I can’t believe there are six 55-59 men in the top 40 and the slowest went 9:44. Brutal!
I paid 1850$ on Saturday. Nuts.
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It is too early to say who is the winner or loser of the new system but let me share few thoughts after racing Kalmar 3 days ago and qualifying to Kona 2026 as 2nd in my AG and 25th in „performance ranking”.
- Kalmar vs Copenhagen. This was my 1st Kalmar, did CPH twice so i can compare. CPH is a faster course: lagoon swim (no waves), 4km shorter bike (177k vs 181k), same wind conditions last weeknd but Kalmar is more exposed (Oland island) and very lumpy in the last 60k with endless 90deg turns, speed bumps, etc. Similar run courses. Net - i would expect to be ~10min faster in Denmark with same effort.
- The quality of the field is dramatically different between the age groups. Women field in Kalmar was relatively weak, F45 winner with a strong performance was 6th overall while M45 winner was 31st. M50 quality was insane. 8th guy with 9:32? Wow! The M65 winner with 10:38? I wish everyone such power in their late 60s. Overall, comparing the slot allocation between 2 events, even in the same region/weekend makes no sense. Ultimately, there is finite ammount of fast people in each age group and they will never distribute evenly.
- The race dynamics has changed on the bike. Nobody wants to lead, limited willingness to collaborate with anyone, every overtake is full gas to avoid taking passengers. I was in the top 20-25 on the course (until i had a mechanical at 110k) and i was going mostly alone because either people were overtaking me at crazy power output (couldnt follow at +300W) or i was overtaking full gas and if someone stayed on my wheel, they didnt want to work (1 guy rode like 30k on my wheel). I have also bever seen people looking back so much to see if they are dropping the train. Its now everyone vs everyone.
- Lastly - the level keeps growing and its not just on the bike. Top 4 guys in my AG, me included all ran sub 3h15 marathon.
The challenge for the younger folks is that their benchmarks are pro-level guys that for variety of reasons decided to stay AG. Same applies to younger females. From all the different chats i had in Kalmar, there is still a perception that its a better system vs „participation-based” allocations.
The performance ranking was not published at the moment of the slots allocation so we were sitting in the dark. Hope they will fix it for other races.
Finally - the slots rolled into 98th place but i wouldnt read i to that as Kalmar had 125 slots across Nice and Kona 25/26.
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Thank you for this post, I was wondering how far it rolled down.
OK, I bring news from Copenhagen. I was there, and here follows a summary of the slot allocation on monday. As you know, there were 40 slots for Kona 2026. That rolldown was first, and after that, the allocations for Nice and Kona 2025. You could get a slot for both years. Yes, they’re clearly eager to get people to Nice.
Kona 2026:
First the #1-2-3 in each AG
AG #1s: 6 accepted
AG #2s: 5 accepted
AG #3s: 5 accepted
Rolled to performance pool: 6 slots from F18, F30, F55, F65, F70 and M40.
The #1-2-3s were naturally mainly high on the age graded list, but with quite a bit of variation.
Last AG #1 to accept: F50, age graded #30, 8:27 graded time
last AG #3 to accept: M65, age graded #86, 8:44 graded time
Last AG #1: F65, age graded #1113, 10:24 graded time. Did not accept.
The slowest direct qual time from the PP was 8:26:56 (He swam 49:11 and had a total chip time of 8:42:44).
Of AG #1 finishers, 17 were faster (graded) than that (graded rank 1-33). 5 were slower (graded rank 44-1113).
Of AG #2 finishers, 8 were faster (graded) than that (graded rank 6-32). 13 were slower (graded rank 37-1231). With reference to a discussion about a friend who finished second, but didn’t qualify: Thats not unfair or unusual.
Perfomance pool.
I tried to note exactly who did and didn’t accept slots from the performance pool (PP), but didn’t quite succeed. This is based an my notes together with the calculated qualifier time and rank from Coach Cox. That’s not perfectly aligned with the list from sportsstats, but we get an idea.
Last secure PP-slot: #35, M18, 8:27 graded time. And then it rolled … and rolled!
Last to accept PP-slot: 5th in M35, 8:58 chip time (!), age graded 8:53, graded rank 131 (!)
You read that right. It rolled from #36 to #131. For Kona 2026.
5 of the 1/2/3 finishers were behind this last accepted PP-slot.
Next was slot allocation for women in Kona 2025 and men in Nice 2025. That was quick and unceremonial. Anyone who had finished the race were offered a slot! 9 women (for 20 slots) and 33 men (for 65 slots) came to the stage.
How was my race? Good, thanks for asking! Instead of wetting my cycling shoes, as usual, I stopped by the road for a minute or two. I was 50 seconds (graded) behind #6 in my age group, and 2 seconds (graded) behind the last certain Kona 2026 qualifier in the list that @Abracadabra shared. Never too old to learn a lesson.
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Great insight which you imply is a direct influence of inter-AG div competition for KQs. Will be interesting to see/hear if this is reflected in Thun (but hilly), Wisconsin or Wales (v hilly).
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That’s not good. The rumors of having difficulty filling even Kona for the women must be accurate.
For the men as well I have to say I’m a little surprised they can’t fill it in Europe, but I guess with the race being less than a month away that has an effect on the willingness to race again.
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Yeah, both races are awfully close, and Hawaii is a big and $ trip from Europue.
Maybe my math is off but I thought the 30 minute age-graded drop from aging up cited in your post seemed too much; I’m aging up next year so have already started doing my own math although as I am older the difference is greater.
Doing the math I get your 10:06 age grading out at 9:46 for M40-44, same as you, but I get 9:30 for M45-49.
It is understandable that men Nice2025 slots were untaken because Copenhagen is so close (3 weeks). But even Kona 2025 for women is a long haul from Denmark so late in the game.
Thanks for your summary. I was a bit confused were you 6th in your age group and 2 min off the last performance pool slot (taken by 5th at 131st in PP) due to keeping your cycling shoes clean???
You’re right - looks like I’m going to need to get about 15 mins faster!
Edit - actually 16 mins in real time
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I’ll get you on the Macca approved cabbage and water diet ! We’re all set from there!
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The scale keeps adding 2-3 lbs every year, but I don’t get sick or injured anymore so I’m not sure I want to take the risk of starting to lean down. At some point though I’ll need to stem the tide.
Thinking it through, I can probably shave 1.5 mins in penalties (not making stupid errors), 2-3 mins in the swim (technique improvement), 5-10 on the bike (comfort/position) and maybe 5-8 mins on the run (HTFU). Though maybe not all at once.
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at Musselman 3 years ago you could take slots for ST George (2022) or Taupo. No one wanted the STG slots… but you could take both off your one performance that day.
I was 7th in my age group, and 48 secs off the 40th and last certain PP slot (according to the sportsstats list). It didn’t make any practical difference because of the rolldown, and because I was one of the many who did not pick up the slot I was offered. But I’d still like to make the cut, and not end just outside of the pool.
I wouldn’t worry about that so much, for reasons given. I’d worry about this:
I’d worry about this too:
6 of 22 age group winners wanted to go to Kona next year.
To put such a worry into context, think we need to know what proportion of AG div winners in Europe IMs typically (ie historically pre-IMWC split venue) did pay for a start on a Pacific island IMWC.
Might some of the W div winners taken up a 2025 slot instead?
With both 2025 and 2026 slots available Kalmar and Copenhagen were two off anomalies (in that respect).
Even then, what’s the “worry”? Are athletes worried? No. Is IRONMAN worried? No: they will fill the pier. Why are you worried? That IM’s business model will unravel? That there’ll be too many races staged?
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