The following newsletter went out to all Cotswold Classic V2 2023 Competitors today :
Cotswold Classic V2 – July 9th 2023
Good afternoon all. I hope everyone’s enjoying the good weather now the summer’s finally decided to start turning up for us ?
We’re just over 2 months away from race day now, so I wanted to get the next instalment out of the newsletter out to bring you all up to speed and ready for July’s racing
In this newsletter, I’ll cover the following:
Getting ready for race day – Race info pack
Kit prep and options
Familiarisation day
Refer a friend scheme – We’ve still got places
Marshal request
Feeling ready earlier than expected
Getting ready for race day – Race info pack
If you follow the link HERE you will find the full race info pack for the Cotswold Classic V2
This contains pretty much everything you need to know about race weekend, and it’s really important that you have a good read of it please. I’ll send you this a few times before race weekend, as the amount of competitors that turn up on race weekend without the right stuff (or on the wrong day as has happened in the past a few times) seems to be increasing every year
I’ve tried to include everything you might need, but please just ask if you’re not sure or want some advice on anything. We’re here to help, so please email or call me any time – 07595 591612
Kit prep and options
You’re probably now starting to think about what kit to bring and what to pack, so I wanted to give any of you that haven’t raced with us before, a quick guide on what the courses are like etc. Swim
The swim is a single open water lap of the lake. Right now, as the Spring has been pretty chilly, the water temperature is around 14-15deg. However, as the lake we use is quite shallow (about 7ft deep for most of our lap) it warms up pretty quickly when the weather improves due to the surface area to volume ratio.
Realistically, it’s going to be around 20-22deg on race day, which is what we’ve seen in July for the 11years we’ve run the classic now.
We work in line with the BTF wetsuit rules, where basically, anything between 14-24deg is a ‘Wetsuit optional’ Swim. What this means generally is that 99.9% of you will wear a wetsuit, which is totally fine as I know us Triathletes love a wetsuit
We have partnered up with HUUB this year too, and they have a really cool 40% off offer for our competitors on Wetsuits and tri suits if you were looking for some flash new kit this year
You can find the details on their offer HERE
You won’t need to Bring a Swim hat either, as we’ll supply you one of those in Flouro Orange Silicon Swim when you come and register
If you are one of our more nervous Swimmers (and I appreciate we have many of those), we’ll have a pile of alternatively coloured flouro hats by the Swim start that you can pick up to wear in the Swim. If you wear one of these, the water safety crew will keep an extra eye on you to make sure you get around ok. There’s a couple of points on the lap where you can stand up assuming you’re not less than 4foot tall, and you’re welcome to stop and take a short break if required. There’s no floating Vodka bars there, but if you need a quick break to gather your breath or pull your wetsuit back up over your shoulders, they’re there for you to use without any penalty of problem our end. We want everyone to enjoy the swim, and get around safely, and that’s our priority.
We will operate an initial mass start wave, followed by 6x 10min windows for rolling starts so you can choose either format to suit your preference. About 4 weeks out from the race, all competitors will get an email from me with a chance to select a specific wave (and/or bib number if you have a lucky number or just want to rack with your mates) so keep an eye out for that email Mid June, and I can then put you in whichever start type or time you like so you can get off with your mates etc.
We can’t accept requests before that point please, as I don’t have the start list on a spreadsheet to manipulate until the race is closed and fixed.
Bike
As you will have seen, we have a brand new bike course for the Classic from this year. I’ve been out and ridden it a fair few times, and it’s nice and fast (Not with my legs it’s not, but it will be for many of you)
Although it’s still flat compared to most places this side of Holland, it’s more gently rolling compared to the June 113 course. If you have the luxury of the option of a road or TT bike, it’s a TT bike course 100% all day long, and although it has a small amount of elevation, the quicker competitors will be in the big chainring for the whole 28mile lap (it’s 2 laps on race day)
There’s a link to an interactive Mapmyride map of the course in the race info pack, but for those of you that remember our Cotswold226 race, it’s basically half of that lap and heads West out through Kemble and Malmesbury before coming back into the waterpark through Minety
We have around 200 50cm Flouro Arrows, around 90 marshals as well as Police and Traffic Management out on the course, so you really can’t get lost
Over the last 12years, we’ve had over 25,000 people go through our Middle Distance Bike courses, and to date, we’d only had 1 person get actually lost (He went ‘off piste’ for a number 2 in a field, and got lost finding his way back to the course – We do have toilets on the course BTW, he just had a more urgent requirement I guess)
We will have an aid station on the course for each lap based in Minety at about mile 23 / 51, and there’s more info on what’s there in the info pack. The aid Station is a fair way into the lap through, so it’ll definitely be worth having your bike loaded up with a bottle and some gels etc to get you to that point to start with.
