Yvelines: an Ironman triathlon in Versailles, the city votes yes!

One more step was taken this Thursday evening in Versailles. The municipal council of the city-prefecture of Yvelines unanimously adopted the principle of organizing an Ironman-certified triathlon next summer near the emblematic Palace of Versailles.

As revealed by Le Parisien, on September 4, the city led by François de Mazières applied to host this event based on the model of the historic Nice triathlon (Alpes-Maritimes), organized since 2004.

This vote by elected officials brings the royal city closer to the very closed circle of cities labeled Ironman France, the French franchise of the American owner World Triathlon Corporation (WTC), such as Nice, Vichy (Allier), Aix-en-Provence (Bouches-du-Rhône) and more recently Les Sables-d’Olonne (Vendée) and Tours (Indre-et-Loire).

A three-year tripartite agreement

A three-year tripartite agreement has already been signed by the city, the Palace of Versailles and the Ironman company. Versailles is a candidate alongside the local club which has been organizing the King’s Triathlon for fifteen years, around the Swiss pond owned by the castle. This is where the start will be given, on July 12, 2026.

The city has, however, negotiated to be exempt from the compulsory registration fees, which amount to some 275,000 euros. “I believe that we do not have the means. I would rather spend 275,000 euros for associations, if we had them, than for an event,” explains the mayor (DVD).

The city will, however, provide financial support to Versailles Triathlon to the tune of 8,000 to 10,000 euros, will make equipment available to the organization and will mobilize agents to ensure logistics.

The event chosen to serve as a baptism of the genre under the windows of Louis XIV will be contested in a format known as Ironman 70.3. It consists of three consecutive events: 1.9 km of swimming, 90 km of cycling and 21.1 km of running. The format gets its name from its cumulative total distance of 70.3 miles (113 km).

And now, a wave of recruits?

A test format with a view, why not the following year, to switching to the ultimate and legendary format of the Ironman (3.8 km of swimming, 180 km of cycling and a marathon).

If the swimming (and therefore the start) will take place in the lake of the Suisses, the cycling will consist of a return trip to Rambouillet, in the heart of the Chevreuse valley, while the walking route will take place over three 7 km loops in town, between the lake of the Suisses and avenue de Paris, and therefore without passing through the castle park.

The municipal council’s vote now opens the door to registrations, probably at the beginning of January. After having been the scene of the equestrian events and the modern pentathlon of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the city-prefecture can prepare to see a wave of entrants.

The whole triathlon planet is in full swing… The event offered in the same format in Les Sables d’Olonne (Vendée), on July 5, a week earlier, was sold out (3,300 bibs) in just six days!

For this first, Versailles is counting on “welcoming around 2,000 people”, according to Nicolas Fouquet, deputy mayor in charge of sports. “For this type of event, people stay on average 3 to 4 days and consume on site,” says the elected official, thinking in particular of the economic benefits for restaurants, hotels and cultural activities. They are generally estimated in millions of euros.