With this years event out of the way…it’s okay to post the new thread now.
Entries go on sale at 4pm CET today (15/10/2019) up at Tier 3 straight away.
Anyone planning on being at this one?
Still Tier 4 places available - 5 minutes after opening.
Bargain price at £560 including fees
Not considering it this year. It is a possibility along with Austria for 2021 though. Looks like you’ve gotta be quick then.
Places still available, nearly an hour later, at Tier 4.
So even this race isn’t selling out in the seconds that it used to
Well, not quite as tempting at £560, as it obviously is at £530 
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I’m in via Nirvana. The ‘limited availability’ notice, I thought meant tier 4 was still available but no.
No, it means available to those with even deeper pockets than the usual customer.
Hi, brand new to this forum, am ticking off my bucket list and find myself entered into the Barcelona 70.3 on May 17… how on earth do I get my bike there and back for a reasonable cost? Will probably end up flying out of Edinburgh ( how many days before?!!) and will need to find digs… anyone have any experience they could share?
Regards
Steve
Hi,
You can look at a bike transfer company like Nirvana, but they could cost about £250, and I’m not sure if they are covering that event, they definitely do the full IM though as they had 2 huge artics when I was last there, it’s one of their moneyspinners.
Obvious other answer is to fly with a bike box or bag, you can either get a transfer via taxi which might be pricy unless you book in advance or find a group one given the race will be on.
Train is also an option but better if there’s 2 of you, I did this one year, train from the airport to the town, but I think it’s better to transfer at Sants Estacio then change onto the Calella train, this could take about 90 minutes though.
Train station in the town is very central so even a taxi to the hotel shouldn’t be much more than a few euro’s and might be walkable.
The transfer company isn’t cheap but saves hassle, and if you want to go somewhere after for a holiday you aren’t lugging the bike about.
Absolutely stacks of reasonably priced hotels, decent beach and is usually an easy sell to any partners if they want to go.
It is about 30 miles from Barcelona though!!
Jeff
Thanks Jeff, great info! Seems booking the entry was the easy bit!!
Spain are reopening to tourism in July…
I guess there will be 2 groups; those desperate to travel and go on holiday, and the majority who think sod that right now. How easy will international travel be anyway.
And what will happen to prices? Do they rocket as the industry tries to recover lost profit, sunk costs (complying with covid regs etc) or do they undercut themselves to get bums on seats and build that confidence in the industry?
Not Spain, but we had a massive family holiday booked for Turkey a week or two after my race at the now postponed IM Vitoria. Only the deposit had been paid, but we’ve had to pay the substantial balance to TUI in the last few weeks who claim it will still go ahead. If it doesnt, we get an automatic refund, but not paying the balance would have automatically equalled forfeited deposit.
The question is what will the situation be if conceptually the holiday can proceed, but there are enforced quarantines on either side. It’s hardly a holiday if you are confined to your hotel room, but will TUI claim they are delivering what they promised? Fingers crossed that’s not the case. 14 days quarantine back on this side I might just about be able to deal with
How will they fly people out there, maintaining some semblance of social distancing; will they have the capacity to do that if most people want to travel again; will the flights even exist. So many questions!
I guess the thing with companies like TUI is they own the end to end process, so conceptually they could lay on more flights to social distance more easily on the aircraft, double the number of transfer buses, etc.
But yes, ultimately, who knows. If it does go ahead, we’ll have a decision to make. Although as mentioned on the Covid thread, the flat line of increased risk for under 44 year olds does make me more willing to “risk it” and not throw away a significant amount of money.
With all the extra measures in place, flying maybe less ‘risky’ than before! People are a lot more careful now.
My guess is that the airline companies are lobbying against the medical science and will pressure the government to say its okay to pack people into tin cans as long as they wear totally ineffective masks and have also ineffective fever checks in terminals.
Id also say they will be offering bums on seats prices.
I doubt that I would fly over there.
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Me and Doris love our holidays …
Wouldn’t dream of it this year.
Just wouldn’t feel safe, hardly any ideal environment for rest and relaxation.
There will be other years.
Easy to say, and I don’t necessarily disagree in terms of considering a new booking. But if you had one booked, and you either had to go, or basically thrown multiple £000s down the toilet, would you still say the same? Genuinely interested as to where people stand when such sums of money are at stake.
Maybe my age group makes me more inclined to take the risk based on the statistics.