IRONMAN VR8 – the latest event in the IRONMAN Virtual Racing Series – saw the launch of two new divisions, Challenger and Classic. Athletes that compete in the Challenger Division are required to complete their activities outdoors or on the ROUVY augmented cycling reality platform. This division offers an ‘officially regulated, truly competitive race experience’ with race times monitored by IRONMAN.
The Classic Division will still offer athletes the flexibility to race indoors or outdoors and with any preferred equipment.
Through a new ‘Race Honorably’ campaign, IRONMAN’s goal is to ‘provide an exceptional virtual racing experience with credible results that requires [age group] athletes to do their part by entering accurate data.’
IRONMAN VR8 opened for competition on Friday, May 22 at 14:00 ET (18:00 GMT). It featured an IRONMAN 5150 Olympic distance race simulation and required competitors to complete three segments – 3 km run, 40 km ride, and 10 km run – by race close at 19:59 ET (23:59 GMT) on Sunday, May 24.
The IRONMAN Virtual Racing Series offers athletes IRONMAN VR Finisher Bundles and other IRONMAN Virtual Racing Series merchandise through ironmanstore.com/ironman-vr.
IRONMAN Virtual Racing by the numbers
Starting with IRONMAN VR8, athletes who want to compete in IRONMAN VR races with times monitored may sign up for the Challenger Division, in which they must complete their activities outdoors or on the ROUVY augmented cycling reality platform to log an official result (results as at time of writing):
IRONMAN VR8 Challenger – 3,548 finishers (6,118 registered); 5150 simulation
IRONMAN VR8 Classic – 7,882 finishers (13,639 registered); 5150 simulation
IRONMAN VR7 – 17,073 finishers (25,021 registered); Sprint simulation
IRONMAN VR6 – 12,744 finishers (21,244 registered); 5150 simulation
IRONMAN VR5 – 8,257 finishers (14,884 registered); IM 70.3 simulation
IRONMAN VR4 – 14,552 finishers (23,749 registered); 5150 simulation
IRONMAN VR3 – 20,266 finishers (33,210 registered); Sprint simulation
IRONMAN VR2 –16,376 finishers (22,988 registered); 5150 simulation
IRONMAN VR1 – 6,695 finishers (11,041 registered); IM 70.3 simulation
IRONMAN VR8 Pro Challenge
Top professional men and women teamed up and competed in the IRONMAN VR8 Pro Challenge, utilizing Official Virtual Training partner ROUVY’s platform for a 40km virtual ride on a portion of the newly offered virtual IRONMAN Arizona bike course in Tempe, Arizona.
This weekend’s format integrated the professional men and professional women into a single day of racing. On race morning, the professional women took off with a three-minute lead on the professional male athletes, with the top man and top women to cross the finish earning victories.
After the conclusion of a day of racing, Imogen Simmonds of Switzerland claimed top honours in women’s race – while Andi Boecherer of Germany topped the podium in men’s competition.
In the spirit of #WeAreAllInThisTogether, the men and women paired up for an additional Team Competition that coincided with the overall individual race. A drawing was held during the IRONMAN VR8 Pro Challenge pre-race show on Saturday. Once drawn, each male athlete was teamed up with one of the women. The fastest team over the course of the competition won the Team Competition.
In the Team Competition, it was Team Simmonds & Boecherer who claimed the top spot with a combined finishing time of 1:50:23.
www.ironmanvirtualclub.com
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