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The slowest and fastest Ironman courses

Updated list from TriRating.com

Recently, Thorsten Radde of TriRating.com updated his full distance (Challenge Family and Ironman) course ratings.

Related: 10 reasons to do an Ironman

Challenge Madrid (ESP) and Ironman Wales (UK) were at the bottom of the list – considered to be the slowest full distance triathlons. The fastest Ironman course belongs to Ironman Tallinn – followed by Ironman Barcelona (ESP) and Brazil (BRA).

Challenge Madrid and Ironman Wales offer very difficult bike courses. The Challenge Family race in Madrid, Spain, features over 2,600 m of climbing in just 180K. Ironman Wales includes over 2,000m of climbing and very strong coastal winds.

Last year, Challenge Madrid was won by Timothy Van Houtem (9:00:13) and Laura Siddall (9:52:33). Ironman Wales was won by Matt Trautman (8:53:21) and Lucy Gossage (9:52:37).

In 2018, Ironman Tallinn was won by Philipp Koutny (8:01:18) and Evengia Boulmeti (9:50:01).

Ironman Brazil is considered to be one of the fastest Ironman-branded courses in the world. In May 2017, Tim Don set the fastest Ironman-branded finishing time of 7:40:23 – five minutes slower than Jan Frodeno’s world record time (Challenge Roth).

Related: Tim Don: “The Man with the Halo”

Radde’s course ratings include the fastest swim, bike and run courses. Based on his ratings, the fastest swim is the downriver course in Chattanooga, Tennessee (Ironman Chattanooga). The fastest bike course is Ironman Tallinn, and the fastest run course is Ironman United Kingdom.

Related: 15 thoughts when completing an Ironman

With no official Ironman or Challenge Family course rankings, TriRating.com provides a compelling list of the fastest courses in the world – giving triathletes a way to select races based on their strengths.