The following newsletter went out to all Cotswold Classic 2021 competitors tonight
Cotswold Classic – July 11th 2021
Good evening all, I hope everyone’s well ?
We’re a little over a month away from this year’s Cotswold Classic Middle distance Triathlon, so I wanted to start off the pre race emails with some info on what’s in store on July 11th, and some updates on Course Conditions etc as I appreciate many of you will want to start thinking about kit choices and planning for the big day.
If you’ve recently entered this race since the last newsletter in May, please can I ask that you all bring yourself up to speed on it, as it includes a link to the race info pack, at https://www.113events.com/cotswold-classic-2021-may-newsletter/
I’ll try and keep this mail quite brief as you’re going to be sick to death of my emails by the time race comes, so in this pre race newsletter I’ll cover the following
– Covid Situation update
– Wave start format
– What to expect and when
– Course conditions / type
Covid Situation update
Although we’ve not had any official nod yet as to whether Boris is going to implement the last stage of this current lockdown release on June 21st, it’s looking like there’s an increasing risk that it’s going to get delayed, and what actually is included in this ‘Last stage’ of lockdown release is still very unknown in terms of Triathlon.
With this in mind, and as mentioned in my last newsletter, we have lots of little details on the race that could be effected by this that need to be fixed some weeks out, so we’ve made the assumption that we’re still going to be in the same situation we’re in now come race day.
This means that we won’t be holding registration on the Saturday, your packs will get posted to you and registration/racking etc will all happen Sunday morning.
This also effects how the wave starts will work – More on this later in this email
It may be that Boris is kind to the Nation and that on July 11th, we’re back to normal and we can all go back to licking each other’s faces and hugging strangers in public, but we won’t know that until nearer the time, so we have to just assume that nothing is changing in terms of how we lay out our plans.
No matter what the news is from the Government, please base your planning around not needing to be there on the Saturday as we’ve now committed to postal pack distribution.
We will, however, be timing transition as opposed to a Neutralised transition format, and this worked very well on Sunday at our Cotswold 113 with all competitors giving each other ample space in both T1 and T2.
Wave start format
We are going to run 6 waves of rolling starts, and each wave will effectively be a 10 minute window in which to start. 1,900m swimmers will go off at 5 second intervals in two chutes, so 2.5 seconds per starter.
The traditional course of 1,900m will be marked out in a single lap, but we will also offer a shorter course of around 3-400m for those of you that have struggled with Swim training, or an option to start straight on the bike if you don’t want to swim at all. You don’t need to tell us in advance which option you would like, and on race morning, we will have separate start chutes for each of the options that your timing chip will pick up as you cross the mat.
Each option can then cross the finish line as normal and collect their medal, and the times will be published showing the options accordingly. This is only for this year due to pools being shut, and to try and make it more inclusive for the weaker swimmers amongst you that have suffered the early 2021 pool closures the most.
Historically, we’ve always been proud to be able to offer competitors the chance to choose a specific lucky race number, or group of numbers, so they can rack with their mates or club.
However, as part of our Covid planning for this race, we are not able to allocate race numbers on request as we need to be able to try and break clubs and groups up where possible and avoid the possibility of people grouping together in transition Please read the following section before emailing me, as it’s important
You will, if you like, be able to choose which wave you would prefer and the window to request your preferred wave is from now until 17:00 on Monday the 14th June (This coming Monday) and after that the waves and numbers are fixed and cannot be changed.
You can do so by email to me at graeme@113events.com with ‘Wave’ as the email title please
The race numbers for the bibs will be sorted Alphabetically, and this enables families that are racing together (of which there are quite a few) to be able to rack next to each other, as they’re likely to be within the same bubble as well as potentially lift sharing on the day.
We will also sort the waves for anyone not requesting one alphabetically too, so families/groups with the same surname will be in the same wave and racked close to each other already.
As I’m sure you can all appreciate with 1000 competitors, it’s a admin nightmare to try and sort all the waves, so if you want to request the same wave for a group of you, please do so in line with the following guidelines to stop me pulling out what’s left of my hair :
1) Please check with the other names that they do actually want to be in that wave, as I very often get a request for Joe Bloggs to be in wave 3 with a group, and later get a request from Joe Bloggs himself to be in Wave 6 as he was unaware that someone had already chosen a wave for him.
