The following pre race newsletter went out to all Cotswold Classic competitors tonight
Cotswold Classic – July 10th 2022
Good evening all
Just a few sleeps to go and we can welcome you to our race weekend.
This will likely be the last you’ll hear from me before the race weekend, so this might be a reasonably long one.
In this email I’ll cover the following :
Registration requirements
Video Briefing
Bike course etiquette
Weather update and preparation
Race morning prep
Parking for competitors and spectators
Registration requirements
There’s often some confusion about what’s needed by you all for registration, so I’ll try and cover the main points as follows
You can register with us either on Saturday afternoon between 2 and 4 by the swim start at our early registration window that we’re trying out for the first time this weekend, or Sunday morning by transition on arrival.
In order to register, you will need either a 2022 BTF Photo card ID, or another form of Photo ID and £5 cash for a BTF day license. If you don’t want to bring the actual ID with you, a photo on your phone or a photocopy is totally fine too.
Our BTF referee is very strict on us checking ID or BTF cards, so please accept that if you cannot provide either a valid 2022 BTF photo card (with a picture on it) or another form of photo ID and £5 cash for a BTF day license, you will not be able to race.
For both Saturday’s early registration window, and Sunday morning’s normal registration, you will need to have your race bib (race number) with you too.
Registration on Sunday morning will end at 06:00 prompt, so you will need to register before that point if you want to race.
When you arrive at transition Sunday morning to register, you will need to show your race bib and be wearing your helmet on your head and fastened so that we can make a quick visual check that it actually fits (you’d be surprised how many people turn up with helmets that either don’t fit on their heads, or the chin strap is loose down by their chest)
You will then be given a wristband to show that you’ve registered, and can then head into transition where you will get issued your swim cap and your timing chip and strap will be at your spot in the racking.
Video Briefing
Please find the link to your video briefing as follows :
Dave is actually really Noisy, as you’ll see on Sunday. However, the poor guy gets really camera shy so literally sits there and says nothing (much to the delight of my ears)
We will have a non compulsory newbies briefing on Saturday afternoon at the lake at around 16:00.
Although it’s called a Newbies briefing, it’s not just for newbies and it’ll cover everything about our race, takes about and hour and is useful for anyone that’s either pretty new to triathlon, or even those that haven’t raced with us before
We’ll try and make it fairly light hearted and try not to bore you all to death with an hour of constant talking.
You can ask any questions you might have too, and it’ll be very informal
This will be by the Swim exit about 100m from the race start/finish.
Bike course etiquette
I’m going to go into a bit of a rant now, so please accept my apologies in advance as it’s not my preferred style, as I hope you’ve all seen.
Over the last few year’s, I’ve seen some truly shocking behaviour on bike courses at triathlons all around the UK and into Europe (this includes our races too, so I’m not pointing any fingers at other organisers)
Seemingly really nice guys (I’m being gender specific here, as we very rarely get any issues with female competitors) can for some reason, turn into really badly behaved cyclists as soon as they get a race number on and the red mist descends.
This is something we simply cannot tolerate at our races as how other competitors are treated by each other, and how the local area perceive our race is super important to me.
I’ll give you a couple of examples that I’ve seen at our races in the last couple of years :
1) A competitor cuts a right hand corner into the path of an oncoming car. The car jams it’s brakes on, and the cyclists calls the driver a F’ing C*** even though the cyclist was on the wrong side of the road and totally in the wrong.
2) A nervously driven car is on the spine road waiting behind a cyclist to overtake. Another cyclist decides they’d rather undertake the waiting car driven by a nervous 80year old, and then shouts obscenities at the driver when they panic and put the brakes on.
In both these incidences, I got dragged in front of local parish councils for a bollocking, which was not much fun.
We have a really good relationship with the local residents to our two races, and I’m very keen to maintain this please which is why we are being so strict on this.
If.. our team, moto refs, moto support guys or any local residents report any discourteous behaviour out on our bike or run courses, that competitor will be instantly DQ’d, will not get to complete the race and will be banned from 113 Events races for life.
If.. anyone is caught intentionally littering, this will also be an instant DQ as this is a big issue in the area.
I appreciate it’s less than 0.1% of competitors that end up riding or behaving like this, but it spoils it for everyone and seriously jeopardises the future of our races in the area..
I gave a very similar warning to our competitors before the June Cotswold 113 this year, and the standard or riding and behaviour was exemplary so you guys have a high bar to match please
Right, rant over
Weather update and preparation
The forecast for this weekend is looking to be a scorcher.
