Camping Challenge Roth

Triathlon Forum
1

Hi all,
I’m in for Roth 2015, but have found out the hotel situation isn’t great!
I don’t want to be far from the start, particularly on the night before the race. But when I mentioned camping to the Boss she didn’t seem impressed!

Whats the camping like? Are there facilities, showers etc.
Also, what’s the weather generally like at Roth? Is it likely to be cold and rainy (this may help sell the camping if the chances are low!)

2

Weather in Roth is generally hot and sunny in mid-July. But there is no guarantee it won’t be a year that downpours.
I wanted to camp when I did Roth as the campground is right near transition. However, there is no way I could sell camping to my wife!
We ended up staying quite a distance away with some German friends… thankfully the autobahn was quiet on race morning.

I suggest using AirBnb or similar site to find a rental apartment in Nuremberg.
Nuremberg is an awesome city, loads of good restaurants, touristy things and shopping… the Boss will be happy. :slight_smile:

3

Thanks for the info!
A couple more Qs if you don’t mind.
How early do you have to be there on race morning? Do I have to rack the day before like ironman?
I don’t mind staying in Nuremberg but don’t want to be taking lots of trips.

Also, on race day are the roads closed? Can spectators get in and out?

4

you can camp right at the race start… but there are only porta potties, and swim practice is at specific times 2 days before race.

i stayed at a camp ground wallahase or something. It had a pond so you can swim when ever you feel, and was located right next to bike course. nice bathrooms and showers, very cheap price. We camped in a minivan rental, incase it rained we had no worries.

5

If you stay in Nuremberg, you can take the train basically to the front door of the race check in / expo / finish line. That is the way I would do my back and forth if I had to do it all over again. The negative is that you do have to check in your bike the day before the race, but T1 is at the swim start, about 4 miles away from the expo, finish area, aka Downtown Roth.

If you stay in Nuremberg, it will work like this.

  1. Train Trip to Roth on Thursday or Friday to check into the race. Friday night is also the athlete dinner, which is optional. It was nice, but I would skip it in favor of some low key down time.
  2. Trip to Roth on Saturday to check bike into T1. Either stay for Athlete meeting which is later in the day, or head back. Personally, I would skip the athlete meeting, but we (was with a group) were told that you risked a DQ if you didn’t attend. I think that was bs, because there was no way to verify who was there, when they were there, etc… there was just no way a DQ was happening for not attending the meeting.
  3. Trip to T1 / Swim start on race morning to set up, start the race.

My group got to Transition at about 4:45am. It wasn’t open yet. It was scheduled to open at 5:15am, but they opened the doors at 5:05am. There is not a lot to do, so setup only took 20 minutes or so. After that, I had 2.5 full hours of sit and wait time. If I had to do it all over again, I would have waited to get to T1 until about 6:00am. The only thing you need to be aware of, is traffic heading to T1. We were told it could get ugly, which is why we got there so early. Again, it was way too early for my liking.

6

Thanks for the info!
A couple more Qs if you don’t mind.
How early do you have to be there on race morning? Do I have to rack the day before like ironman?
I don’t mind staying in Nuremberg but don’t want to be taking lots of trips.

Also, on race day are the roads closed? Can spectators get in and out?

One race morning, I left the autobahn (exit just south of Allersberg), there was a traffic leading to the parking lots… maybe 15-20min wait?
I parked in a field just west of Heuberg (right across the canal from transition). Walk to transition was ~10min.
If my memory serves me correctly, we arrived in transition just before 6.
My wife’s wave was 6:45, me 7:05, but setup was super quick… except for the usual porta-loo wait. There are loo’s in the parking lots as well.

AFAIK, the course is fully closed. Most spectators looked to get around on bikes. Very tough to get in/around the Roth area by car on race day.

7

Thanks for all the info.
This is already turning into a small headache.
My parents wanted to come and watch (and drive with us from the UK).
I don’t mind camping, neither does my partner, (now I have convinced her!) but I don’t think my parents can!
They would stay in nearby and drive in, but not sure about the roads!

8

Did the race twice. Stayed in Hipolstein at the ZumSchwartz.Great place. Walk to the race start. Its the town with the solaraberg hill and they have a great stainless steel 50m pool