2) Please list the full Names, Dates of Birth and registered email of the people you want in the same wave as we often have seemingly unique names that are duplicated in the race, not just your Dave Smiths and Claire Browns. Please also use their registered name, as I won’t necessarily know who ‘Smithy’, ‘Paddy’ or Big Guns Jones’ (this was an actual request for a Wave/Number a couple of years back’) is.
3) Please check the person you want placed in a wave with you is actually racing and they’ve not entered at all, or have entered and then later deferred/withdrawn (this happens way more than I think people expect)
As said above, if you don’t choose a specific wave, and you don’t have to, you’ll be slotted in alphabetically, so people with a Surname starting with an A in wave 1 and Z’s in wave 6 etc
If you do wish to choose a preferred wave, please state first and second choices too as some waves are more popular than others and might be full.
What to expect and when
Over the next 4 weeks, you’ll be getting quite a few emails from me
These will mainly be Course Conditions updates, reminders about reading the race info pack, a video briefing link (around 5-8days out from the race), specific rules and requests for race day, and reminders of what to do on the day and when.
Around 7 days out from the race, you will get your race pack in the post. This will contain your race bib (the number that you wear on the bike/run) and a bike sticker*
They go out in batches too, so don’t worry if 10 days out your mate has his, and you don’t yet have yours. Nearer the time, I’ll send out what to do just incase your race pack hasn’t arrived, or you’ve thrown it away/left home for holiday without it etc
* you will need your race bib and bike sticker on the day, and when you get into transition, you will find your timing chip/strap and swim hat in your spot in the racking.
Course conditions / type
Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the last couple of weeks, you will have noticed that the summer has finally arrived and it’s actually been really sunny.
This is great for the Lake temperature, as just 18 days ago, it was something like 12deg, but is now a smidge over 20.
Depending on how long this summer weather sticks around for, the lake temp is likely to increase slightly over the coming weeks, and the typical July lake temp is around 21-23.
I’ll keep everyone posted on this anyway, so it’s not something any of you need to worry about just yet.
For those of you that are fortunate enough to have a choice of TT or Road bikes for race day, our course is pretty much pancake flat, and is a TT bike, disc wheel and aero helmet course all day long. The road surface is decent for most of the course, and we’re working with the council to get a couple of small sections sorted for race day, but any potholes which are there currently are easily avoided, and we’ll paint them bright yellow again for race day as we just have done for the June 6th Cotswold 113 (as shown below)
For reference for the tyre nerds amongst you, I ride the course pretty often, and I’ve found that a 28mm Tubeless tyre on a carbon rim with a 21mm ID at around 65-70psi works well on a road bike (I weigh around 79kg)
The run course is also completely pancake flat, and is made up of around 50% Tarmac, 45% hard packed lake paths and 5% Grass. The lake path sections are mainly under trees and deal with rain vry well, so unless we have a week of solid rain in the run up to the event, you’ll want road shoes rather than offload/trail style shoes.
We have a single aid station on the bike course, which is towards the end of each of the two 28mile laps, and this Aid station will have 750ml bike bottles of High5 Energy Drink and also Water. We’ll also have High5 ISO gels.
Unless you can manage without a drink for the first 25miles of the lap, you’ll need to start the race with your own bike bottle on your bike.
For the run course, there’s 3 Aid stations per lap, which are roughly equidistant around the lap (4.35m miles per lap, so 3 laps on race day and 9 Aid station opportunities)
These Aid stations will have cupped Water (in a large paper cup that you can squeeze the top of and carry) and High5 ISO gels.
We would traditionally have a variety of other stuff at Aid station number two, but when we’ve gone through planning with various stakeholders, having all this stuff at AS2 presents too much chance of cross contamination through someone touching something that can’t then be cleaned before the next person arrives, so I’m afraid it’s Water and Gels only this year 🙁
If you have any stuff that you specifically want at the Aid station located in the lake (the 3rd AS per lap), please bring it to registration on Sunday morning in a sealed plastic bag clearly marked with a Marker pen with your race number, and we’ll ensure it’s at AS3 for you to collect on the way past.
Right, that’s it from me for tonight. We’re here to help, so if there’s anything you need from me, or you get any questions over the next month, please just ask
Thanks and happy training
Graeme, Nicci and the 113 Events team
graeme@113events.com
07595 591612