A NEW bike course for Ironman UK has been approved, allowing 400 more athletes to sign up for the event.

The organisers have been working with the authorities to expand capacity and make it the largest Ironman ever held in the UK since the event, which starts at Pennington Flash on July 20 at 6am, experienced unprecedented demand for entries.

Existing Ironman UK entrants were able to refer friends for entry from today, Wednesday, while the remaining places go on general sale tomorrow, Thursday, at 12noon.

Visit www.eu.ironman.com/triathlon/events/emea/ironman/uk to register.