The following email went out to all Cotswold Classic 2017 Competitors tonight
6 Days and counting….
Good afternoon all, I hope this email finds you all getting ready for this Sunday’s race and raring to go ?
We’re just getting final details sorted for the race, so I wanted to drop you all out a quick email to bring you up to speed on the weekend, and get you some important info out on parking.
I appreciate you’re all busy still trying to work out whether to wear a 1 or 2 piece tri suit or use aero wheels or normal rims, but I thought I’d give you 15 minutes distraction to read through my email before the race (btw. 2 piece and Aero wheels all day long)
In this email, I’ll cover the following:
Race Weekend Parking
Registration requirement
Run course condition
Bike course etiquette
Saturday briefings
Pre race info
Lake Temps
Start list with waves and numbers
Marshal request
Live results/tracker
Race weekend Parking.
As some of you that raced with us in June will know, we had a few issues with the new owners of the run course area, that we also park in on race day, and their new, pretty expensive parking costs.
In order to keep the peace with them, and try and get the costs down for you guys, we’ve come to an agreement with a friendly local farmer to be able to park in his field for both Saturday and Sunday.
Now, as you will all know, farmers never doing anything for free, so there will be a charge for parking on Saturday and Sunday, but it’s still significantly less than paying for the day at the other end as we have done previously. I apologise that this is perhaps not as you were expecting, but it’s the best we could do with the situation.
The car park we’ll be using for both days is a field just past the entrance to the water park (about 80m) further up the road, and the charge for parking there is £2 for Saturday, and £5 for Sunday, which are both payable in cash on the gate for both competitors and spectators alike.
This field is massive, so can take 3-4,000 cars if we needed, so that also reduces all the congestion issues we’ve had in the past.
As it’s a field rather than a gravel car park, it’s not the smoothest surface in the world, but perfectly fine for 99% of all cars, so if you were planning on coming along in your Ferrari, I’d suggest you use the husband/wife’s car for the weekend instead 🙂
You can find the map for parking both days here, and it’ll be well signposted on both days. As you will need to walk approx 80m on the road into the main entrance, please keep your eyes and ears open for other road users and follow the road safety rules and instructions of our marshals
Registration requirement
By now, you should have all had a good read of the race info pack (Download HERE), but just to reiterate a point on registration requirements, as we always get people turn up without the right stuff.
Registration is on Saturday between 12:00 and 17:00 at the start by the lake (Waterland Pursuits, postcode GL76DF)
In order to register for the race on Saturday the 12th, you will need a copy of some form of photo ID, and if you don’t have a valid 2017 BTF/WTF membership card, you will need £5 cash for a day license. We can’t take the old style fivers, as if we send them to the BTF, they’ll send them straight back to us as they’re no longer legal tender.
If you’re registering on behalf of someone else, you will need a photocopy of their photo ID with a note on it to say it’s fine for them to sign on your behalf, and if they’re not a BTF/WTF member, £5 cash for a day license.
For relay teams, either all 3 members need to be present, or one member can register for the others with a photocopy of their photo ID’s and £5 cash for each non BTF/WTF member.
When you arrive to register, there’s an alphabetical list on the wall showing your race number and wave. Please can you have your race number when you go to the desk to register.
Sorry it’s a faff to get a photo copy of the ID, but the BTF rules say we have to collect these in, write the race number on them, and hand them to the BTF referee for him/her to make random checks in transition that the person racing is the person registered to race.
Run course condition
The forecast for the coming week is patchy showers and so far, it looks dry for Saturday/Sunday (hopefully, I’ve not just jinxed it)
Around 40% of the run course is on a hard packed lake side path network, and although these deal with the rain very well and are largely dry or under tree cover. I just wanted to make sure that everyone has a heads up for run shoe selection that we might end up with a wet day.
Whether you decide to run in trail shoes or racing flats is up to you, but I wanted to give you advance warning that if we get a lot of rain towards the end of the week, a few parts of the course could become quite muddy for the runners towards the back of the field.
Generally, the course takes rain very well and remains good and solid, but after it’s had 1000 pairs of feet over it three times, if there’s been some rain in the 48hours before the race, it can get a bit squelchy in places.
I’d suggest you bring both trail and road shoes with you, and make your choice on race morning.
Bike course etiquette
During last year’s August Classic race, we had a couple of complaints from the general public to the police on the course about people’s riding behaviour, so I just wanted to bring the rules to everyone’s attention and give you a couple of example’s of what you can and cannot do on the course.
Our bike course is very quiet indeed, and it’s likely that for most of it you won’t see a single car on the road other than those of the race organisers and support vehicles. However, there are a couple of right turns on the course, that although marshalled, you cannot try and cut the corner without risking coming into something coming the other way if there was a car coming.
Last August I had a phone call from a rather irate local Vicar, who when on his way to his local Sunday Service, nearly had a head on with a cyclist cutting a right hand bend on the wrong side of the road. For a man of the religious cloth, his language was what I might refer to as ‘Fruity’ and I don’t want a repeat of this, as not only is it bad for local relations, but it’s also very dangerous for the cyclist.
