Tips for doing Ironman Austria from the UK – Chris D. After taking on IRONMAN Austria this year with a group from Berkshire Tri Squad, Chris shares his tips for the race. If you are considering it you can also read Liam’s write up.

• 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.
• Prices for hotels in Klagenfurt are high.
• Travel from airports in Austria is quite significant. The nearest airport is Ljubljana in Slovenia. The majority of the squad decided to fly to Lllubijana and book a camper van.
• We all hired from SloveniaCampers.com. Price of a camper for 5 days is roughly E1000. They are located right by the airport and will pick you up and drop you off. 6. The 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 more relaxed if you fly Thursday. We stayed till Tuesday.
• The campsite restaurant is great for pizza, schnitzel and some pasta and the on-site shop doubles as a bakery and also does filled roles for lunch.
• It is perfectly feasible to transport bikes in bikes 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: 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 does 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 was the occasional bad surface but in general the roads are smoother and better kept than the UK.

Run: signs on the run course are good, it was a little daunting at first to try and 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 there on the day the out and back nature of the bike and the run means that supporters 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) is about to pass.

Other tips: On course nutrition is Enervit if you order online as a group to try in advance with over £100 spent its free delivery.

Best of Luck!