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Back at the beginning of April, Ironman announced the Ironman Virtual Club, which includes weekly virtual challenges and virtual races (called Ironman VR). Here are the full details on how to participate in the IM Virtual Club and how to sign up for VR races.
An Ironman 70.3, also known as a Half Ironman, is one of a series of long-distance triathlon races organized by the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC). The '70.3' refers to the total distance in miles (113.0 km) covered in the race, consisting of a 1.2-mile (1.9 km) swim, a 56-mile (90 km) bike ride, and a 13.1-mile (21.1 km) run. The 2021 IRONMAN 70.3 Egypt will offer 30 age-group qualifying slots to the 2022 IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship on December 10-11, 2022 in Taupō, New Zealand. General registration for the event will open on January 14, 2021 at 2 pm CET.
- Athletes MUST claim their slot in-person at the qualifying race during the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship Slot Allocation and Roll-down Ceremony. Please check the event schedule for time and location of the ceremony.
- Those athletes who win a slot must participate at the XC Series’ World Championship package and compete for the title of IRONMAN XC Series’ Athlete of the Year.Note: Athletes with existing Age Group qualifying slots to the IRONMAN World Championship or IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship are ineligible for XC slots to those events.
- The Ironman 70.3 Shanghai 2019 offered 30 Kona slots to a field of 974 athletes. 927 athletes in 21 different age groups reached the finish line. 21 of the 780 competing men qualified for the Ironman World Championship on the Big Island of Hawaii, just as 9 of the 190 women. Here you can find more statistics of the Ironman 70.3 Shanghai 2019.
Almost every weekend since then has featured a different free VR race for athletes to compete in—mostly Olympic- or half-distance duathlons. As number of participants has grown, though—over 110,000 people have now registered for the Ironman Virtual Club—there have been growing concern about potential cheating. Ironman CEO Andrew Messick previously acknowledged, “You could get some results that were a little bit wacky,” like 60-year-olds putting times down that were faster than pro athletes. In May, Ironman added a “Challenger” division to its VR races to address some of those issues and announced that 70.3 Worlds spots would be up for grabs in a Championship series of virtual races.
These divisions and the championship series come with additional rules. We’re going to break down how it works here and what you need to know. You can also see the full Ironman VR schedule for July and August (as well as other virtual race options).
What’s the Ironman VR Challenger Division?
There are now two divisions to the Ironman VR races: Classic and Challenger. There is also a Championship division with a series of races (more on that below).
The Classic division is essentially anything goes. You have to do the three legs of the race—so far, they’ve been run-bike-run-in a given time period over the weekend, but you can do them in any order and on any piece of equipment you want—outside or inside. While there are some rules about how much extra distance over the given race distance you can upload, the Classic division is largely designed for athletes who just want to participate and don’t necessarily have a smart trainer or fancy equipment.
The Challenger division has some regulations on it, in an attempt to ensure fairness and cut down on user error. Most notably, the bike portion must be done either outside or on the virtual platform Rouvy in race mode. The run must be done outside. You can still do the activities in any order you want and they have to be within the timeframe. You also must make your activities public and connect your Rouvy account to the Ironman Virtual Club platform in advance—for data upload and for verification.
Both divisions require that you register in advance and upload your activities by the given deadline.
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The Ironman VR Championship Series
If you want to be eligible for the a 70.3 Worlds slot in your age group, then you have to compete in the Championship division—a series of four VR races over four weeks. Your results will be based on your best three of four races; and, as of now, you have to complete the half-distance race as one of your three events. In order to be eligible for the championship series, you must have done a previous VR or real-world race with Ironman, so that they have a record of you and can spot-check abnormal results.
The second championship series of races is currently underway, with the third race of the series—VR16, a half-distance—happening this weekend. The next four-week championship series begins with VR18 on Aug. 7-9 (an Olympic-distance event) and then continues over the following weekends through Aug. 28-30.
The slots will be awarded to the 2021 70.3 World Championships in St. George via an online roll down process that hasn’t yet been finalized. Each Olympic-distance event earns the age-group winner 50 points and the half-distance race earns the winner 100 points. The maximum number of points someone could earn then, over three races (two Olympics and a half) is 200 points. Slots will be allocated to each age group via the usual process and will then be awarded in each age group based on a total number of points earned over the three races.
How Do I Compete in the Ironman VR Championship Series?
If you want to get one of those 70.3 Worlds spots for St. George, then you need to make sure you follow all the rules. You can read the full Ironman VR Championship rules, but here are some key points:
- You must first register with the Ironman Virtual Club and set up your Rouvy account. You will want to connect your platforms before you begin your event, so that when you ride in Rouvy it counts in the Ironman VR race!
