Cotswold Classic / 113

Iirc i think he’s been quicker than that.

Bahrain 70.3 or similar

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Sorry, long day driving back. Was at my mums, no spectators, so after a 3.45am alarm call had to get back there, then Sunday lunch, a nap, pack the car, drive back to London, then drop off the hire car!

Race times don’t include transition. You had 10mins in T1 and 5mins in T2. If you were below that, nothing counted to your race time. So that’s why the total is below the sum of the 5 individual times.

Pleased with how things went. Felt I swam OK. I’ve done 29mins at this race before, but under 32 is solid given the lack of swimming.

Bike was decent. As @gingerbongo has commented on strava, it was good speed for what ended up a moderate increase in the power I’ve historically done for HIM’s. NP was 210w, up from about 200 previously. Was going for about 215, but got held up by traffic a few times on the second lap.

First time using latex tubes. Who knows about the speed benefit, but all the widespread data says crr is significantly improved by using them. The absorption of bumps in the road was noticeable though. Also first time wearing the new Endura Drag2Zero trisuit I bought. Its comfy, and felt fast.

I was flying off the bike (first 2k in about 7:50) which I didn’t think was sustainable. I’ve done very little running this year. I dialled it back to 90min pace. Calves felt horrid early on. Used zoom flys (flyknit) as all the off road stuff really didn’t feel like 4% would go down well. Surprisingly I felt good entering the last lap and picked it up as I calculated I needed to in order to go under 4:30 (inc transitions). I’d felt a bit queasy off early morning Maurten and on the bike, but it did seem to do its job in keeping energy levels high.

Look away now @GRamsay, but I had one mishap exiting T1. Hadn’t realised the chain had dropped on the bumpy ground on the run to the mount line. Hopped on (not elegantly…first attempt of any kind at a flying mount since Nice last September) and the feet just spun air on the pedals. Had to get off…in doing so knocked out a rear bottle, reset the chain, then mount stationary. Would have looked rather rookie!

And after finishing, it would seem during all of this I hit a couple of toes on something. Didn’t feel it during the race, but pretty sore after!

As @Adam says, I have done 4:28.57 in Bahrain. Much much better roads there though, and the draft effect of the traffic. I did 2:20 on the bike there for 203w NP.

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Well done Stenard, sounds like you had a good day :+1:.

Great racing

Nice report :+1:t3:
That’s a long day in all!
Hope the toes aren’t too bad this morning

Nice report @stenard - quality day out.

You may have broken those two trotters. How are they today?

Great time @stenard, clealy right on form after the lockdown.

Thanks all. 13th in the end it seems. Not a huge field, but I’ll definitely take that off basically no running!
ETA - it was actually 11th. Looking at the results, 13th includes two relay teams who did the full course.


That’s as high a bike split ranking as I’ve ever really achieved, so that’s the big positive.

I thought that initially, but it’s very localised bruising that seems consistent with an impact just to the top of the toes. There’s been no spreading of the bruising throughout the toes like you get when you stub a toe on something and probably do end up breaking it (I did that to my right little toe on my turbo earlier in lockdown, so know the difference in how they feel)

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@stenard

how was the event from the Covid guidelines perspective?? was this element well managed by the EO?? any issues at all??

cracking result as well - chapeau!

Great stuff mate, top racing!

We just got a post-event email from Graeme. He seems to think it went well.

I thought it was fine. Adapted features were as follows:

  • Pre-race briefing via video, rather than in person registration
  • Race number and bike sticker sent out by post rather than day before registration
  • No touch parking payment (effectively, no change given)
  • Mask to be worn whilst sorting out your stuff in transition
  • Less dense racking in transition
  • Touchless paramedic temperature check before entry to transition
  • Swim cap and timing chip strapped to your racking slot so your didn’t have to see anyone to get those
  • More toilets, with sanitiser gel outside, and lots inside each cubicle
  • Rolling TT start to the swim, in “waves” of alphabetical order
  • Transition times neutralised to reduce incentive to get too close to anyone else already in transition next to your spot
  • Bike and run courses tweaked to remove narrow two-way sections
  • Self sufficient on the bike - no formal aid station. There was an emergency one, but to access that you would have to stop, rack your bike on a mini bit of racking, and then help yourself to fluids/gels from a pre-prepared table
  • Aid stations on the run were like the crossing points in a marathon. Two funnels that were self-serve cups, with marshals replenishing one side that was coned off whilst athletes were helping themselves to the other side. Then switch when necessary.
  • Touchless race finish. Self removal of timing chips into a bin. Post race bag of bottle of water, t-shirt, etc. No normal post race massages etc.
  • No-one but participants and marshals anywhere in the main race site (transition, swim start/exit, finish line etc). There were still some spectators on the public part of the course, but pretty spaced out.
  • I saw a couple of BTF race officials when I’d finished, and they seems jovial enough, and no apparent concern from them.

I thought it went really well. Other than being a bit less dense with participants, it was just the normal 113/Classic experience. I’ve never been one to “race”, so the rolling start didn’t bother me, and even in normal times someone can feasible “win” one of the events from the later waves anyway. They’ve never had an “elite” wave like Outlaw do.

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It all sounds very well controlled. I just wonder how they can make money with such restrictions in place. No stalls selling last minute items, no supporters to keep the burger van busy.

Presumably anyone racing at the moment is a little more relaxed about the risks, which could present its own problems if competitors don’t care for the stricter distancing or hygiene requirements. Puts an extra strain on the volunteers.

sounds really good and they were on top of the guidelines which is always good to know. there are some EOs out there who I have questions about their ability to manage an event under the Covid rules, but equally there are some very good ones who will go that extra distance to make sure it works - Graeme’s clearly one of those.

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From the 113 Facebook:

“It’s been a very tough run up to this race, and if we ignore the financial implications to running it this way, I think we can really be proud that, as a team, we’ve hopefully delivered just a snippet of normality in these tough times back to everyone that got to our start line this morning and took part in this new format of swim/bike/run after what’s been a pretty rubbish 5 months”

Yeah, I can’t imagine they made money. Probably more about not losing as much. If you take Outlaw for example, any costs they incurred this year are sunk, and they get no income next year given pretty much all competitors have had free deferrals. At least 113events can now, hopefully, have a fully functioning event next year that makes the normal ROI.

Doing it this way was also sensible, as I believe the Classic is normally the smaller of their events. If they’ve learnt stuff from this, that enables them to run the normally bigger 113 next month with more people, then I imagine that helps the financial side of things as well.

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Good point, although if 113 is normally the bigger event that is more to do with the time of year than the event itself. I think both events normally sell out anyway.

Was this a sell-out? Obviously numbers were restricted from normal. Do you know if people who had entered over the winter were allowed to defer if they didn’t fancy it?

If the 113 is anything to go by the options were/are, turn up and either do just bike/run, or do c.400m swim then usual bike/run, or do the proper distances; or defer to next year; or do a DIY version, send your data in and get the t-shirt etc and still defer iirc

On a 5yr AG basis, turns out I won. Never achieved that before, so rather pleased, even if it was a small field. Two people finished ahead of me from older AG’s, so even on that basis, if I exclude all those younger than me then I was third

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Brilliant result!

If that’s the David Cole I think it is, from West Wales (back home for me) then he’s frickin rapid. So you’ve done well to get anywhere near him.