Guide
How hard is a triathlon course? Reading it without an elevation figure
Only 202 of 354 races have a bike elevation figure. For the others, read the course labels, the air temperature and the course description.
Elevation
The figures that exist
Elevation is the figure most people look for first. It exists for 202 bike courses. Ten of them, chosen to show the range up to about 1,200 m:
- IRONMAN 70.3 Eagleman: about 101 m on the bike, labelled flat
- IRONMAN 70.3 Ohio: about 250 m on the bike, labelled flat
- IRONMAN 70.3 Dallas-Little Elm: about 427 m on the bike, labelled rolling
- IRONMAN 70.3 Vitoria-Gasteiz: about 500 m on the bike, labelled rolling
- IRONMAN 70.3 Poreč: about 680 m on the bike, labelled rolling
- IRONMAN Calella-Barcelona: about 750 m on the bike, labelled flat
- IRONMAN 70.3 Portugal-Cascais: about 771 m on the bike, labelled rolling
- IRONMAN 70.3 Bolton: about 840 m on the bike, labelled rolling
- IRONMAN 70.3 Costa Navarino, Peloponnese, Greece: about 857 m on the bike, labelled rolling
- IRONMAN 70.3 Vilamoura-Algarve: about 1169 m on the bike, labelled hilly
Labels
What the labels say about those figures
Set against those figures, the labels overlap. A course labelled flat can have more climbing than one labelled rolling, because the label describes the character of the course and the figure its total. A long course with gentle gradients can add up to more metres than a short one with a single steep climb.
The labels remain useful at the ends of the scale. Hilly on both the bike and the run is rare, with 41 races on the calendar, and it describes courses where climbing shapes the whole day. Extreme triathlons sit beyond that end of the scale: the extreme triathlon guide sets out how much they climb.
The other half of difficulty
Heat changes a race as much as climbing does. 330 of the 354 races on this site have an average high air temperature for race day, from 11 °C to 38 °C, and the race pages show where each race ranks on it among races of the same distance.
Cut-offs decide whether a hard day ends with a finish. Check them in the athlete guide of each race.
Side by side
Compare courses with an elevation figure
These three have a bike elevation figure. The table shows how label and figure line up.
IRONMAN 70.3 Eagleman
IRONMAN Calella-Barcelona
IRONMAN 70.3 Vilamoura-Algarve
- Race 1 IRONMAN 70.3 Eagleman
- Race 2 IRONMAN Calella-Barcelona
- Race 3 IRONMAN 70.3 Vilamoura-Algarve
- Circuit
- IRONMANIRONMANIRONMAN
- Distance
- Middle distanceFull distanceMiddle distance
- Terrain
- RoadRoadRoad
- Swim
- 1.9 km3.8 km1.9 km
- Bike
- 90 km180 km90 km
- Run
- 21.1 km42.2 km21.1 km
- Date
- 13 Jun 20273 Oct 20273 Apr 2027
- Country
- United StatesSpainPortugal
- Registration
- OpenSold outSold out
- Swim venue
- RiverOceanOcean
- Average water temperature
- 24 °C22 °C16 °C
- High air temperature
- 30 °C25 °C19 °C
- Low air temperature
- 20 °C12 °C13 °C
- Bike profile
- FlatFlatHilly
- Bike elevation gain
- 101 m750 m1,169 m
- Run profile
- FlatFlatFlat
- Run elevation gain
- 45 mn/a8 m
- Overall cut-off
- 8 h 30 min16 h 20 minn/a
- Altitude
- 1 m15 m18 m
- First edition
- 198120092027
- Swim start
- Rolling startRolling startRolling start
- Entry fee, from
- $460n/a€541
Questions
Which course has the most climbing?
Embrunman, ICON Livigno Xtreme Triathlon, with 5000 m on the bike. Among IRONMAN races, the highest figure is 2574 m, at IRONMAN Leeds.
Filter on the labels, then read the figures
The finder filters on course labels. Each race page gives the figure when one exists.