- You must do the run outside and you must do the ride on Rouvy, on the designated course for that weekend, and in race mode (not training mode, which it defaults to). You also must make your profile public, so that it can be verified.
- The run can NOT have a net downhill, so to be safe make sure your GPS records correctly and give yourself a slight uphill buffer. (And, yes, you need a GPS watch.) The run is counted as elapsed time with any stoppages. You also need to wear a heart rate monitor.
- You must do it on one of these trainers (per Ironman rules): TechnoGym: MyCycling, Tacx: all NEO and Flux models, Wahoo: Kickr, Kickr Core, Kickr Bike, Saris: all Hammer models (H1, H2, H3), ELITE: Direto X, Drivo II, Suito, Zumo. (One note: This list of approved trainers has been updated since the first series of races, and some people had trouble with their trainer getting them DQ’d in the original races. Check the list before you begin the next championship series.)
- You do have to take a photo of you weighing yourself before getting on the trainer and use that weight in the Rouvy system—it may come up in verification of your results.
- The run-bike-run legs have to be completed in the order listed and you have to complete them within 12 hours.
A Few Tips
Because there are a lot of little rules to follow and details to keep track, it’s almost like doing your first triathlon again—when a transition checklist helps! To that end, here are some tips we’ve learned. First and foremost: Spend some time beforehand getting your trainer and Rouvy system set up, so you’re ready to go. Ironman has a video on how to get set up with Rouvy.
- Get warmed up before you start. Because the clock doesn’t start until you press start, you’ll want to do a warm-up run before you press go. Same with the trainer: ride some before the race officially starts.
- However, keep in mind that if you have your watch set to auto-sync and upload your files, your warm-up activity could sync and end up counting in your results. Don’t accidentally start before you mean to.
- To that end, you also don’t want to run extra—it’ll count in your total time—and you don’t want to run less—it’ll disqualify you. So plot your course well.
- You must do the events in order and within 12 hours, but use your time wisely to figure out the best rest and recovery (cool down and warm-up) strategy in between run-bike-run legs.
Good luck!
Ironman will “tighten the rules” for the Challenger division of it’s Ironman VR race series and will offer a four-week championship series with qualifying races for the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Taupo.
After races were cancelled around the world due to the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, Ironman started a virtual racing series, which has provided some welcome motivation and a race-like experience for thousands of triathletes around the world.
The goal, according to Ironman’s CEO Andrew Messick, was to “be as inclusive as we possibly can be – to give people with all abilities the opportunity to race with purpose. For a lot of people its helped them from a structured training perspective.”
“The platform we built (Ironman Virtual Club) does a great job of that,” Messick said during a conference call yesterday. “Where it wasn’t as good was being able to create a consistent playing field.”
Related: No more fake times – Ironman looks to regulate virtual racing
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Questionable performances abounded in the Ironman VR races, including 60 km/ hour bike splits and sub-4 hour virtual half-distance races. Even last weekend with the advent of the new Challenger division, the eventual winner, Jessey The Elf, was moved from second to first in the overall standings after the winner’s results were moved out of that division due to discrepancies.
Last weekend’s Challenger division required athletes to ride either outdoors or on the Rouvy virtual platform and prohibited treadmills for the run.
“It was a big step forward,” Messick said. “The results from last weekend feel dramatically better – there were lots of familiar faces where we expect them to be.”
“Now we’ll take the next step,” Messick continued.
The new Championship series will consist of four races – three 5150 and one 70.3 simulated events. While there will be “classic division” for participants just interested in taking part, the Challenger division will have stricter rules. For those competing in the Challenger division, the top three scores will count towards an athletes final result, with the 70.3 event weighted more heavily in the standings. Athletes will be required to complete the bike on the Rouvy platform, while runs will have to be done outdoors.
“The riding leg will be as fair as we have the ability to make it,” Messick said.
The winners of the Championship series will earn slots for the Ironman 70.3 World Championship in Taupo. (That race was supposed to take place in November but has been postponed – it’s expected to take place early in 2021.)
Ironman will release a series of competition rules for the series over the next few days.
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To be eligible for the Championship series athletes will need to have competed in an Ironman event in the past.
“If you’ve never done a race with us, you can sign up for VR9 or VR10,” Messick said. “We need to have something to gauge the calibre of each athlete.”
The results of each race will be analyzed and “outlier” performances will be flagged, Messick said.
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“It (the races) has to, at its heart, be something our community is OK with,” he said. “It can only work if the community generally believes that the competition is fair.”
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“We would rather try to create something that is broadly speaking fair and we can manage the imperfections to the point where people believe there is some integrity in it,” he said. “If there isn’t, my instinct will be to shut it down.”
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The Championship series is expected to include the VR10 through 13 events. Ironman says more details will be released soon.