A comment made in jest on another thread got me thinking - wouldn’t Cornwall be a great place for a UK 140.6?
Nearly unlimited choice of sea swims, run could include coast path / castles / fishing village type vibe.
Good weather by UK standards.
Already a holiday destination so plenty of accom options and plenty for the support crew / family to do. Make a week of it.
Nothing against Bolton, some of my best friends are Northerners (*is Milton Keynes north?) but somehow the draw has never been quite there for me. But Cornwall - bring it on.
And of course as Gingerbongo points out, the USP of the pre race pasty party.
Would Newquay work for example? I am not sure about bike routes & think that’s probably always a sticking point.
I think the cycle routes will be hard. Lots of great cycling in Cornwall for a couple of people , but big groups will be hard to manage and will probably create a lot of angry locals.
Its already a massive tourist hotspot anyway so would they really want or need another 3000+ people descending on an area for a few days, guess that would depend on timing. Outside the school holidays possibly would work.
Oh, and Milton Keynes is south of Watford Gap so its definitely not Northern!
Enjoy the dramatic swim on our Fat Willy swim course, with the stunning bike leg brought to you by the 8 speed Carrera fat boy, followed by a dramatic run on the outstanding SuperDry coastal loop.
After the race, you can enjoy the athletes village, in partnership with Pontins, where a bag of chips awaits your visit, to wash down with a nice cold Stella.
Plenty of epic course options but I think locals would be an issue. Already resentful of the tourist hordes and 2nd home owners before Covid I’m pretty sure they’d fight road closures etc with everything they had.
Due to the nature of rural roads the host town would probably end up nearly cut off for a day.
Also I’m not sure ‘expansion and lots of new races’ is going to be Ironman’s game for 2-3 years.
Tenby was a struggling resort which had come to rely on stag and hen parties and associated hassle; there was actually a lot of resistance in the early days until folk realised us weirdos were not as bad as drunk stags and there were other knock on benefits, such as heading into town and enjoying the event.
Maybe there is a Tenby like place in Cornwall waiting…probably don’t know the place well enough tbf.
Nice concept for sure. But Cornwall doesn’t really need Ironman; and the road infrastructure as others have said, is awful. It would have to be mid Sept to have any chance of ‘adding value’ to Cornwall’s economy and not be an inconvenience.
Ultimately though, do we want Ironman getting everywhere? Scotland has some epic swim/bike options, but there again, the road closures would be a massive problem, and unlike Cornwall, there’s a lack of accommodation anywhere iconic. I’m sure both Ironman & Challenge have considered a 140.6 Scotland race, but logistics have prevented it getting off the whiteboard.
I lived and worked in St Austell Cornwall for a year about 20 years ago. I do remember that the roads on the South coast were not particularly bike friendly, although while down there I did races like the Newquay Tri and Wadebridge Du & enjoyed them and the roads seemed gooc. Is there maybe a multi lap possibility in the Newquay Bodmin Wadebridge triangle?
I just think Cornwall had that holiday destination feel, it’s a much easier sell to the whole family. I’d enter like a shot & also look forward to it
Swim starts in the main town beach in Newquay, reasonably sheltered and a natural amphitheatre for spectators. Transition up on the golf course at Fistral. Bike down the Gannel road then cut North for a leg out to the airport, then back and then Southern loops on the a3075 to goonhavern back round to Quintrell Downs. Would be good to get a bit going out past perrenporth too. Back to Fistral, with a run out round East pentire headland, down the gannel road again and back up into Newquay town centre, 3 or 4 laps. Bosh
I did the Newquay Tri a couple of times in the 90s, it was from Towan beach back then. It was never held every year though and just disappeared into the ether iirc?
It would be great, I wonder if a small company could get one going, dont need closed roads then although it’s not going to bring big numbers so might be unsustainable. If you think in Triathlons prime Forestman only got 150 max. Perhaps TriTalkMan could head down there
Not a Cornwall but a few years ago we went for a training weekend in Beer, Devon, staying right by the beach. Bloody hell, that was ‘less than flat’ in all directions, it was beautiful but the roads were either very narrow or complete main road racetracks and not much in-between.
