The following email went out to all Cotswold113 2017 Competitors tonight:
It’s very nearly race weekend 🙂
Hi All
Sorry to keep bombarding you with emails, but I just wanted to bring you all up to speed on the race this weekend to save any confusion or questions, as we’re flat out for the next couple of days, so can’t always get time to pick through all the emails.
I’ll also cover a couple of other important bits of advice that you might not have considered so please take a couple of mins to read through this properly.
I’ll try and keep it as brief as possible, as I suspect you’re all currently pulling your hair out rummaging through kit bags to try and find that race belt you ‘had somewhere’ or working out whether to use a standard or an 80mm wheel (For what it’s worth, it’s a full aero bike course all day long)
In this email, I’ll go through the following :
Starts lists & live trackers
Lake Temperature
Parking reminder
Pre race advice
Registration requirements
Compulsory briefing main points
Start lists and tracker links
If you’ve not found them already, the links to the start lists which show your waves and race numbers are here:
The live tracker and results can be found here, and this also has a smartphone compatible version for people who are at the site on their phones checking:
Lake Temperature
After Monday’s heavy rain, the lake dropped down to below 20deg, and the forecast for this week was overcast. However, it’s been blimmin hot down there this week, and the temperature is now hovering around the 22 Mark. The forecast for tomorrow and Saturday is also very good, so I think there’s a chance we may be up above the Wetsuit cut off temp when we measure officially for the race.
We’ll take a measurement Saturday morning, and post an update on our Facebook page on whether you’ll be able to race in wetsuits or not, and we’ll also have this displayed at registration Saturday afternoon.
I’m sorry, this is out of my control, and we have to follow the BTF rules on this.
I won’t be measuring and publishing it tomorrow, as this would be little misleading and don’t want to commit to anything before the official measurement Saturday morning, sorry
Just to quickly run through the main rules of a non wetsuit swim just in case the worse happens (or the best in some peoples eyes): Tri suits cannot have arms or legs that extend past the elbow or knee, and must not be made of any form of buoyant material (that means you can’t wear buoyancy shorts, as I’ve had perhaps 50-60 emails this week asking just that)
Compression socks / shin guards cannot be worn in the swim as they’re considered part of the tri suit that passes your knee
Parking reminder
As per my previous mail – https://www.113events.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=1489&action=edit ,
car parking on race day will be £10, and you’ll need this in cash on the gate to the car park owners when you arrive.
Please can I ask that you reduce the amount of cars parked as much as possible, so please get a lift or lift share if you can, and we have a drop off point just by the swim start too.
If you have family coming down later to spectate, and they want to avoid the high parking charge, Neighbridge Country park lake charges £4 all day, is on the run course where we have an aid station, and is around a 15minute walk to the start/finish area. They can then use the pick up/drop off point to collect you after the race if needs be too assuming the bike course isn’t still in full swing.
Pre race advice
Although the rule has been in place for 18months or so now, please can I just remind you all very quickly that the BTF do not allow plastic boxes in transition at all, and you can only use a soft bag.
As much as I don’t normally, I can agree with the BTF this time, as before the ruling came in, we’ve seen people turn up with plastic transition boxes that you could literally get a bike in if you took a wheel off, and they just become an obstacle for everyone else.
Our transition is on grass, so if it looks like it might rain, a plastic bag would keep your stuff nice and dry, as I know from experience that pulling on a pair of soaking wet run shoes is not much fun at all when you have 13miles to squelch your way through.
The pre race toilets are located on the other side of the swim start from transition (about a 300m walk), and the path they’re on is quite gravelly. It’s walkable in bear feet just about, but if you have some old flip flops, trainers or slippers that you want to bring and not need during the race, just leave them by the swim start, and collect them again after the race. It saves having that ‘walking on hot coals’ look to your pre race walk to the bogs to sort your power to weight ratio out.
