Race Hub · First-timer's guide
IRONMAN 70.3 Duisburg
Sunday 16 August 2026. A swim in the famous regatta lake of Sportpark Duisburg, a two-lap 88km over the Bridge of Solidarity and out along the Rhine that IRONMAN built flat for personal bests, and a three-lap run around the regatta course that athletes voted among the best in Europe. Here's the real course, and a pacing plan built against its actual elevation.
The Bike Course
Built flat for a personal best.
The official GPX shows 342m of climbing across 88.2km: two laps that never leave a band between 23 and 38m of elevation. That is as flat as 70.3 racing gets, and it makes pacing discipline the whole game. With no hills to force a rhythm, it is frighteningly easy to ride 20 watts too hard and donate your run to the Rhine. We pace you against the elevation from the official IRONMAN bike GPX, so your target is honest from the start.
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 Duisburg 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.
Mid-August in Duisburg has raced between 16 and 24°C. Cool / mild or Warm is the usual pick.
Power-to-weight body composition
Duisburg is pan flat, so weight matters far less here than on a hilly course. There is no climb where being lighter buys back time; the day is won on aerodynamics, steady pacing and holding your run together. Body composition still helps a little at the margins, but it is not the big lever on this 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