Cotswold Classic Middle Distance Triathlon – 13th July

Hey All, I hope everyone’s well ?
We’re getting closer and closer to race day now, so I’ll start firing out more info over the next 10 days to get you all ready for race weekend.

I appreciate I’ve written some big waffles in previous mails, so I’ll keep this one as brief as possible.

If you’ve missed our previous newsletters with all the info on the race, you can find them all HERE

In today’s email, I’ll cover the following:

Race Info pack
Start List / Registration requirements
Got someone who can either Massage or fancies being involved in the transition/Swim exit team
Water temp

Race Info Pack 
Hopefully, by now you’ve all read the race info pack. if not, then please, please, please head HERE and have a read through it.

Start List / Registration requirements 
We have our registration on Saturday July 12th between 12:00 and 17:30.
Also on the Saturday afternoon, we will have two separate Briefings at 13:00 and 16:00 by the Swim exit/transition area.
These are not compulsory, as your compulsory briefing will come out by video link next week, but each will take about 45mins, and we’ll talk through the race in some details and offer up some last minute advice and help. Myself and Dave are really not a great stand up comedy duo, but we’ll try and make it a little bit entertaining to stop you all going off to sleep, and it’ll be very informal with loads of chances to ask questions.

Last year, the BTF introduced their new Racepass system, which is what most of know as a ‘Day license” for non BTF members – membership or a race pass are compulsory for anyone competing at our race within the BTF rules, and provide the competitor with personal liability insurance for the duration of the race.
Once the start list was finalised on the 28th, I sent it off to the BTF for them to go through and validate either your race pass purchase when you signed up through the entry system, or your valid BTF membership for 2025.
On the start list, which I’ll link in a moment, you will see each name now has either an ‘WT/TE’, ‘RP’ or is blank and highlighted Red
If you have an ‘TE/WT’ next to your name, it means the BTF have confirmed your valid membership for the race date with your domestic BTF arm.
If you have an ‘RP’ against your name, they have confirmed that you bought a Racepass from them directly through the entry system when you signed up
If you have a Red Blank against your name, it means you now need sort a race pass, or verify your membership
It’s very possible that if you are a member, and it’s showing as a blank, that they’ve just not found it, or you’ve input your membership number incorrectly, and we can sort that, and I’ll cover more on that in a bit.
If you’re not a member, and need to buy a race pass, I’ll also explain in a minute how you can do this

If you have an RP or an TE/WT against your name, all you will need for registration is a photo ID (ie, driving license, passport, NHS card etc)
There’ll be a few of you that can’t get there on Saturday, so will want someone to register for you and that’s totally fine.
In order for someone to register on your behalf, they will need a printed version of your photoID with a note on it to say it’s fine for them to register on your behalf. This needs to be a printed version rather than the original, as we have to retain that in line with the BTF rules, and then our BTF ref will make checks at transition check in Sunday AM to to ensure the person registered is the person racing. We will, of course, dispose of these properly by having them shredded post race
For relay teams, all competing members will need to be either BTF members, or have bought a race pass.
As relay teams are not showing an WT/TE, RP or Blank, we will need to check BTF membership cards, or race pass purchases for all members of the team. One person can register for the full team, but will need photocopies of the others members ID/Racepass proof, or BTF photo card (i’m conscious not everyone has a photo on their online BTF portal card, so a pic of that, and a photo ID of another format is totally fine)

If you now need to purchase a Racepass from the BTF, you can do so at the following link HERE
You will then need to bring with you a screenshot of your race pass purchase confirmation email (showing that on your phone is fine) along with PhotoID.
I’ll pre-warn you that phone signal on some providers isn’t amazing at the lake, so might be worth taking a screenshot on your phone so you can show a pic of the confirmation rather than trying to get your emails to load
If you don’t get a chance to purchase one before the day, don’t worry, and we can sell you one on behalf the BTF on the day for the same cost of £8. It will need to be cash though please, as we don’t have facility to take card payments (please see previous note on phone signal)

If you’re not sure on any of the above, and I’d totally understand as it’s blimmin complicated, please just ask by email or phone

Please don’t send me copies of your race pass purchases or ID in advance, as I don’t have a facility or time to go through them all in registration, so you will need to bring it with you

We have had around 600 requests for waves and numbers this year during the recent window, and I’ve tried to accommodate everyone where possible
You can find the start list with Waves / Numbers / BTF status HERE

Although I’m afraid we now can’t do anything with the numbers as they are now fixed and have gone off to print, if you now decide that you want a different wave, please see the team at registration on Saturday, and they will try and accommodate you where possible

Got someone with you who fancies being involved in the Transition/Swim exit team 
We’ve had a couple of our transition/swim exit team drop out this week, so we could do with another 2-3 people that could help out with the Swim Exit / transition roles if you have any coming along that fancies a bit of that ?
Alternatively, we will always use more people on the bike and run courses ?
Drop me an email at graeme@113events.com

Water temp
Unless you’ve been living under a rock or trekking in Antartica, you can’t help but notice that it’s been pretty blimmin toasty in the UK for the last few weeks, and that the current run of good weather, although not quite as hot going forwards, is looking to continue for a couple more weeks
What this means for lake temperature is that it’s gone up a fair bit and is currently around 22 point something high right now, or even low 23’s
The forecast for the next few days here is certainly a lot cooler, so I can’t see that water temp changing much between now and race day, but you never know.

We work inline with the BTF rules on Wetsuits, which basically says anything above 24.6 is a Wetsuit ban. However, there’s a fair chunk of tolerance for air temp, and it’s very unlikely to be 24deg at 5am in the morning, we have some flex in that upper limit.
However, 22/33/24 deg is pretty warm, so there’s some things to consider :
I’ll start this ramble by suggesting that although a wetsuit may save you a couple of minutes in the Swim, getting too hot can completely ruin your day as heat exhaustion takes some time to get past, if you can get past it at all during the race, and is not a great thing to start with when you’re in for a long day anyway
I’d also point out that the first aid station on the bike is at about 10 miles, so half hour for the faster guys, and maybe an hour for the slower end, so please ensure you have enough water bottles on your bike to drink as soon as you’re out of the water and on the bike.
I’d seriously recommend that those of you that can. have a good long think about whether you really need a wetsuit or not on the day, and whether swimming without a wetsuit is a better idea than swimming with. You’re adults and know you own swimming better than we do, so the choice is yours.
If you are going to wear a wetsuit, please consider ensuring you get regular cool water into your suit to maintain a decent core temp. My favourite method of this was to pull open the front of the neck line when swimming to get a good dose of cold down my chest.
There’s also a couple of spots on the swim course that 99.9% of people can stand up in, and you’re more than welcome to do so just to get a breather and to get yourself ready to carry on.
If you’re unsure of what you can and can’t wear, please have a read through section 4 of the following BTF rules
https://www.britishtriathlon.org/britain/documents/events/competition-rules/british-triathlon-competition-rules-june-2025.pdf
This is maybe unnecessary scaremongering, as I’m sure it’ll be a perfect swim temp on race day, but I wanted to arm you all with the right information to start with and let you all make the best decisions for yourself.
I will, of course, keep everyone posted on the Water temp during next week’s emails.

Right, that’s it for me for today. The next you will hear from me will be early next week with a link to my face for radio giving you the pre race video briefing, as well as information on parking on the weekend, links to the live tracker and results and some advice for spectators etc.

I’m away up to not so sunny Scotland early tomorrow until Sunday for mine and Nicci’s youngest son’s bike racing, but I’ll have my laptop and internet at the circuit as well as my mobile, so please just get in touch if you need any help with anything, or advice

Cheers and happy training

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