THE BRUTAL
with a friendly vibe (but, as the name suggests, is pretty hardcore, too) is the Brutal Extreme Triathlon series. The organizers offer a series of brutal events that stretch from middle-distance to the full. They upgrade the challenge, though, offering double – and triple – distance races, too. (Yes, I do mean double and triple the distance of a full Ironman.) Those longer events aren’t held every year – the next triple takes place in 2019. The swim is always set in chilly Lake Padarn (usually around 15 C) and the bike goes up and down some very steep hills in Snowdonia National Park, for a total of 3,000 m of climbing. The run ends on the top of Wales’ highest mountain (the Snowdon, 1,085 m high, but the run features a total vertical gain of 1,349 m).
ICON LIVIGNO XTREME TRIATHLON
IN 2015, THE ICON LIVIGNO XTREME TRIATHLON presented itself as one of the craziest long-course races you can sign up for. Although it’s not part of the Xtreme triad listed above, the ICON has all the prerequisites. From year one, the race offered the highest swim start of the entire Xtreme calendar (the waters of the Gallo Lake lie at 1,809 metres above sea level) and some of the longest and hardest Alpine passes climbed on a bike: the Forcola Pass (2,315 m), the Bernina (2,323 m), the Fuorn (2,149 m) the Stelvio (the second highest pass in Europe with its 2,757 metres) and the Foscagno (2,291 m). With a total vertical gain on the bike of 5,000 m (and length of 195 km that will also bring the athletes onto Swiss soil), there is no doubt that the ICON is one of the hardest races out there – also because the 42 km run still has a positive gain of 3,000 m and the highest arrival for an Xtreme tri (3,000 m). As is the case for the other ultras, even during the ICON, support cars are mandatory for the entire bike leg. Furthermore, the support group needs to be with the athletes from the 27 km point of the run up to the very top of the race. Finally, the water temperatures have never been warmer than 16 C, which made the organisation opt for mandatory neoprene caps in addition to wetsuits. Neoprene socks and gloves also are strongly recommended.