Ironman France 2019: Age Group Results and Kona Qualification
After a big weekend of Ironman racing in Europe I’m starting my reviews with Ironman France. Ironman France is a large race which receives the standard 40 Kona slot allocation for age group athletes. This year’s race saw adjustments to the bike and run due to conditions with both shortened (152km and 30km respectively). Changes of that magnitude obviously have a significant impact on results when we look to compare with previous years.
Given the level of adjustment that took place we can only really compare how much quicker this year’s race was. The swim remained the full distance and doesn’t differ hugely from the course norms. Both bike and run are significantly quicker leading to an overall distribution about 1:20 faster at the median. That the difference isn’t bigger given the changes goes some way to reflect the conditions on the day.
Despite the shorter bike the DNF rate this year is one of the highest at that stage. Run DNFs are average however and the overall DNF rate isn’t significant. We’d expect a shortened course to reduce DNF rates normally so it’s interesting to note the increase on the bike.
Age group medians obviously reflect the impact of the shortened course with bike and ru trending faster for each age group.
As with most European races France draws a wide range of nationalities and shares Kona slots among them.
Ironman France is no stranger to hot conditions and as long standing Ironman races go it’s been quite variable over the years for performances. Again we can’t really compare this year due to the major adjustments to the course.
Based on the athlete list I’ve calculated the slot allocation and automatic qualification times for Ironman France. Exact numbers may vary and roll down will influence final qualifying times too. You can compare with other races on my Kona qualification page, but expect this year’s times to be much faster than usual.
Finally when we review the top 20 of each age group we again see how much difference the shortening made to times. This year’s race will be excluded from future analysis of Ironman France as the results are so heavily skewed by the course alterations.
You can access a spreadsheet of the full results from Ironman France 2019 on my Google Drive.
