Blenheim Sprint Tri
dhcm
Posts: 67
in General Chat
I am doing the Blenheim Sprint tri next week. I have heared that the bike course is quite hilly and technical. Does anyone have any ideas/experience on how the bike times at Blenheim compare to the bike split for a sprint tri with a flat course?
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I done Blenheim as my first tri last year and am doing it again this year. I thought it was a flat course before doing it and I was caught out a bit by the hills at the back end of the course. I was over there last weekend to refresh the memory as I'm local to the area and they haven't got any shallower. There is one main downhill section bearing left, then as soon as your at the bottom there is a cattle grid and then the main hill starts. Seems to go on for a while, if I said 300-400 meters I don't think that would be far off. As it's 3 laps you learn quickly where to save energy and where the hills are. There are a few more smaller ones but thats the worse.
Times wise for a flat vs hilly course, maybe 5-10 minutes difference de-pendant on your fitness/bike/ experience of hills etc. I done the Cotswold Tri last month on a flat course, same mtb with slicks etc and that was 4 minutes quicker and only one lap so felt quicker as well. Quickest bike at Blenhiem last year was 34 minutes compared to Cotswold at 28 minutes.
Hope that helps a bit. I'm race number 5330 if you spot me feel free to say hi.
I got myself in mindset that it was a "hilly" course so was prepared, and on the day it didn't seem so bad. Result was a better time than my last sprint tri on a flat course! Maybe it was the sun.
Hope you had a good day.
dhcm
In fact the descents seemed steeper, were brilliant for raising average speed, and were also nice and twisty which was fun; I maxed at 63kph.
Glad it wasnt wet though as those cattle grid covers looked slippy.
Glad that you both enjoyed it. I did find myself spinning out on the main downhill section but the speed helped me get up a lot quicker than I remember last year. That last cattle grid was a nightmare, just after the bridge. I nearly went over the bars when I hit the bump just before it! I manage to knock off 5 minutes from last year and most of that was from the bike so I am well pleased with that.
The bike course was extremely fun; I found the twists and turns really helped to push you to get into a good position going into a narrow section/tight corner. I had some good battles (by accident with the draftbuster or a film bike too). Everyone was pretty good with keeping left, all the more important because of the high number of novices. I wasn't too phased by the cattle grid covers; I had it in my mind that they were just going to be hessian mats laid over them, so to have them seemingly nailed down felt good indeed. Agreed that there were some dodgy bumps after the small bridges though.
On the run, the straight back across the main bridge that was so much fun to cycle down was quite draining. Too bad after that was just where most of the spectators were, so by the time I got up it I wasn't feeling or looking particularly good for everyone
I haven't much race experience, let alone with an event this size, but I thought it was very well organised and marshalled. Transition was kept relatively clear due to the different-coloured mats for the competitor route. Running up the racks after the bike against a number of people going the other way (with bikes) was interesting...
Thankfully my race ended before the torrential rain. It looked terrible; people seemed to be sliding out all over the place. Overall it was an awesome race; I had come down with my University team (Durham) as a bit of a novice tag-along-er, and thus was a bit more than overshadowed when one of our guys won the mens sprint, but wholeheartedly recommend the race to anyone.