What about the Ironman and other competitions scheduled for this 2020 in the heat of the pandemic. 

There are many questions that concern us during these months of total ignorance because of the pandemic and the de-escalated that is now being experienced in the world.

The return to everyday life as we knew it at the moment will not be possible, but neither do we know if the “normality” to which we were accustomed will return or if our new routine will be completely different.

The competitions are one of the things that have been affected all over the world, many have been postponed, others have been modified and even completely postponed for the next years.

The Indurain competition was celebrated on July 18, 2020.

The five-time Tour de France champion Miguel Induráin and the former world and European marathon champion Martín Fiz were in charge of leading La Indurain, the first cycle tour after the coronavirus, with a start and finish in Villava (Navarra) and over two routes, 100 and 180 kilometres.

Indurain limited the number of participants to 1,000 out of 3,000 that it planned to expand before the pandemic occurred and complied with the strictest health safety measures established by health institutions, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Royal Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC). The start was made in batches of 100 cyclists every ten minutes.

The use of the mask was mandatory at the start and finish, and it could be removed only 200 meters away from both and was also required at the refreshment posts. In addition, during the route cyclists were urged not to follow the wheel, to keep the maximum distance when overtaking and to avoid crowding.

Nevertheless, not everything is good news:

The Ibercaja-Quebrantahuesos Cycle Tour presented by Oakley announced its cancellation.

The most important popular race in the country, announced the definitive cancellation of the 2020 edition. The organization takes this decision due to the health emergency generated by the Covid-19, to the current uncertainty in events of massive participation and of great affluence and mobility of people, and to be able to celebrate a 30th anniversary in 2021 with the best guarantees and enjoying what the Quebrantahuesos (the QH) really is.

What is the scenario for the Ironman trials that were planned for this year?

The first to take place would be the Marbella Ironman 70.3. The date was proposed by the organization for the 25th of October when it was to be held on the 26th of April.

It is followed by Ironman 70.3 on the island of Mallorca, in Alcúdia, which was to be held on May 9 and has been postponed to October 31 this year.

Also in May, on the 17th, Ironman 70.3 was scheduled to take place in Calella, Barcelona. Now it is scheduled for the 4th of October, which will coincide with the already established date of the Ironman Barcelona. Both events will be held on the same weekend.

Ironman Vitoria Gasteiz, scheduled for 12 July, has been moved to 11 October.

Finally the organizers of Ironman have decided to suspend the Kona event they proposed to add for the month of February 2021 in Hawaii because of the effects of COVID-19 to have more events in the calendar that had been reduced.

It seems that the organizers of Ironman have heard the comments, among other authorized voices, of Jan Frodeno, the three-time champion of the Ironman World (2015, 2016 and 2019) who said at the time that he “thought it was silly to have two world championships in the same year”

Ironman announced the cancellation of 70.3 Taupo, New Zealand.

It is important to remember that the Ironman Frankfurt was suspended just 3 days before its celebration, and was rescheduled for next year, of course without any possibility of refund for its registered competitors, since it is not within Ironman’s policies to refund money for cancelled events.

This means that triathletes who cannot attend next year will lose 600 euros, not counting those who have already made hotel reservations and paid for transfers to attend the sports event.

Added to this is the lawsuit brought by Spanish triathletes against the competition giant for the violation and abuse of the brand by cancelling several of its events and not returning the money to the athletes.

However, more than a month ago the Ironman franchise launched an anti COVID-19 action plan, which dealt with numerous aspects but left many questions open since it did not indicate the number of participants that have this type of event.

This lack of knowledge about how many participants were registered has been solved through the announcement of the organizers of Ironman 70.3 in Buenos Aires.

This event, which will take place on November 1st, 2020, following the recommendations of the Ironman headquarters in Florida (USA), will reduce the number of participants by half.

From 2500 participants last year the Ironman Buenos Aires is reduced to 1200 competitors.

In effect, these recommendations will be established for the other dated tests of the franchise such as the Spanish ones. The Ironman Barcelona (4 October), with more than 3500 registered and the Ironman Vitoria (11 October) with 2500 registered. These should follow the recommendations of the Ironman headquarters.

The Ironman event has its sights set on 2021 and they have already opened their registration for the season with incredible destinations such as Switzerland, Ireland, South Africa and Italy with the inaugural IRONMAN 70.3 Venice-Jesolo.

But all is not lost, we want to bet on the civic and responsible behavior of the people who will surely help with the revival of sports activities.

If there is one thing we human beings have, it is the ability to adapt ourselves to be resilient and always find a way out of the storm and keep going. At TransSport we keep working, bringing your sports equipment like bicycles, golf clubs, surfboards and others, all over the European continent.

We want to support you in every step you take in favor of the sport.