The following email went out to all Cotswold Classic 2020 entrants today

Cotswold Classic August 2nd – Covid19 Update #5

Good afternoon all, I hope everyone’s well ?
As we’re a little under 3 weeks now until the August 2nd’s Cotswold Classic Middle Distance Tri, I wanted to drop out one of our last instalments to bring you all up to speed during the run up to the big day.
I don’t want to jinx it, but things appear to all be pointing in the right direction in terms of the Country and the governments latest developments on Sports and recreation starting again on July 24th, so we’re still planning around everything being good to go.

Over the last couple of days, some of you will have started to receive your race number and bike sticker in the post. These are going out in Batches over the next 10 days, so don’t worry if you’ve not had yours already.
For our seven relay teams, I’m aware now that you’ve only had one number bib in the post, but you will get a second in the post before race day as you will need one each for the Biker and the Runner (The swimmer doesn’t need to wear one)

Our time plan for the Race info pack and online briefing are that you will get an email early next week with a link to Download your race info pack, and early during race week, you will get another with a link to watch the online briefing for the day. The reason the info pack is not quite available yet is that we’re still working on getting agreement from various stakeholders on what we can and can’t do on the day, and these little tweaks will be key to certain parts of the info pack instruction (don’t worry, you’ll still be able to do the full distances if you choose)

The online video brief will come out during race week, as it will contain some important info, so we want to make sure it’s fresh in everyone’s mind and not watched weeks before the day and then subsequently forgotten.

The race info pack will contain absolutely everything you could possibly need to know on the day from where the car parking and pre race (And during) toilets are (there’s lots as we have to have 1 toilet for every 8 competitors), where the aid stations are and how they will work, what’s on the aid stations, drafting and covid specific rules (ie keeping a safe distance on the run as well as the bike) right through to how you cross the line, getting your medal at the finish line along with your goody bag etc.

The Rough outline of how the day will go is as follows (there is no Saturday registration or any activity for competitors on site until Sunday)

August 2nd
04:30 – Car Park opens
04:30-07:00 Transition is open for bike racking and ID/License checks along with Temperature checking
06:30-08:00 the race starts in 6 waves of 15minute windows for rolling starts

Each competitor will be allocated a 15minute rolling start window based on their race number, and each competitor will start at a 10second interval to the person in front (if two competitors are in the same wave and live in the same household, they may also start together). You can choose at this point if you want to complete the full 1,900m course, or the shorter circa 350m swim course – there’s two entrances to the water and each has a timing mat, so we’ll register which you’ve chosen to show on the results) You can also start from transition straight onto the bike if you didn’t want to swim at all.
The line up area for the Swim will have many reminders to keep 2m apart, so please follow these.
When you arrive into transition on race morning, you will find your number on the rack, and placed under this will be your Timing Chip and coloured swim cap that relates to your wave start.

We will have 2 x Aid stations on the run course each lap (Approx every 2miles as the 13.1mile course is 3 laps) and these will have cupped Water and High5 Iso Gels. These will work in two chutes, and you will need to collect your own cup of water and gels from the table from one Chute whilst the team there fill the other Chute. Once one chute starts to run low, you will be guided to Chute number 2, and the aid team will move over to Chute 1 and Clean, disinfect and restock that side, and vice versa. You will be asked to be self sufficient on the bike, but we will have an emergency aid station of Bike Bottles of Water and High5 Iso Gels in case you lose a bottle or it’s extremely hot. This Aid station will have bike racking, and you will be required to stop, rack your bike, walk over to a series of tables to collect what you need, walk back to your bike and continue. Initially, we were told that we would not be allowed a bike aid station, but this was the compromise and is available only if you really need it please. We will have a toilet at this aid station too, and a plentiful supply of Hand gel, wipes etc to ensure that you can enter and leave the toilet cleanly without any spread of infection.

We thought long and hard about the fairest way to set the start times for everyone, and the fairest way we decided was to filter the start list alphabetically A-Z and chop it into 6 even chunks with the relays in the last wave
You can find the start list with all names, numbers and waves HERE
I appreciate that we traditionally allow competitors the chance to choose a specific wave and/or race number, but given the situation this year, I’m afraid that simply was not possible. We also wanted to, where possible, put people from the same household together in waves to assist in travel logistics, and by determining by surname was the easiest way for us to do this.

We are still very much working on our negotiations with various bodies about whether we’re going to be allowing any spectators on site at all, and this is an ongoing process that we will keep you all updated on as things evolve. However, right now, you’ll need to assume that the race will be ‘behind closed doors’ and that spectators will not be allowed on site.
Although this sounds terrible, in actual fact, the bike course is two 28mile laps of public road and around 60% of the run is out in the public area, and you can spectate all around here, just likely not within the lake complex itself.
I appreciate this isn’t ideal, but as the sport of Triathlon is only just starting to get going again, we will have lots of eyes on us, and it’s important that we deliver an entirely safe and sterile event, and not risk spreading this awful disease around further. Competitors on site, we can control, spectators on site (as we’ve found out the hard way in previous years) we simply cannot.

We will still have a great finish line and your friends racing and club mates that have already finished and all our team, photographers and announcer will still make the finish great for you all, and we’ll be running a live webcam so your supporters can see you cross the finish line online. The tracker will be up and running and live also on our results page.
We will overload the finish chute with our team and marshals, so there will still be a great atmosphere.

Speaking of Marshals, we still need around 20 more for the Bike and Run courses, so if you have anyone that would want to get involved, we’d welcome them along – Just drop me an email
Run course Marshals will be allowed on site to see the Swim start, and bike course marshals will be allowed on site to see the finish once the bike course is finished.

Right, that’s it for me for today
We’re here to help, so if you have any questions or concerns, please just give me a call or drop me an email – 07595 591612 / graeme@113events.com

Thanks

Graeme, Nicci and the 113 Events team
graeme@113events.com
07595 591612