A Big European Race Shuffle
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, earlier today Challenge Roth announced that this year they are pushing their July race back to September. A few hours later, IRONMAN shared that they are also moving 6 of their races to the fall.
At 6am European time athletes started to get emails and various social media channels were filled with the news that the 2021 Challenge Roth would move to September. The race organization also made themselves available to a Q&A via Facebook live.
"DATEV Challenge Roth will take place… but not in July. Due to the still dynamic COVID situation we will postpone DATEV Challenge Roth by two months – from 4 July to 5 September 2021. Athletes can transfer their registration from 4 July to 5 September or, alternatively, move it to next year's race, which will take place on 3 July 2022, all free of charge.
Cancellation is also possible, in which the athletes receive a refund of their entry fee less a processing fee.
We know that it's not easy and the postponement of the race might not be in everyone's favor, but we try to make the very best decision for the sport especially you the athletes," was the message posted on the Challenge Roth Facebook page.
A few hours later IRONMAN Europe announced that they are moving 6 races. Most will also move to September. However, there were others that did not have a rescheduled date announced.
"While we were very much looking forward to welcoming athletes back to our early-season races, today, IRONMAN Europe, Middle East and Africa announced an update to its 2021 race calendar due to the ongoing effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. A total of six races will be postponed to a later date in 2021:
– IRONMAN 70.3 Marbella – April 25, 2021 **NEW** September 19, 2021
– IRONMAN 70.3 Venice-Jesolo – May 2, 2021 **NEW** September 26, 2021
– Zafiro IRONMAN 70.3 Alcùdia-Mallorca – May 8, 2021 **NEW** TBC
– IRONMAN Mallorca – May 15, 2021 **NEW** TBC
– IRONMAN 70.3 Aix en Provence – May 16, 2021 **NEW** September 19
– 2021 IRONMAN Lanzarote – May 22, 2021 **NEW** July 3, 2021," said the IRONMAN Europe release.
There are many other events that are already in that September time slot including these following IRONMAN events in Europe or of interest for European athletes.
– IRONMAN Nice – September 12
– IRONMAN Wales – September 12
– IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships St. George, Utah – September 17
– IRONMAN Italy Emilia Romagna – September 18
– IRONMAN 70.3 Weymouth – September 19
Hopefully by the fall a large percentage of the population will be vaccinated, but nothing is yet guaranteed in terms of which races will happen or how freely we will be able to roam between countries or within countries. Germany, for one, has a lockdown right now that would make any event impossible. They even cancelled Fasching there.