We don’t put the toilets nearer to the swim start/race finish, as after 1000 triathletes have been for their pre race rituals, they’re not the nicest smelling, and we don’t want them too close to where everyone stands to watch their loved ones finish.
The same goes for it you’re in a later wave, and don’t want to have to stand around in a wetsuit for an hour after transition shuts. If you want to bring a coat to keep you warm, you can tuck it into the front of the massage tent near the race start, and gather it up again after the race.
We always get a massive pile of rather smelly footwear after the race has finished and everyone’s gone home. We’ll leave them there until Monday PM for you to collect, and after that they’ll go into the skip
I’m afraid that unless you’ve emailed me today before this mail has come out, there’s no more opportunity transfer to the August race, sorry
Registration Requirements
Just to remind you all, that when you come to register on Saturday afternoon between 12:00 & 17:00, you will need your valid 2017 BTF photo card ID, or if you’re not a BTF member or do not have your card with you, you’ll need another form of photo ID (passport or driving license are perfect) and £5 cash for a BTF day membership. We cannot accept the old £5 notes as these ceased to be legal tender on 5th May, and if we send these off the BTF, they’ll reject them back to us.
If you’re getting someone to register for you on Saturday, which is perfectly fine, they’ll need a photocopy of your photo ID (must be a photocopy or a printed copy, not the actual form of ID as we have to hang onto it) with a note on it from you saying it’s ok for them to sign on your behalf and your signature. If your photo ID is not a 2017 BTF photo card, then they’ll also need £5 cash for a day license.
It needs to be a photocopy or print of the photo ID, as we have to give these to the BTF ref on the day with the race number written on it so he can make spot checks during the race that the person registered is the person racing.
Compulsory briefing main points
You will all get a 3minute compulsory briefing just before you get in the water to warm up before the race starts. However, I’m conscious that no one actually listens to it, and you all stare blankly at the lake wishing i’d hurry up and finish so you can get into the lake 🙂
Therefore, I wanted to just quickly go through the main points of the briefing here in a little more detail so you can digest them before the race starts.
Drafting – This is a non drafting race and the BTF rules for middle distance racing is a gap of 12m from the bike in front of you with a 25second allowance to pass. I know our race is busy at times, so the Moto referees will give you some flexibility as long as you’re not looking like you’re trying to gain an advantage from drafting or bunching up unnecessarily and riding in groups
Road etiquette – The roads we use for the bike course are largely very quiet and you’ll see virtually no cars on there at all other than on the main spine road that leads into the lake. However, any cars you do come across need to be treated with respect as they have as much right to use the roads as we do. Last year, we had complaints to the Police officers on the course that cyclists were undertaking cars that were going the same pace as the bike in front, and it spooked a rather nervous old lady, who was driving at the time.
Also, there’s a couple of 90deg turns on the course, and one cyclist nearly went onto the bonnet of a local vicar as the cyclist was cutting the corner.
With these points in mind, please, please, please, be considerate to other road users and stay on your own side of the ride as maintaining local resident relationships is key to the future of this race. The locals love the race, and I’d really like to keep it that way please.
Any form of dangerous riding, abusing other road/path users or just general non consideration will be in an Instant DQ without exception
Littering – We’re very lucky to be able to race in such a beautiful part of the country, but littering is a high profile issue around here. All our bike/run marshals have a bin bag, and there’s various bins around the course, so please hang onto your gel wrappers, banana skins and bottles etc, and throw it at the feet of the marshal whilst passing or somewhere at least near a bin so we can pick it up later. Like above, littering is an instant DQ without exception.
Sorry to sound like I’m ranting here with the last two points, but it’s important you understand these rules, as competitors breaking them jeopardises our races for the future.
Right, that’s it from me, so I’ll leave you all to getting ready for the weekend.
If anyone has any questions or concerns, please just call me – 07595 591612
Thanks and see you all this weekend
Graeme, Nicci and the 113 Events team
graeme@113events.com
07595 591612