Also, towards the end of the race as it gets later in the morning, you will start to encounter some cars using the spine road. It’s highly likely that they’ll simply drive the same speed as the bike in front. You, of course, are fine to over take them, but please do it courteously and accept that they may not be use to driving around a lot of bikes. We’ve had complaints of riders abusing other road users, and like cutting corners, this is simply unacceptable for our race, and can see the race permits getting pulled for years to come.
We have a responsibility for you all to get around safety, but also to keep the local residents happy, so our agreement with the local Police/Council is that anyone seen riding dangerously, abusing other road users or any form of littering is an instant DQ without exception. Sorry to have to be strict on this, but we want this race to keep going and not get stopped for everyone because a competitor lost his rag with a local miss daisy driving nervously around a few bikes. Rant over.
The roads that the bike course is on are largely in good condition, but there are a couple of patches, that although the council had promised to patch up, they’ve yet to pull their fingers out and resurface. We’ll mark these with paint on race day, but please keep your eye open for the occasional British standard pothole.
Saturday Briefings
Although you’ll all get a compulsory 3 minute briefing just before you get in the water on Sunday morning, we’re conscious that no one ever listens to this and just stares blankly into the water wishing i’d hurry up talking so you can get on with your warm up.
All the race information you could ever need is in the competitors information pack, but in order to talk you through what to expect on race day, we’ll be running a couple of full briefings on the Saturday to talk you through the race bit by bit from what to expect when you first get there, to where to go for a massage once you’ve crossed the finish line. This is also a good chance to ask any last minute questions you might have and to meet myself and Dave from the team, who can talk your through everything you could possibly need to know. Anyone that knows Dave, will know he can talk for England too
These briefings are not compulsory like the pre swim ones Sunday morning, but are there if you want it and will be very informal.
We’ve had to move these briefings around a bit to cater for everyone, so we’ll be running two on the Saturday at 12:30 and 16:30
These will both be held on the grass mound by the Swim Exit next to transition.
Our team are there to help, so if you get any other questions on Saturday and are not around for the briefings’ please just ask.
Pre race info and tips
We have a block of 25 pre race toilets, which are located around 100m past where the swim start is, so around a 300m walk from Transition. The pathway they’re on it hard packed gravel, and although walkable bare footed, it makes even the hardened bare foot walker look like they’re on lego bricks or hot coals. With that in mind, I’d suggest your bring some old flip flops, trainers, hotel slippers or something to go on your feet to wear between you leaving transition and going for a pre race toilet ritual and then coming back to the race start.
You can leave these lined up next to the finish area or the entrance to the lake, and if you want them back, there’ll be there for you to collect after you cross the finish line. If they’re not collected, we’ll bin them for you on the Monday during the clear down. The same goes for Coats or something to wear over your wetsuit if you’re in a later wave as you’ll be standing around for a while after the transition closes to when you get into the water. Any coats or jumpers can be tucked into the Finish line massage tent just by the swim start, and collected after the race or if you don’t want it back, just put it by the finish line fencing and we’ll get rid of it for you.
The reason we close transition for all waves so early is that we like to be able to offer competitors the chance to choose a wave and/or number, so don’t have wave specific racks. This means that we can’t have people still racking their bikes whilst the earlier waves are starting to come out the water into T1, so everyone must be out of transition before wave 1 gets their swim under way, even if you’re in wave 8.
Lake temperature
You’ll all be glad to hear that the lake is now back to it’s normal temperature of around 19deg, which puts us firmly in the ‘Wetsuit Optional’ range.
It’s very unlikely it’ll get over the 23deg cut off this week, so please assume that the race on Sunday will be a Wetsuit optional race unless you hear from us otherwise
Start lists with waves and numbers
Hopefully, by now, you’ve all seen the start lists published on the website with your race numbers and waves on it. If not, you can find it at https://www.113events.com/cotswold-classic/cotswold-classic-start-list/
I’ve uploaded this in an excel file as well as PDF, so you can manipulate it as you need to see where you are in relation to your mates etc.
Marshal Request
We still need more marshals for the race on Sunday, so if you have anyone coming along that fancies being part of the team, we’d love to hear from them/you.
They get paid for marshalling with us too, and it’s either £20 cash or a £40 113 2018 Voucher.
All marshals get event team shirts, and we’ll keep them fed and watered during the day and provide them with everything they need.
Marshalling with us is good fun too, and we’ll make sure they’re well looked after, taken through a full briefing, and having fun, as happy marshals are enthusiastic marshals and we need these guys/girls to be cheering you competitors on.
They don’t need any experience at all, and all we ask is that they’re over 16 and know their left from their right.
We have two shifts available
06:15-12:00ish Bike Course
08:15-15:00ish Run Course
We’d love to hear from you, so please email me at graeme@113events.com
Live Tracker/Results
On race day, you will be able to find the live tracker/results at https://www.113events.com/cotswold-classic/results/
The link will be added to this page later this week
Right, that’s it from me. I hope you’re all still awake, and I’ve haven’t put you all to sleep with boredom with my waffle 🙂
We’re here to help, so please get in contact with us if you need anything from us, or there’s anything we can help with to make the run up to race day easier for you
Cheers and happy tapering, and we look forward to welcome you all to our start line on Sunday
Graeme, Nicci and the 113 Events team
Graeme@113events.com
07595 591612