In less than a month Mallorca will host the 20th edition of Triathlon de Portocolom, billed as the kick off to the European triathlon season. Around 1,000 triathletes are expected to race on 9 April under the special distance formats of 55.5 or 111 (1km swimming, 100km cycling, and 10km running).
Triathlon de Portocolom currently has around 800 registered athletes. The event will receive a strong field of professional athletes, as it did in its last edition, which was recognised as the best triathlon event of the year by the athletes and the Balearic Triathlon Federation.
The organising team note that there will be an interesting competition between a number of professionals, including Triathlon de Portocolom’s two last winners, Belgian Michael Van Cleven and Markus Hörmann, Thomas Steger (third at IM 70.3 Mallorca 2017), Stefan Schmid (IM Cozumel 2015 winner and third at IM Nice 2016), amongst local athletes such as Carlos Lopez (IM Mallorca 2016 winner) and Joan Nadal. In the women’s field, all eyes will be on Diana Riesler, winner of two IRONMAN races in 2015 (Lanzarote and Malaysia), who frequently trains in Mallorca.
In the 55.5 format, local athlete Lucas Mola, brother of world champion triathlete Mario Mola, is defending his 2016 victory. Thomas Kaiser (GER), second in the last edition, will also aim for victory in 2017.
In addition to the 55.5K or 111K event distances, the popular duathlon for children, TriKids, will take place on 8 April, the day before the main race gets started. The Triathlon Portocolom International is organized by the sports events agency Kumulus and the Club Triatló Portocolom; and is supported by the local council of Felanitx, the Ayuntamiento de Felanitx.
Both races over 111K and 55.5K will take athletes on the same courses as in 2016 and 2015. 111K participants will do two loops of each segment while 55.5K athletes will complete only one leg. The swim will take place in Portocolom’s harbour; the bike loop will take them along a rolling course including the climb of Sant Salvador, well known by thousands of triathletes and cyclists who visit Mallorca each year. The run will take athletes from the old town along the beaches of Portocolom Bay before they cross the finish line.
