2026 Nice France - Half Ironman World Championship

Wednesday - Travel

We left Dulles on Tuesday at 6pm and landed in Nice on Wednesday morning at 8:30am.  A bit of difficulty figuring out the car rental location and navigating to terminal 2.  Eventually figured it out, got our car and drove to Port Lympia.  dropped Suzi at the AirBNB with the luggage and went to parking.  There is a 5 level parking garage underground in the port.  My job was to assemble the bike and so I got to work on that to get it out of the way.  Somehow one of the headset bolts got stripped and I ended up having to go down to the bike shop and get a new bolt.  We walked down to the port and went to the bike shop "Eat Sleep Bike".  It was one of the shops Joe recommended, so I texted him letting him know we were at the shop not knowing that he lives directly above the shop and he came down to say hi.  The guy at the shop found a new bolt and we were good to go.

Thursday - Trail Run and more Travel

Woke up Thursday morning to an 8 mile trail run with Joe while Suzi spent time exploring old town Nice.  The trail run was along the coast to the East and then up into the hills.  There may have been 3 miles of steps on the run, very up and down along the coast and then up into the hills where we got a good view of next port west of Nice.  After the run I caught up with Suzi and we waited for Jackson to arrive at the train station while we had some drinks at FOAM, which ended up being a go to throughout the week.  Graham and Julia also arrived on Thursday and we all went out for dinner at a pizza place, Prima Volta.  After a long day of travel Jackson Graham and Julia were pretty spent.

Friday - Pre-ride the bike course - Saint Remy

Friday morning Jackson and Graham wanted to pre-ride the bike course descent.  We loaded up the car with the bikes and drove to the top of the Col de Vence.  This is a very hilly course for the Ironman event with 4000 ft of elevation over 57 miles.  Terrain profile is basically up and down.  The descent is a windy technical decent so in an ironman with varying degrees of skill on the road it was important to get a view of the descent.  In the end everyone eneded up keeping the rubber on the road so time well spent.  While I was scoping out the course, Suzi spent time with Mia, who arrived that morning, walking around old town Nice.  After getting back into town, I discovered that the Ironman event had taken all of the available parking in the City (no joke!) so I asked Jackson to pack for me and met Suzi and Jackson on the street with bags.  Suzi and I loaded up and headed to Saint Remy.  This was about a 2.5 hour drive and we got there mid afternoon.  This was enough time to check into our hotel and walk the Vincent Van Gogh trail which took us to several spots that became immortalized in the paintings that are now famous.  Several pictures below of Suzi posing in the landscape that Van Gogh painted.  In the evening we walked downtown and found a great little place to have dinner.  These towns in France remind me of small rural towns like where we grew up, but at night these places come alive with the French culture and outdoor dining.

some pics from Saint Remy

Saturday - Arles

Saturday morning we woke up and had breakfast at the hotel, checked out, hit the road for a short 30 minute drive to Arles.  Arles is a mid sized city where Vincent also spent a good deal of time and where he lived.  We found several locations of his works in Arles, while also touring the city.  It happened that weekend was the biggest open air festival of the year and there was lots of food and entertainment.  There is a large Roman ampitheatre in Arles, which was closed for the day but the outside was impressive enough and we could see into the ampitheatre from the outside.  The Roman architecture dominated the landscape in Arles.  Very impressive stone structures and walls lining the river.  Remnants of an old roman bridge were impressive as well.

Sunday - Race Day

Graham had a rough day as it seems he ingested some sea water on the swim and couldn't hold any food or water down on the bike ride.  By the time the run came he was running on empty and feeling dizzy, not able to continue.  Jackson had a good day overall.  Finished in top 15% overall and top 30% in his age group.  Averaged over 20mph on the bike with one massive climb and then ran the half marathon at around 6:40 pace.

Monday - Rest Day - Matisse

Suzi went down to old town Nice and I did some work in the morning.  I rented a bike, put Suzi on the back and we rode up the hill to the Matisse Museum, where Suzi spent some time while I jetted over to the archaeological museum next door.  The archaeological museum was constructed at the site of an old Roman administrative complex.  More Roman ruins to see.  We rode back, showered, ate dinner and checked in for the evening.

Tuesday - Monaco

On Tuesday morning Joe offered to let us borrow his car to drive to Monaco; however there were 6 of us so we decided it best to stay together and take the train, which worked out just fine.  We went to the Oceanographic museum in the morning and the Monte Carlo casino in the afternoon.