M25-29
3
08:57:17
08:59:55
09:02:07
M30-34
4
08:37:37
08:49:44
08:58:34
M35-39
4
09:05:25
09:09:37
09:13:17
M40-44
4
08:52:51
09:16:23
09:28:55
M45-49
4
09:09:26
09:13:19
09:18:36
M50-54
3
09:07:35
09:24:08
09:35:53
M55-59
2
10:13:40
10:14:43
10:15:47
M60-64
1
10:47:46
10:47:46
10:47:46
M65-69
1
13:11:37
13:11:37
13:11:37
M70-74
1
15:37:54
15:37:54
15:37:54
F18-24
1
11:23:47
11:23:47
11:23:47
F25-29
1
10:03:24
10:03:24
10:03:24
F30-34
1
09:54:23
09:54:23
09:54:23
F35-39
1
10:17:44
10:17:44
10:17:44
F40-44
2
09:49:44
09:56:52
10:04:00
F45-49
1
09:37:37
09:37:37
09:37:37
F50-54
1
10:58:32
10:58:32
10:58:32
F55-59
1
12:25:17
12:25:17
12:25:17
F60-64
1
12:16:00
12:16:00
12:16:00
F65-69
1
13:40:20
13:40:20
13:40:20

Based on the athlete list for this race I’ve estimated the Kona slot allocation and from that the automatic qualifying times. Final numbers and roll down will affect these times. You can compare with other races on my Kona qualification page.

Top Twenty Male Performances and Kona Qualification by Age Group at Ironman Vichy 2018
Top Twenty Female Performances and Kona Qualification by Age Group at Ironman Vichy 2018

Age group top twenty times show a lot of variability. There’s a stronger trend towards faster times among the female age groups, but this isn’t as clear cut for the men. certain age groups were faster, some were slower and some float around the averages. If Vichy was faster this year, it wasn’t by much overall.

You can access a spreadsheet of the full results from Ironman Vichy 2018 on my Google Drive.

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