Home Chat General Chat

London vs Windsor time comparison

Hi,



As a newbie I was wondering if anyone could offer me advice on how London Oly times compare with Windsor, if they have done both races.



Im asking cos London 2008 was my first Oly distance and I managed a 2:20 with much huffing and puffing. But loads of people have said how long the transitions are at London. Excel was massive, and I found my T1 was in the mid 3min and T2 was mid 1min. Windsor cant be any slower can it??



So Im really trying to figure out what time to aim for at Windsor, having the river current, being more hilly but with hopefully faster transitions.



Thanks!

Comments

  • BARNYBARNY Posts: 157
    Windsor is harder... just becuase of a slower bike, the river current makes little difference, and the run is similar to london but iwth a slightly worser hill in front of the castle. I think you should aim for <2:30
  • BmanBman Posts: 442
    Thanks Barny, and whats the transition area like? It cant be as big as London, can it? Unless its quite a long run from the river?
  • abrewerabrewer Posts: 41
    I seem to remember there is quite a run from the swim to T1. I think the bike may be 42k as well.

    I tend to look at the winners times and scale up from there......
  • I've done both and I think that Windsor is comfortably slower than London.



    The swim current does make a difference (my time was 5 mins slower than normal), though you could help this slightly by taking the best line - i.e. staying close to the bank until you are level with the turn buoy, rather than trying to swim up the middle of the river for the last 100m. Even so, London is a fast swim and you would be lucky to manage the Windsor swim any less than 3 mins more than your London time.



    The bike leg is definitely faster at London. For a start, it's shorter. Windsor is 42km and London is often under 40km - in 2007 it was only about 37km because a bit of the route was closed. London has some hills (the rises out of the underpasses), but not as many as Windsor. London is also a totally closed course, whereas most of the Windsor course is on open roads (i.e. traffic). I was stuck behind a couple of lorries for about 10km of the Windsor ride.



    The run leg is also faster at London. Other than the ramp into the Excel, it is absolutely flat, whereas Windsor does at least have one steepish hill up to the castle which you have to complete 3 times. Windsor is otherwise a fairly fast run course though, so the time difference will only be about 1min.



    Transition is probably a bit faster at Windsor, but not much. The Transition is still fairly long - a good 200m for the swim - so you won't save more than 20-30 seconds maximum on each transition.



    Overall, if the London bike course is the full 40km, I'd expect to take at least 5 mins and probably closer to 10mins longer at Windsor than at London.



    Hope this helps - and doesn't depress. London is an excellent OD to go for a PB on. Windsor is not, though it does have far better scenery and, for me, was a much more enjoyable race.

  • EdstgEdstg Posts: 83
    I completely agree with tiring tri ing. London is fast but Windsor was my favourite race of last year. Really interesting swim in the river, tough bike and great support on the run. My time was about 4 minutes slower at windsor than at London. If you are a decent swimmer be prepared for some carnage at Windsor as the slow swimmers from previous waves make pretty interesting obstacles to swim around, having said that my swim at london felt like i had gone a couple of rounds with tyson....





Sign In or Register to comment.