The following post race email went out to all Cotswold Classic 2021 competitors this morning
Cotswold Classic – Post race email
Good morning all. I hope everyone’s feeling ok after yesterday’s race ?
Firstly, I’m sorry that we didn’t get to Swim yesterday morning, and please be assured that we did everything possible to try and make it happen. Swimmer safety is our absolute priority, and having reviewed the conditions with the Water safety team, the BTF ref, and our team, the tough call had to be made to cut the swim entirely.
It’s the first time we’ve had to cut any part of our races in 10 years of running Middle Distance Triathlon, and not a decision that we made lightly, but hope that everyone understands 🙁
What a difference an hour makes as this was the lake at 04:30
There’ll be some learning points from our side, not least on how we then manage bikes out on to the bike course post swim cancellation (a process I hope we never need again), as yesterday’s race start straight from T1 meant we had lots of bikes in big groups, and whilst I’m conscious that you all know the rules on drafting and bike etiquette, coupling a greater intensity of bikes out at any one time with the frustration I’m sure many felt from not getting to swim, meant that we had some well below standard riding, and many large groups still together well into the point of the course where splitting up would be easily achievable
We also had a couple of nasty accidents on the course, although neither of these initially appear to have been the result of group riding.
It’s nice to know that many of you have been concerned with the wellbeing of your fellow competitors, and that we’ve received many emails asking on how they are. As I’m sure you can appreciate, I cannot go into details on their conditions due to their own privacy. Both injured parties will also be receiving this email, and I’m sure they’ll be pleased to know that many others are thinking of them.
The accident that happened near the Latton aid station is now going to be subject to an investigation by us and the BTF, so if you were a witness to what happened, please can I ask that you get in touch
It’s important to us to fully understand what happened so we can put procedure in place to ensure we don’t get a reoccurrence in the future. We’ve been very proud of having an exemplary safety record, so to have two fairly major incidents in one event is something we fully need to understand so we can make sure this never happens again.
Photo’s and results:
You can find the official photographer’s site here: https://www.charleswhittonphotography.com/group28548.html
We have prepaid a couple of lower res downloads for you all, which are suitable for social media, and Charles has various other higher resolution pics for sale if you wanted to create prints etc.
Typically, it takes him a couple of days to go through 1000’s of pics and sort, so they should all be available by around Tuesday evening
Right, that’s it from me for this year.
Next year’s races are provisionally set for the following dates :
Cotswold 113 – June 5th
Cotswold Classic – July 10th
Entries for both events will open later this month/early August, and I’ll email you all out our newsletter when dates are fixed.
Thank you all for coming racing with us this year, and we’d love to see you all back on our start lines another time
Cheers
Graeme, Nicci and the 113 Events team
graeme@113events.com
07595 591612
Nb. If you lost anything yesterday, and are still in the area, we will be at the lake all day today clearing everything away, so you’re welcome to pop over and sift through the lost property