Race Hub · First-timer's guide
IRONMAN 70.3 Les Sables d'Olonne
1 July 2027, per IRONMAN's current listing. A sea swim off the Grande Plage finishing up the legendary Vendée Globe channel, a rolling 93km through ten coastal towns and the forests and marshlands of les Olonnes, and a flat two-loop run along the Remblai. Here's the real course, and a pacing plan built against its actual elevation, not a flat-or-hilly guess.
The Bike Course
Rolling Vendée, and the bike leg runs long.
First thing to know: the official GPX measures 92.9km, a shade over the standard 90, with 626m of climbing and a high point of just 73m. Nothing is steep; the work is in the constant small changes of rhythm through the coastal towns and the exposed marshland roads, where wind can matter more than gradient. We pace you against the real elevation and the real distance from the official IRONMAN bike GPX, so your target speed is honest.
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 Les Sables d'Olonne 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.
Recent editions span 14 to 33°C. Atlantic-coast July is usually warm; check race week.
Power-to-weight body composition
Les Sables rolls gently rather than climbs, so weight matters less here than on a hilly course. The day is mostly won on aerodynamics, steady pacing and holding your run together, with body composition a smaller lever at the margins.
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