Roth is fun logistically. The split transition and number of closed roads mean that you need to plan carefully.
Ideally stay in Dormero or an Airbnb in Roth to keep life nice and simple, however, be prepared to pay lots of money. The atmospher in Roth is magic, and if you stay in the town, you get the full experience, staying in one of the villages or Nurmberg is just not so fun.
On Saturday, there is a kids race, so lots of streets are closed in the centre, however, there is a big field to park in for the event.
My annoyance on Saturday is the swim practice is 7:30-9am, then there was a practice run with Seb Kienle, but the English Briefing was at 10am, in Roth, 12km away. After finding parking, I missed 10 mins of the brief - since I had raced before wasn’t an issue.
I recomend registering on Friday, registration is open until 7pm
Use Friday to visit the expo (its the biggest tri race expo in the world), spend money on shit you don’t need, that £750 trisuit is definately worth 15s
On Saturday go to swim practice, lots of parking at the Canal
Return to Roth for briefing, leave time to Park and walk to the race site
After race brief, spend more cash on crap and nutrition
Around 12pm go back to swim start with your bike and run bag. There will be huge queues for the carpark, however, if you go early there will be no queue and you will park much closer to transition
I tend to go at 12, then go for an easy bike ride - ride the exit from transition and the first part of the course. The first 3km are downhill and twisty, well worth practicing, its also nice to ride the “rollers” (first 13km) this is a series of rolling hills, good riders can go super fast on this section.
After my bike ride, I check in bike , you MUST leave helmet on the bike overnight. Also you are not allowed to cover bits of the bike in plastic to keep water off in case of rain.
You hand in your run bag at the bike check in, but not your bike bag.
Head back to Roth and enjoy the afternoon spending more money - Saturday afternoon is great if you have accomodation in town.
Sunday. If you have accomodation in town, either get a lift to swim start or get the organised bus. If you have a hotel out of town, drive to Swim start, there is loads of parking, but the queue can be up to an hour. I left my hotel in Nurmberg at 0430 and had no queue.You bring your bike bag with you and your post race bag with you
Do your race and smash it.
After the race your bike, bike bag, run bag and post race bag will all be in Roth… there is no need to go back to the swim start, unless your car is there.
From 1830 there is a bus, with bike trailer, that goes every 30mins from Roth to the Swim start so that you can collect your car.
After I have finished my race, I hang around at the atheletes finish area for a bit. I then go and collect my stuff from T2 and take it back to my hotel (if it is in Roth), have a shower, then go to the old town, and have dinner in a restaurant next to the run course. I eat dinner, drink beer and cheer the runners. After dinner I go back to the race site, have more beer, go to stadium to cheer athletes comming in. At midnight there are fireworks, after this I walk back to hotel. If you stay out of town, you will miss all of this
(or sarcasm)
