Ecuador runs on one transition and three colour-coded bags — you swim, ride and run back to the same spot on the Manta waterfront, but your kit is split across a blue, a red and a white bag, and your bike goes in the night before. Here's exactly what goes in each, when check-in closes, and how race morning runs.
Unlike a point-to-point 70.3, Manta is one transition, colour-coded bags — swim, bike and run all pivot through the same spot on the waterfront, and you finish a short way along at the cruise terminal. The colours keep your kit sorted, not because you're moving venues but because the bags are handled and racked at different moments.
IRONMAN's colour-to-bag scheme carries over here, and the 2026 guide is explicit — place all your swim gear inside the blue bag. Pack each bag for the discipline it powers and label nothing else.
Manta runs a mandatory day-before bike check-in with the bike racked overnight — there's no race-morning bike check-in to fall back on. Check-in closes Saturday at 18:00, confirmed from the 2026 athlete guide.
The 2026 official guide is in. The times below are now confirmed for this edition — a few moved from last year.
Transition opens at 04:30 and closes at 06:00, then the rolling swim start gets under way at 06:30. Get your white morning-clothes bag in, do your final bike checks, and clear transition before it closes — the order is what matters.
The blue bag is your swim-to-bike / T1 bag — helmet, bike shoes, sunglasses, race belt and ride nutrition. The 2026 guide is explicit that you place all your swim gear inside the blue bag too, and it's racked with your bike on the waterfront the day before.
Yes. Bike check-in is mandatory and day-before, racked overnight at the Muelle Playa Murciélago transition, and it closes Saturday at 18:00. There is no race-morning bike check-in, so don't plan to bring it on the day.
Usually not. It's a warm tropical Pacific swim off Playa El Murciélago, and wetsuits are only allowed up to and including 24.4 °C — Manta's water is often warmer than that, so the swim is frequently wetsuit-prohibited. Plan for a non-wetsuit swim and check the race-morning call. When wetsuits are banned, your clothing can't cover your arms below the elbow or your legs below the knee.
Because the colours track when a bag is handled, not where. Manta is one transition on the waterfront — blue is racked with the bike the day before, red waits on the same rack for the run, and white is the only bag touched on race morning before being moved to the finish.
Check-in closes Saturday at 18:00, confirmed from the 2026 athlete guide. The bike is racked overnight from then, so everything in the blue and red bags has to be right before that cut-off.
The swim cut-off is 07:40 (1:10 after the final athlete starts), the bike closes at 12:44 at KM 90 (5:30 after) with an intermediate check at KM 45 by 10:40, the run cut-off falls around 15:40 at KM 21.1, and the overall finish cut-off is 15:00 — 8h30 after the last athlete starts.
The white bag holds the dry clothes you arrive in. You hand it in before the swim and it's moved to the Terminal de Cruceros de Manta, so warm, dry kit is waiting when you cross the finish line.
Add Manta and RackSide turns this into a personal, deadline-aware plan — your wave time, a packing checklist you tick off, and a nudge the moment the 2026 guide drops so your times stop being provisional.