ITU Leeds 2016

[Tommy2]

What a shambles that baggage organisation was!!!
I finished and saw the chaos so just cycled back up the bike course to moortown where we were staying with the in-laws and went back for my baggage later in the afternoon, although that was a ball ache in itself having to take massive detour, I would have preferred my bag to be left at roundhay park as I could got there in 5 mins from the in-laws.
T1 was far too long, running in then all that way out (whilst carrying a kit bag!) and T2 really needed to be carpeted at the very least.
Don't think I'll do one with a split transition again but they aren't that common, then again if it comes to Leeds next year I may be tempted providing some of the issues have been addressed and the price isn't (even more) ridiculous.
But on the whole I really enjoyed the course and the atmosphere.
I didn't manage to get back in to watch it live so my highlight was seeing Javier Gomez running the run route the night before when I'd set up at T2.

 

[Richard A Thackeray]

What a shambles that baggage organisation was!!!

Heard/read about that, from others
I wonder what happens at other series races, or is Leeds the only one to have a mass participation events

Quite a few (finished, & supporting) Wakefield Triathlon Club members jumped the barriers, apparently, & helped to retrieve/pass bags to competitors

 

[Ian A]

What a shambles that baggage organisation was!!!
I finished and saw the chaos so just cycled back up the bike course to moortown where we were staying with the in-laws and went back for my baggage later in the afternoon, although that was a ball ache in itself having to take massive detour, I would have preferred my bag to be left at roundhay park as I could got there in 5 mins from the in-laws.
T1 was far too long, running in then all that way out (whilst carrying a kit bag!) and T2 really needed to be carpeted at the very least.
Don't think I'll do one with a split transition again but they aren't that common, then again if it comes to Leeds next year I may be tempted providing some of the issues have been addressed and the price isn't (even more) ridiculous.
But on the whole I really enjoyed the course and the atmosphere.
I didn't manage to get back in to watch it live so my highlight was seeing Javier Gomez running the run route the night before when I'd set up at T2.

The bag situation was the icing on the poor organisation cake. The biggest challenge was everything before and after the race. I was in an early wave and got my bags at the finish reasonably quickly then cycled back to Roundhay park where I was parked. For people without bags (money, keys, mobile phones) it wasn't a good situation to be in. Sending updates via social media and email when the athletes didn't have mobile devices on them was poor. There was no signage to get back to Roundhay Park for people who didn't know the area. Couldn't use mobile phone navigation as they didn't have their mobiles. A friend in a much later wave was lucky enough to get a lift there and back with two strangers after waiting for four hours for his bags with no money or clothing. Another cycled with someone who knew the way, cycled back and missed the pro race. This wasn't uncommon. If I'd known I'd have this would happen I'd have waited for them and shown them the way and driven them back. They had no way of communicating with anyone though . The volunteers were excellent and really dropped in it to say the least. A lot ht eof time they had the same information we did.

I wouldn't be put off split transition races. I think the issue was lack of organisation, a lot of athletes and a city with a lot of road closures. Wensleydale is excellent. Much smaller scale and no city centre issues. Alpe D'Huez works really well too. Thousands do that but there is only one race a day and you can set up transition at sensible times and you have the option of just giving them a bag to take to T2 for you.

The race itself was excellent. I had a stinker on the day . Over 55 min for the run (just under 8 min sower than my target time!) and no legs on the bike. I was struggling with 17mph on the flat on a TT bike halfway round . Never mind, swim was ok . Left to get showered and changed and come back in with the kids and saw the men's pro race. Missed the female race unfortunately. We'll go next year to spectate but nothing more.

 

[Ian A]

Heard/read about that, from others
I wonder what happens at other series races, or is Leeds the only one to have a mass participation events

Quite a few (finished, & supporting) Wakefield Triathlon Club members jumped the barriers, apparently, & helped to retrieve/pass bags to competitors

I heard about that. Great work . Sounded like there were big problems there. Bags in wrong crates, athletes having to find there own bags when there are so many bags and athletes looking for them.

 

[BearPear]

I was a volunteer at the bag pick-up, I was there from 7.30 (the husband was doing the amateur event). It was indeed chaos, the volunteers took a fair bit of stick, the organisers were out of their depth. Vans with boxes were stuck at Roundhay, we were waiting for vans to arrive but they were far too slow - in the end the decision was made to keep the bags & boxes at Roundhay and send athletes there. If this event is repeated next year the plans for bag collect need to be totally re-vamped. My husban

 

[Ian A]

I was a volunteer at the bag pick-up, I was there from 7.30 (the husband was doing the amateur event). It was indeed chaos, the volunteers took a fair bit of stick, the organisers were out of their depth. Vans with boxes were stuck at Roundhay, we were waiting for vans to arrive but they were far too slow - in the end the decision was made to keep the bags & boxes at Roundhay and send athletes there. If this event is repeated next year the plans for bag collect need to be totally re-vamped. My husban

First of all thanks for volunteering. You shouldn't have received any flack and the organisers were not very visible over the weekend when it all went wrong, leaving the volunteers on the front line. I think it's fair to say you were all taken advantage of there. The volunteers deserve medals/t-shirts for having a harder day than the athletes.

It's too late to put things right this year as the race has been and gone. Looking at the maths the bags would never have made it with the vans available and the bag collection tent was too small and too short staffed. This could have been fixed easily before the race and the biggest/most reported on problem of the race would have been avoided. I know some people have been asking for a refund which his unlikely at best and not realistic. I'll be happy knowing lessons are learned and a big effort is put into making next years event work.

 

[Tommy2]

I think something more appropriate would be free or heavily subsidised race photos. A refund is asking too much and it's more a gesture that is needed than a full on 'here's your cash now f**k off'.

 

[Ian A]

I think something more appropriate would be free or heavily subsidised race photos. A refund is asking too much and it's more a gesture that is needed than a full on 'here's your cash now f**k off'.

A voucher code you could use for a race photo/discount off a set of photos or something like a technical t-shirt for the people who didn't buy them would be nice. To be honest I'd rather see the volunteers get something instead of or as well as the athletes.