With this in mind, please can I remind you all the bike course aid station is not until around 24miles into each lap, so if you are planning on using the bike course Aid station, please remember to have enough drink and gels on your bike to get yourself started. You will see the bike course aid station on the way out on the other side of the road, but you must not cross the road to get to it, and is only available for the return leg of the loop please.
The water temperature today was a little over 20deg, so given how warm it’s going to be for the next few days, I’d expect it to be 21-22 on race day. This is the warmer end of the Wetsuit optional range, and I know that us triathletes love a wetsuit even when the water is perfect for not wearing one, so please be mindful that you’re likely to come out the water really quite warm and will want to drink as soon as you get on the bike.
For the run, we will endeavour to have a hose pipe to spray people down as you come through the lake complex, and often the families in the residential area of Somerford Keynes on the run course will do the same.
Because of some strange insurance / liability rules, we can’t supply sun cream for you, but there are plenty of the team in transition that can help you if you need to apply your own.
The run course is about 30-40% in the shade under trees too, so that should help you keep cool.
This is British weather forecasting though, so it could be 35deg or snowing come Sunday.
Race Morning prep
When you leave transition in the morning, you will need to walk over to the pre race toilets by the swim exit and on to the swim start area (about 100m max total). Although the pre race toilets are on grass, the swim start area is on a stone path.
It’s perfectly ok for most feet barefooted, but if you want to preserve those tootsies for the swim, you’re welcome to bring an old set of slippers (hotel ones are mint for this), sliders, flip flops or trainers etc and leave them by the waters edge as you head off in your wave. The swim start is right by the finish line, so you can grab them after the race, or if you want to just leave them there, we’ll collect them up after the race and put them in the skip for you.
Also, some people like to keep warm before the race whilst they’re waiting to get started, and you’re welcome to put any jumpers, coats etc in the pop up gazebo by the start line and collect after the race. It’s in the finish area, so is competitors only, but you’d obviously leave anything there at your own risk.
Transition area is competitors only, and is reasonably secure, so most people just leave there stuff in their bags with their bikes.
As a side note to this, although it looks like it’s going to be dry, the grass that transition is on can get overnight dew, so it’s worth having a large plastic bag to lay your stuff on top of (or in if it looks like it might rain) in your spot in transition. Bin bags, Ikea bags etc are the most popular. In line with BTF rules, you cannot have a plastic box in transition since about 2017, so anything you want to keep by your bike will need to be in a soft bag please.
Parking for competitors and spectators Sat/Sunday
For those of you coming along on Saturday, only the main Competitor car park will be open from 13:00-18:00.
Saturday parking is £2 cash please, and you can also buy Sunday’s £5 car parking ticket on Saturday to save yourself some time Sunday morning. Car parking tickets are only valid for the Main competitor car park.
When you park in the competitor carpark on Saturday, you will get a green wristband which will allow you to walk into the gate of the beach and country park without being charged walk in rate by those guys. You can walk through the Beach and Country park towards transition area and the start/finish which is where we’ll hold the early registration and briefing outlined above
On Sunday, the main competitor carpark will be open from 04:00 until 06:00 and has enough space to house all competitors and handful of spectators. Car parking for Sunday is £5 cash on arrival, so please have the right note or change if possible as scrabbling for change at 4am is not much fun for anyone. The phone signal at the lake is patchy at best so we cannot take card, only cash please
At the south of the above diagram, you will see the competitor overflow and spectator parking which will also be open from 4am until early afternoon, and is also £5cash payable to the guys that own it on the gate. I’m afraid you cannot buy the tickets for there on Saturday as it’s run independently to our car parking, which is rented to us (for an extortionate fee) by a local farmer for the weekend.
Both carparks are fields, so although perfectly fine for 99% of cars, you might struggle if you have the nice option of turning up in your Lamborghini sports car.
The spectator carpark is right on the bike and run courses, and is just a 3 min walk to the finish line area.
With the weather looking so good this weekend, it’s worth getting your fan club to come earlier rather than later if they’re not planning on being there for the start as it’s possible that the waterpark will get exceptionally busy later in the morning, and the spectator carpark will start to fill up with people that are just looking for a day at the lake rather than just people coming along for the race.
Right, that’s it for my waffle today, and the next time you’ll hear from me is in person over the weekend
Myself, and the 113 team are very much looking forward to welcoming you all along this weekend, but please just get in touch if there’s anything we can help with.
I’m at the lake building etc pretty much solidly between now and Sunday, so you’re better off giving me a call rather than trying to email – 07595 591612
Happy tapering everyone and see you in just 3 sleeps
Graeme, Nicci and the 113 Events Team
graeme@113events.com
07595 591612