IRONMAN Tours Métropole – Loire Valley
Triathlon
Tours · 14.06.2026
At a Glance
| Event | IRONMAN Tours Métropole – Loire Valley |
| Distance | Full IronMan |
| Date | 14.06.2026 |
| Location | Tours, France |
| Conditions | Hot and sunny, forecast highs around 30°C, east-north-east wind. River swim: ~20-22°C; wetsuit legal. |
| Kit Highlights | Scott RC Ultimate, NL Fitness Raceskin trisuit, Ekoi TT helmet, TORQ nutrition |
Distances
| Swim | T1 | Bike | T2 | Run |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.8km river | 400m | 180km | – | 42.2km |
Goals
| Goal | Target | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Finish time | sub 10 hours | ❌ |
| Swim split | 2mn/100m | ❌ |
| Bike leg | 4h50 | ❌ |
| Run leg | 3h40 | ❌ |
Results
| Finish Time | Age Group | Gender | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11:14:55 | 62nd | 817th | 869th |
Pre-Race
Travel & Logistics
Getting to Tours was easy and pleasant from start to finish, which is exactly how you want the days before an Ironman to feel. I travelled with club mate David, and the electric BMW earned its keep. The boot swallowed two TT bikes, a spare disc wheel and all our bags without a fight, and the battery had enough range that we only stopped once, and I am not convinced we even needed to.
Ninety minutes down to Portsmouth, then a six-hour ferry crossing that flew by, helped along by a proper restaurant dinner on board. Three hours the other side brought us to my parents’ place, a relaxed and familiar base rather than a hotel.
Getting to the Parc des Expositions for registration was painless, with plenty of parking. Tours made an occasion of it too. There was a lovely concert on the Friday night, a beer in the old town, and time in the famous Place Plumereau. A good way to settle the nerves before race day.
The Night Before / Morning Of
Nothing fancy the night before. An early dinner, limited wine, and an early night. The trouble is that excitement does not care about your bedtime, and I lay there wide awake for a good while before finally dropping off. Then it felt like the very next minute the alarm went.
Breakfast, coffee, and off we went at around five in the morning.
Race Narrative
Swim
Lovely one-lap loop in the River Cher, rolling start from seven o’clock. Fresh water, calm, and the temperature sat somewhere around 20 to 22°C, which meant wetsuits were legal and everyone was grateful for it. There is something special about a river swim that a lake never quite matches, the sense of being carried through a place rather than round a buoy course.
My 1:28:10 was down from the 1:20 I wanted. I will take the loss on the chin. It is my weakest discipline and the one my winter technique work is aimed at, so there is a clear line of sight on where the minutes come back.
T1
I cannot fully explain it. Competitive spirit, probably. There was a 400m run from the swim exit to the bikes, and I found myself hammering it, picking off people the whole way. Then I reached my spot, sat down, and took my sweet time before heading out. Flat out on the bit that does not matter, a leisurely faff over the part that actually counts. There was no individual split on my results card, but I suspect it was quicker than it felt.
Bike
This is where the race earned its reputation, and then some. One hundred and eighty kilometres through the heart of the Touraine, and it felt like riding a Tour de France stage. People lined the road cheering the whole way, castles appearing round bends, and the smell of the vineyards drifting across the road in the warm air. Genuinely one of the finest bike courses I have ridden, and the road surface was superb throughout.
The rolling profile, around 850m of climbing spread over the route, was manageable. The heat was not. Somewhere in the middle third I started to overheat properly, so I made the call to stop at an aid station and pour water over myself rather than push through and cook. Not the sub-10 plan, but the right call.
Fuelling on the bike was the TORQ 1:1 mix in the bottles, backed up with the TORQ 2:1 gels, targeting around 80g of carbs an hour rather than chasing the headline 120g figure. Deploying the 2:1 gels here kept the higher-density 1:1 gels in reserve for the run. It held perfectly, no GI trouble and steady energy the whole way.
