After taking on IRONMAN Austria this year with a group from Berkshire Tri Squad, Chris shares his tips for the race.

• The race normally sells out within 48 hrs. In 2019, Tier 1 pricing has already sold out. Get in quick to avoid disappointment.
• It’s always more fun doing a distance event as a group. The BTS Ironman squad in 2019 was 8 strong plus 12 supporters.
• Hotel prices in Klagenfurt are high.
• Travel from Austrian airports is quite significant. The nearest airport is Ljubljana in Slovenia. The majority of the squad decided to fly to Ljubljana and book a camper van.
• We all hired from Slovenia Campers. The price of a camper for 5 days is roughly 1,000€. They are located right by the airport and will pick you up and drop you off. 6. There is a campsite right next to the beach, 400m from the start and the finish line and on the way to transition. A pitch for 2 people for 5 days is approx £250. It’s possible to arrive Friday, but it’s more relaxed if you fly Thursday. We stayed till Tuesday.
• The campsite restaurant is great for pizza, schnitzel, and pasta, and the on-site shop doubles as a bakery and makes filled rolls for lunch.
• It is perfectly feasible to transport bikes in bike boxes and store them in the rear of the camper if you order the right type. Maui campers type 4680 are ideal. Some campers don’t have enough space.

What to Recce for Ironman Austria:

Swim: the swim course is essentially an out-and-back; make sure you know what to sight on land after the final buoy in the lake. The sight point is just to the right of the yellow building on the peninsula. When we were there, there were flags on the peninsula as well, which was perfect. The morning sun on race day can make it quite tricky to see; smoked or mirrored-lens goggles are suggested in the race briefing.

Bike: The second half of the course has more climbing than in the first half. The steepest hill is at the 150k point. All our team managed this in a 36-28. If you recce one part of the course, recce this so you know when you are going to get to the top. If you are a powerful cyclist, you may want more than 52-11 for the downhills, or you can just cruise downhill having a break. The roads were well swept when we were there, and there were the occasional rough patches, but in general the roads are smoother and better kept than in the UK.

Run: signs on the run course are good; it was a little daunting at first to try to visualise the whole course, but it’s essentially out-and-back 4 times in 2 different directions, so break it down into 4 10k-ish chunks.

General: For supporters on the day, the out-and-back nature of the bike and run means they can stay in the main area all day. The Ironman app worked brilliantly while we were there; updates were within 10 seconds of real-time, so incredibly useful for knowing when your chosen competitor(s) are about to pass.

Other tips: On-course nutrition is Enervit. If you order online as a group to try in advance, it’s free delivery with over £100 spent.

Best of Luck!