Race Hub · First-timer's guide
IRONMAN 70.3 Aix-en-Provence
Sunday 23 May 2027. A lake swim in the Lac de Peyrolles, a technical 87km through Provence beneath Mont Sainte-Victoire with nearly 1,200m of climbing, and a three-loop city run finishing on the Cours Mirabeau. Here's the real course, and a pacing plan built against its actual elevation, not a flat-or-hilly guess.
The Bike Course
Provence saves its hardest question for last.
IRONMAN call it a mix of flat and hilly sections, and the GPX shows where the truth sits: 1,198m of climbing across 86.8km, spread over five distinct climbs on the technical roads below Mont Sainte-Victoire. The biggest comes late, 114m of rise around km68 up to the course's 504m high point at km71 by the Col de Cengle. Ride the first 60km with discipline, because this course asks its hardest question after your legs have already answered several. We pace you against the elevation from the official IRONMAN bike GPX.
Pacing Calculator
How do your numbers stack up right now?
Built for first-timers. You don't need to know your FTP. A couple of honest inputs and we'll model your day against the real Aix-en-Provence course.
Your Critical Swim Speed. We add for open water & wetsuit.
Don't know your CSS? Click HereUsed with your weight for a power-to-weight read. Not stored anywhere.
Average km/h on a recent long ride, of similar race distance and terrain, at race pace effort.
Your standalone half time, h:mm:ss.
Late May in Provence has raced between 14 and 28°C. Warm is often right; check race week.
Power-to-weight body composition
Aix climbs, and on the hills your speed is governed by power-to-weight: the watts you can hold for every kilo you carry up the road. Same power, less weight, and you go up faster, which is why body composition matters more here than on a flat course.
These are just mathematical outcomes from your height and weight, not a judgement on your body, and the maths can't tell how much of your weight is muscle. Any change should come from better fuelling and training, never restriction or dropping weight for its own sake, under-eating to chase "race weight" costs you more fitness than it buys. Whether it applies to you at all, and what a healthy target looks like, is exactly what our coaching team, with Adam on nutrition, work out with you 1:1.
Don't go it alone.
These headline numbers are a great start, but race day is bigger than a set of splits. What gets you to the line ready, and across it in the best possible shape, is a coaching team in your corner: mapping and running the whole journey with you across training, strength and conditioning, nutrition and race-day strategy, built around your life and adjusted as you go. That is exactly what Team TC does.
Apply for 1:1 coaching with TomBefore race day