The Long Way to the Start Line

The A race · IRONMAN 70.3 Italy Emilia-Romagna

Cervia.
Unfinished business.

September 2027. An Adriatic beach start, 90 kilometres through the salt pans and vineyards of Romagna, and a flat run to a finish line I intend to see this time. Not yet announced, not yet bookable, already the target. Building.

–
Days to race day (approx)
Booking when entries open · Date TBC by IRONMAN
The salt pans of Cervia, abstracted. Pink from the algae, teal from the sea. The bike course runs right through them.

The course

1.9 km · one loop

Swim

Beach start into the Adriatic from central Cervia. One turn left, back parallel to the shore, two rights and out. Simple, sighted, and my kind of leg.

90 km · one loop

Bike

Off the promenade, through the salt pan nature reserve (actual flamingos), into the Sangiovese vineyards and up to Bertinoro, the Balcony of Romagna. Then back down to the coast. The leg that owes me one.

21.1 km · three loops

Run

Flat, fast, through Cervia and Milano Marittima, past the old salt warehouse, finish on the beach promenade. I have never seen this part of the course. That changes in 2027.

Why this race

The maths works. Cervia sits at the end of the 2027 season, a full thirteen months after the surgery, with a winter of base building and a summer of racing in between. The run is pancake flat, the Adriatic in September is warm, and the bike course is honest: one climb worth respecting, then it gives you the coast back.

And there is the other reason. Valencia ended at kilometre 46 of the bike. Every session between now and September 2027 has one purpose: to make sure Cervia does not.