Along the way I fell in with a rider from Liverpool who had crashed on one of the descents, the one signposted to slow down, and was carrying scratches down his arm and a broken bike. He rode more than ninety kilometres on it to reach the line. I found him again after the finish and shook his hand. That is the kind of grit that stays with you long after the splits are forgotten.
T2
No gimmicks here. I have given up on the fancy elastic laces that promise to save you five seconds in transition. I run in proper shoes with proper laces, tied properly, exactly as I would for a standalone marathon. Over 42.2km, a secure fit matters far more than a handful of seconds saved fumbling in T2. A deliberate trade, and one I would make again.
Run
I ran the TORQ 1:1 gels through the marathon, saving the single caffeine gel for around the 30km mark when I needed it most. The fuelling never wobbled. My body was the problem, not the plan. The aid stations were frequent and well stocked, and I hit every one, ice, water, sponges, the lot. It made no difference. I could not get my core to cool down, and once that happens over 42.2km there is only one outcome.
I walked far more than I wanted to, far more than I should have needed to, and my time came in well over what I ran in Cascais on the back of a recovery block. By my own standards that is unacceptably slow, and I am not going to dress it up. The course itself deserves none of the blame. Pancake flat, superb support, textbook Ironman marathon. The result was on me and the conditions, not the design.
The Finish Line
I am not sure why IRONMAN decides the finish line is best placed after a ramp, as if the day had not been hard enough already. One last little insult to the legs.
Crossing the line brought a real mix of feelings. Joy that it was over and that I had finished, tangled up with a big dose of disappointment that I could not leave more out on the course. Both things were true at once. It was good to see Liam just past the line, looking as fresh as if he had spent the day people-watching from a café terrace, which was a good deal more than I could say for myself.
Time Chip
| Swim | T1 | Bike | T2 | Run | Finish |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01:28:10 | 00:07:10 | 05:11:20 | 00:10:27 | 04:17:48 | 11:14:55 |
Post-Race
Recovery & Celebrations
Once I had gathered myself, I headed back to the finish line to film David coming in. Huge kudos to him and his resilience. He raced the entire course with an eye infection, picked up early in the swim from a leaking goggle, and still got the job done. Have you ever tried racing an Ironman with one eye shut? A full day of swim, bike and run down to a single working eye is a special kind of stubborn, and he earned every metre of that finish.
The post-race food buffet was genuinely impressive, and it is something every race should look into. Across the countries I have competed in so far, France leads the way here, which is no real surprise.
What Went Well
– Fuelling was spot on. The 80g/hr TORQ plan held from swim to finish with no GI issues and no energy dip. Proof a plant-based race-day plan copes fine with full-distance demands in the heat.
– Smart heat calls on the bike. Stopping to cool down cost time but kept me in the race rather than blowing up.
– Finished strong on a hard day. Six Ironman finishes now, and this one was earned in tough conditions.
What To Improve
– The run in heat. The clear priority. My marathon fell apart when I could not cool down, and I walked far more than I should have. Heat adaptation, disciplined early pacing, and core-temperature management are the work.
– The swim. Eight minutes down on target. The winter stroke-technique focus is aimed squarely at this.
Race Ratings
| Organisation | 10 /10 |
| Course | 10 /10 |
| Atmosphere / Crowd | 10/10 |
| Post-Race Experience | 10/10 |
| Value for Money | 10/10 (Apart from the photo pack, 1/10) |
| Overall | 10/10 |
Final Thoughts
Tours was a brilliant race that beat me on the day, and I can hold both of those things at once. The course was one of the best I have ridden and run, the atmosphere was special, and I fuelled it exactly right. But 11:14:55 is a long way from sub-10, and the heat exposed a gap in how I hold a marathon together when my body cannot cool. The Kona goal needs a reset. Not abandoning, resetting. There is real work to do on the run and on racing hot before that qualification is realistic, and I would rather name that clearly than pretend the day was something it was not. Would I recommend this race? Without hesitation. Just respect the heat.
I have entered the 2027 IM 70.3 Tours (sold out in less than 2 months)
