IM Italy 2018

RossyR

Thinking of entering this.
Anyone do it this year?

What's the course like?

Looking for a bit of feedback on logistics also.
Will probably tie in with family holiday..

Did Barcelona (which didn't go so well... stomach issues) nice place though for the family after.
Planning on heading home tomo if the strikes allow!

RacoonQueen

I did (some) of Italy this year. Was going to post up stuff about all the above anyway as a couple of others on here where looking at doing it also. So will report back on that stuff later today.

RacoonQueen

RossyR wrote: »

What's the course like?

Swim course is a dream. The water was shallow so even a panicy swimmer would do well here as a good chunk of the swim course will allow you to stand up and get your feet to the ground.

The bike is mostly flat on decent enough roads. We had a bit of a headwind but nothing like the headwinds we have at home. There are couple of uphill bumps and then the one hill. We measured it in the car as 500m steep climb then you get about 500m where, while still climbing, it settles down a bit, 500m of a biting climb and then another 500m or so of the gentler climb. Then you turn and you've got the same thing downhill again. You just have to watch out for people who can't descend here...

All flat from there.
Bike course is 2 laps and comes in at about 184/185km

I didn't make it to the run course.

Transition is long. We clocked it as 1200m from swim exit to bike mount line. So factor in your longer transition times if you are estimating a time. If you don't already, learn how to get into your bike shoes while they're still on the bike to save you running the guts of a km through transition in bike shoes.

RossyR wrote: »

Looking for a bit of feedback on logistics also.
Will probably tie in with family holiday..

I flew into Bologna and one of the lads gave me a lift down but I had planned to get the aerobus into the train station and get the train to Cervia. One way bus 6 euro for an adult and train 10 euro. There are taxis at the train station then and nowhere you are staying would be more than a 5 or 10 minute taxi journey.

I stayed here directly in Cervia / Pinerella, just about 500m from the race area. Literally the perfect accommodation for the race.
Other people in our gang stayed further out in Milano Marittima. If you stay there you will definitely need a car. I would definitely stay down by the race if doing this again. There is tonnes of accommodation because it is a resort city and I've seen loads of decently priced stuff in Cervia for next year. It really is a gift being able to stay that close to it given you have to go to the race area so many times to register/briefing/racking bike etc

There wasn't much life about the place other than the athletes as it is a holiday resort and their off season. So a bit boring for supporters and kids all there really is for them is the beach.

Plenty of places to eat and get breakfast etc but they don't have much English there. I stayed in an apartment, there was a supermarket a 10ish min walk away that I could stock up on anything I needed in as well.

A lot of places shut up shop on the Monday and were closed until April then. It may be different next year or in the following years though. There were still a load of athletes about as the Irish and English couldn't fly back out until Tuesday.

One of our group flew into Milan and drove from there but thats a much longer drive. Drive from Bologna is just a little over an hour.

If I think of anything else I'll put it up. Or ask.

RacoonQueen

RacoonQueen wrote: »

A lot of places shut up shop on the Monday and were closed until April then. It may be different next year or in the following years though. There were still a load of athletes about as the Irish and English couldn't fly back out until Tuesday.

On this actually. We were all pretty bored on the Sunday and Monday, we found a restaurant still open on Sunday up in Milano Marittima where we hiked out for a couple of hours and an 'Irish bar' where we plonked ourselves on Sunday night (€7 for a bottle of corona / pint of guinness) but there was no real post race party atmosphere about the place with most places being shut. Monday the weather was awful so we were all stuck in our respective apartments until we decided to head to Decathlon (20 min drive). Probably fine if you've got the kids with you but if you're looking to just chill out with a few beers and good atmosphere, probably not the place to hang around.
Though again, this could be different next year or the following years if you get more people hanging round and places stay open or if the weather is a little better.

woody1

is it a sea swim ? is it just very shallow and sheltered so... very interested in any courses that have calm swims..

trailrunner

Did Italy this year, agree with a lot of what Racoonqueen has said ,
Swim: for me this was the best swim I've done in the last 3 year of IM , perfect conditions, self seeding swim starts help a lot .
T1 : very very long , could IMO be shortened by using the full width of the beech Rd or putting down some mats and having transition on the beech.
Cycle : only one hill you do it twice but it's that far in your well warmed up for it , full feed startion just before it to . Hard to find a better cycle in IM .
Run : very nice , along well shaded quite tree lined streets and into a park for a km or so. I loved the run . They need to brush up on the after food and lay out but I'm sure they'll work on that . They need to get the locals more involved next year to . They didn't seem to know what was going on .!!
Worst part was the fact that the whole place was practically closing down for winter as we were there . Very hard to fine Any decent restaurants open . We only stayed 4 days in total . Long enough.!!
Hope this helps .