We also have 4 moto support riders who will carry basic tools and spares, and there’s a mechanic at the aid station. However, it’s your responsibility to fix your own punctures, and the moto support guys are really only there for emergencies. Being the UK, there are a few potholes dotted around, but the surfaces are really good for 98% of the lap. We’ll go out the week before and paint mark all the potholes, so they’ll be easy to spot and avoid on race day.
Run Course
The 3 lap course is a mix of about 50% tarmac, 45% hard pack lakeside paths and 5% grass. It handles the rain really well, so is a road shoe course for most conditions / runners. If we do get a week of really heavy rain during race week, I’ll keep you all posted on conditions. We have 3 aid stations per lap, and info on those is in the race info pack also. There’s a fair amount of shade as much of it is under trees, but there is a stretch on the Spine road that’s in the open if it’s a really sunny day. For some weird insurance stipulation, we’re not allowed to provide sun tan lotion, so if it’s warm, it’s worth bringing some along to apply.
Familiarisation day
On Sunday June 25th, we will be holding our free of charge course familiarisation day where you can come down and have a guided single lap of the Bike and run courses by myself and the team.
These are a really good way to see the course in advance of the day to get an idea of what it’s like, meet other competitors and ask us any questions you might have.
The emphasis on the day is leisurely, so it should be suitable for all abilities (think something like 14mph av on the bike, and 11-12min miles on the run. We’ll have a few regrouping stops too, and we’ll point out where aid stations are etc and everything you need to know about the courses for race day.
We don’t do a guided lap of the swim course as the range of abilities is so broad, but you can book swimming at the lake that day around the bike and run sessions, which will start at 9am – The lake guys will charge you £10 or so for this if you want to do it. We won’t have our course marked out, but it’s broadly similar to their 1,500m course with a dog leg in to make up the extra 400m (I’ll send swim booking info to everyone signed up nearer the time)
As a formality, and to get a handle on numbers, we ask that you book onto the familiarisation day please through the following link HERE
Refer a friend scheme – We’ve still got places
It’s no big secret that it’s a really tough year in the Triathlon industry, and entry numbers are low across all races in the UK right now for tri’s as well as Sportives and running events, even for the big players as well as the little guys like us.
Our race is normally 1,000 slots, and we have around 600 sign ups so far, so 400 slots left and just over 2 months from race day
Therefor, if you have friends that fancy racing with you this year, please point them in our direction
We can rack them next to you in transition and get you off in the same wave if you wanted
Refer a friend, and we’ll give you a £20 discount voucher to use with us next year.
Just get them to add your name in the ‘Referred by’ section on their entry form, and drop me an email
Entry open at www.113events.com
Marshal Request
We have around 190 paid marshal positions at our races, and we still need a few more heads to fill these rolls. We are very proud that we’ve built up a really good reputation as having some the best marshals in the sport, and we only have that as we really look after them and make sure they have a fun day – A happy marshal is a good marshal
Typically, about 50% of our marshals are regulars, and the rest of friends and family of competitors that want to get involved and see the race from the fun side.
We pay all our marshalls too, and they can choose from either £20 cash or a £50 113 Events Voucher.
We’ll take them through a full briefing, kit them up with whatever they need, give them an event team shirt to keep, and stuff their faces with Hot drinks, burgers and ice creams
All we ask is that they’re over 16 (although adults can brings kids with them to help them marshal, but the kids won’t get paid for insurance purposes), know their left from their right and are pretty enthusiastic
We have two basic shifts:
Bike team – 05:45 briefing – Finished about 11:45 (earlier in many spots)
Run team 07:45 briefing – Finished about 14:30ish (again, earlier in some spots)
Marshals get free camping on site and free parking, and are invited to the post race beer with the team too
Feeling ready earlier than expected
We always get July competitors who, at the last minute, decide they fancy racing a month earlier at our June 4th Middle Distance race instead. This isn’t always possible as we get closer to the June race, so if you fancied racing on June 4th, please can you email me before that race closes on May 10th, and I can swap you straight over for free. That race has around 800 competitors, so a couple of hundred slots left.
You might also fancy doing both, in which case I can offer the same £40 discount that you’d have got if you entered them both through the combo entry at sign up. If you fancy the June race too, just drop me an email for the discount voucher code.
Right, that’s it from me for this newsletter
If you have any questions at all, or there’s anything we can help with, please just ask
My number’s 07595 591612 and you can call me any time, or drop me an email
We’ll look forward to seeing many of you at the Familiarisation day on June 25th and the rest of you on July 9th