Five days of show and sport on the Cote d'Azur

Another exciting week of racing in Nice for Ironman France

The third edition of Ironman France on Sunday has attracted 1,500 athletes representing 52 nations. Sixteen hours of non-stop excitement on the Promenade des Anglais will attract more than 50.000 local spectators.

Athletes are already arriving in Nice, and the doors of the Herbalife Expo Village will open on Thursday at 10 AM and remain open until Monday. The coming week offers five full days of show and sport.

The highlight of this race week will be Sunday, of course. The athletes will swim 3.8km in the Angel’s Bay, cycle 180km through the hilly region of Nice and run a full marathon of 42.195km on the Promenade des Anglais. The start will be at 6:30 AM on the Plage du Centenaire.

France’s Alexandra Louison, winner of the Monaco Ironman 70.3 in 2005 arrives at the event as one of the pre-race favourites on the women’s side. Louison placed fifth in Nice last year, and is aiming to finish in the top-three this year. Her main competition will likely come from Spain’s Virginia Berasategui who declared she is coming to Nice to win the race.

On the men’s side it will also be a battle between France and Spain. Last year’s champion, Marcel Zamora, will be in Nice to defend his title. It seems like it will be another hot run on the Promenade des Anglais, and Zamora will have to face France’s Christophe Bastie, René Rovera and Patrick Bringer.

We’ll have a full day of coverage right here on Ironman.com. Our pre-race coverage of the event will begin on Friday evening.