IRONMAN 70.3 Calgary is a point-to-point 70.3 you seed yourself — North-American format, so there are no coloured bags. You swim and rack your bike at Ghost Lake, ride into Cochrane, and finish at the Historic Cochrane Ranche. You bring your own sticker-labelled gear bags and the race trucks them across for you. Here's exactly what goes in each, when the mandatory bike drop closes, and how race morning runs.
Swim and bike start at Ghost Lake, the bike runs east into Cochrane, and you finish at the Historic Cochrane Ranche — you never come back to where you started. There are no coloured bags to pack, but because the start and finish are split, the race trucks your own gear bags between the two so your kit meets you where you need it.
There's no IRONMAN colour-to-bag scheme here — it's a North-American self-transition. Think in legs, not colours: bring your own gear bags, apply the sticker set you collect at check-in, and group your kit for the leg each bag powers.
Calgary runs a mandatory day-before bike drop at Ghost Lake with the bike racked overnight — bikes are not allowed into transition on race morning, so there's no race-morning check-in to fall back on. Your Run Gear Bag goes on the transport truck at the same time. You collect your timing chip at the bike drop.
The 2026 official guide is in. The times below are now confirmed for this edition — a few moved from last year.
The order is what matters: transition opens at 05:30 and closes at 06:50, you lay out your bike kit and hand in your Morning Clothes Bag, then the rolling swim start at 07:00. Bikes can be uncovered from 05:30 but stay racked until the bike leg.
No. Calgary is a North-American self-transition 70.3, so there's no blue / red / white bag system. You bring your own gear bags, apply the sticker set from your race packet, and lay out your kit yourself — grouped by leg rather than packed into colour-coded bags.
The race trucks them. Because it's a point-to-point course, your Morning Clothes and Wet Stuff bags are transported from the swim start at Ghost Lake to the finish at the Cochrane Ranche, and your Run Gear Bag is trucked to your rack in T2. Pack each bag before its truck leaves — there's no nipping back.
Yes. Bike drop is mandatory and day-before, on Saturday from 09:00 to 16:00 at Ghost Lake, and your bike is racked overnight. Bikes are not permitted into transition on race morning, so there is no race-morning bike check-in — you have access to your bike again from 05:30 on race day.
The mandatory bike and run-gear-bag drop at Ghost Lake closes at 16:00 on Saturday — confirmed from the 2026 athlete guide. Your bike and Run Gear Bag both have to be in before then; there's no race-morning fallback.
On Saturday, at the same time as your bike. Pack all your run kit and hand it to the transport truck at Ghost Lake during the mandatory bike drop — the race moves it to your bike-rack location in T2 at the Cochrane Ranche, ready for when you come in off the bike.
Ghost Lake is a foothills reservoir, so the swim runs cold even in late July and is very likely wetsuit-legal — bring one. Mornings at the lake are cool too, so pack a warm dry layer in your Morning Clothes Bag; the afternoon on the run turns warm and the UV is strong at altitude, so plan sunscreen and electrolytes for the finish.
Add Cochrane and RackSide turns this into a personal, deadline-aware plan — your wave time against the confirmed 2026 cut-offs and a packing checklist you tick off.