Back to the roots...
1.) Many of you have wished this for a long time, now it becomes reality
(although not entirely voluntary by our side),
At the CTW this year we also return to the Fühlingersee Lake on Sunday ´ s with the second alternating zone!!!
As a result, there will be only one transition zone and you do not need to use any shuttle bus, often called annoying.
2. To be clear, we are not doing this completely voluntarily! and to use your words to the Chancellor: in our opinion, however, it is also an alternative.
The reasons are manifold:
- As in the previous year, this year again with Jeck in the sunshine, the biggest carnival event in the Cologne summer, on the same date as our long and middle distance triathlon. And this is only about a kilometre away. In the last year we panicked that drunks (or positively expressed, celebrating people) meet with our extremely struggling athletes and, if necessary, cause immense problems. Imagine a groups party with beer bottles in your hand, which a group of struggling long distance triathletes wants to "persuade" in a sturdy and hand-laying way to party?!
- Or a few of the party joyful (and probably all in all love people!) absolutely wants to make a happening on our running track;-). So much security, which we want to use as a precaution, is almost not there.
- In addition, the same weekend, the fair SpoGa and GaFa, which is also partly built directly on our running track. - The so-called "voluntary Day" on the Heumarkt is also problematic, but it leads along our bike course.
- On the running track there have been repeated "almost clashes" with tourists over the last few years, this too will be more difficult to cover with the additional festival visitors.
- On the bike course we were increasingly told that at the height of the musical dom it was quite difficult to lead the people in order and free of danger for athletes and tourists over the Rhine embankment. This, too, will certainly not be easier with the festival visitors. The Rhine Bank Tunnel was also problematic for one or other athlete.
Conclusion: To do all this more comprehensively is no longer with our means.
- Unfortunately, we also lost our main sponsor quite unexpectedly, and thus important financial means to set up additional safeguards. One, two promising sponsorship commitments for 2018, we unfortunately had to write off in early June for this year.
- It must also be mentioned at this point that we cannot resort to the cost-sharing of the city of Cologne, as is actually the case for all other major triathlon events in Germany. A problem that has accompanied us for 14 years and does not make it easier to carry out. That frustrates us, we do not really need to mention here.....
- Summasumarum now we continue with the wheel as usual on the Rhine embankment, however, the bike course will no longer pass through the Rhine tunnel and also no longer via the Deutzer bridge. It would be a good thing to note that the bike course is probably even faster as some sharp turns fall out. The bike course will certainly be safer!
3.) The Saturday remains (almost) as it was so far: only the kids Triathlon is moved from Friday afternoon to Saturday morning, so families can arrive later and together to start together. For us, it streamlines the competition and we no longer have a competition effort on Friday. It then remains in the construction of the competition venues, which alone brings an immense effort. On Saturday the start times will be slightly lower, please check the schedule again.
4. On Sunday the bike course will be the same for the medium and long distance and will extend about 30 km per lap. We chose here the best possible route (which seemed feasible). The track is very fluid to drive and should be suitable for best times, even more than the last years. However, changes can still be made here, as the bridge over the A1 "about" is to be demolished at the time of our event.
You see, it never gets boring;-).
5.) There will be, however, for the first time a maximum limit for the middle distance due to the approximately 30 km round. We will add a maximum of 800 starter to the registration. The same applies to the long distance including the Hawaii special distance. There are no more too many free starting places at the middle distance, so if you want to be there you should report sooner rather than later.
In the end, if the security situation allows and if new sponsors support it, we would definitely have to check again to put the target area back into the city. However, we will conduct a survey of the athletes here after this year's competition. As already mentioned, in many inquiries and also in various public forums one could recognize that quite a few athletes prefer a single alternating zone on the Fühlinger Lake for Sunday.
We would be delighted if you continued to support us and in the end also put on the German and European market in one of the last major competitions without the logo of the two, three market leaders.
Promise we will give you a great and developed target area at the beautiful Fühlinger Lake. And that also the running track on the Fühlinger lake is very nice to run, year after year the participants of the smart and Olympic distance, where the number of participants has increased in recent years.
In addition, we will invest in the target catering. Here we have some ideas, let you surprise;-).
We are looking forward to a nice triathlon party!
Maps of the routes are available on our homepage.
For today many greetings from Cologne.
Your WillpowerRaces Team
