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Windsor Tri - Take your mountain bike!

Just drove along the Drift Road section of the Windsor Tri Bike Route and its half dug up with road works and the rest of it is covered with gravel! With only a week to go to the event, the boys supping coffee at the roadside need to get a shift on or im taking 5 spare tubes or my mountain bike. Of course, they may be resurfacing just for the event, but this is the highways agency we are talking about...

Comments

  • willieverfinishwillieverfinish Posts: 1,381
    Im on the way round the route on wednesday am - will let you know
  • PC_67PC_67 Posts: 196
    Looking forward to hearing that the road is flat again.

    I struggle with the Windsor swim - I have never done under 35 minutes, but the last time I did it was in 2008. Both my 2009 OD swims (non-Windsor) were 25 minutes in 2009, and I didn't race last year. Part of my improvement was copping on that drafting in the swim makes a big difference.

    Navigation has been an issue at Windsor for me, swimming too close to the middle. Is the best tactic simply to head sideways to the bank and hug the bank all the way to the turn buoy?

    I've been in good nick recently but got a heavy cold 2 weeks ago which took 8 days out of my training, except for a couple of gentle rides. I'm doing a few short, sharp sessions this week just to get the body going again, but without tiring myself before the event.
  • The best tactic (apparently) is to hug the bank up to the buoy so you don't fight so much against the current and then at the turn head back down the middle and go with the current (and don't miss the turn to the exit!).

    I did the Sprint last year and doing the OD this year. Hate the swim, generally my weakest discipline.

    Good luck!
  • willieverfinishwillieverfinish Posts: 1,381
    I'll be the one drowning in the river, then killing myself on the bike and dying on the run.

    Can't wait
  • MadDog2020MadDog2020 Posts: 20
    Did you make it along Drift Road yesterday? How did it look? Im also pretty nervous about the swim - its my first year at Windsor and apparantly its a bit of a melee at the start
  • willieverfinishwillieverfinish Posts: 1,381
    Nope

    Was at home with my son

    I'm sure it'll be ok. The swim is ok for OW - you get set of in waves of 30-40 people - just start at the back if your unsure but it's not a ruck as such
  • 1st go at the Windsor full distance on Sunday .. didn't get to cycle the course beforehand .. but i've looked at the course map and the main thing seems to be don't turn left with the sprint race .. and don't arrive into the drift road as a pack (bit hard to avoid sometimes?) else you might get held up in the 'new release from drift road system' - per the complicated race pack info.
    Other than that i'll just be following everyone else / passing where deemed possible

    The swim seems daunting with all this talk of swimming against the current / hug the bank ..I can imagine swimming hard out for 10mins and still being on the start line .. hope the river isn't flowing that fast .. i plan to maximise on the return leg with the current as I am normal settled (stopped gasping) and faster in the back half of a swim ... but we'll see what the day brings.
    The thing for me is just making sure I stay in a straight line - I can drift left like no one else when OW swimming - proabably straight into the return current in the middle of the river. If i suddently see everyone firing past me i'll know i've gone too far left .. or the eilte race has caught up already.

    nervous but looking forward to it .. good luck all .. and enjoy.
  • PC_67PC_67 Posts: 196
    Thanks for the above.

    Saltbar - do NOT swim left at Windsor!

    I thought the current wasn't bad one year so I decided to swim out in the middle, the shortest distance between 2 points. No matter how much of a good idea it looks, don't do it! If you can't help drifting left, don't do it either.

    This will be my 4th time and this has been the dryest May / June since I've been doing Windsor (didn't do '09 or '10 though). On that basis I expect the current will be OK. My mate says it needs to have been raining consistently heavily for the last week near the Thames source in the Cotswolds, and it hasn't been like this. This week's showers ought to have no bearing.

    I guess we'll only find out early on Sunday morning. You can tell when you're lining up at the start - in some years you've actually had to swim just to stay still at the start!
  • PC_67PC_67 Posts: 196
    How did people's Windsor go?

    I finally got in a decent swim. My timing chip fell off somewhere, but I was 28:40 as I was running up the steps out of the swim exit. I did a slow T1, but wasn't in a hurry knowing I had nearly an 8 minute cushion from my previous swim times, so a Windsor PB was already almost certain.

    I did my slowest Windsor bike since 2007 (1:16) but put in a decent run and clocked 2:36 overall.

    Very pleased but disappointed I didn't at least match my usual Windsor bike leg of 1:14.

    To put things right, I just joined my local tri club.
  • MadDog2020MadDog2020 Posts: 20
    I did the sprint this year as it was my 1st go, and thoroughly enjoyed it (especially as I finished before the rain came!) - immediately wished i had gone for the Olympic. Swim & bike went ok, poor run as ever and turned in a 1:40 ish. Take my hat off to the highways agency for sorting out the mess i saw earlier in the week! Cant wait for next year..
  • willieverfinishwillieverfinish Posts: 1,381
    Us members of the BCTTT do race reports - here is mine of Windsor

    Bit of a royal cluster

    Feel free to take the piss ( everyone else has)
    http://forum.bcttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=4726
  • PC_67PC_67 Posts: 196
    ouch.

    Sorry to hear it didn't go well. Life would be boring if everything was easy though. I look forward to seeing you and your wondeful little 'un on another course soon.
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