Triathlete magazine just gave a preview of the new training and racing complex being built in Wilmington, NC. It looks amazing. Here is the article and the official website:
http://triathlon.competitor.com/…-looks-insane_108607
North Carolina is such an amazing place to live and race. This is going to be awesome
Agreed. It’s a very cool concept and the plans look amazing.
I just hope it’s sustainable. It would be a great place for ITU Draft Legal racing as well.
Yeah, that looks pretty awesome. Good thing Wilmington is less than 2 hours away for me!
I like how they are trying to make it more spectator friendly.
I’m glad to see them moving forward with this. There is so much potential for a venue like this. They could offer all kinds of non-traditional events, draft legal races, time trials, open water swims, night time triathlons, 24 hour/endurance events. It would be cool to see a series of weekday evening events, similar to the time trial series that is held at Charlotte Motor Speedway in the summer. With all the facilities there on site and no need for road closures, police support, local community approval, etc. it should be much easier and cost effective for them to put on events. I hope they manage it well, and as you say, make it sustainable.
The only thing that bothers me is will it attract enough people to make money? Triathletes like to travel to new places and experience new towns. I’d probably get bored doing the same race location over and over again throughout the year. However, if they make some sort of race series monthly it could be alot of fun to go and race the same people on the same course over and over again.
Yeah, that’s kind of my thought as well… is Wilmington a big enough city to provide a regular crowd, or will they need to rely on people traveling in for just a couple of marquee events per year? The TT series at the speedway is really cool for testing your fitness in the same environment and racing the same people throughout the year and from year to year. They don’t require any taper or major preparation beyond normal fitness. It would be really cool to have something like that for tri. It could just be a sprint or even super sprint, 30-60 minutes of high intensity racing once a month. Usually putting on a series like that would be cost prohibitive, but at a venue like this where I would imagine costs for putting on an event would be minimal, they shouldn’t need huge numbers of participants to make it feasible.
It would be VERY useful for a similar sort of low-key weeknight sprint thing, which a lot of tri communities have, and you could add in a couple of large-scale weekend events throughout the year, like an Oly/long distance.
Cyclists will also move through Coaster section of the bike course twice during each 14-mile loop. The Coaster section will be a series of 3-meter high moguls (approximately 10-12 moguls over the span of about 500–600 meters), with each mogul being about 50 meters apart. Midway through this section will be the Coaster Stadium built specifically for spectators.
Huh?
Yeah I thought that was strange too. Sounds like a mountain bike course on the road bike course haha!
I’m wondering if B2B will move the swim and transition to this facility. I enjoy the swim in Banks Channel and of course the tidal flow!!
B2B will remain a Wrightsville Beach and Downtown Wilmington event.
The only thing that bothers me is will it attract enough people to make money? Triathletes like to travel to new places and experience new towns. I’d probably get bored doing the same race location over and over again throughout the year. However, if they make some sort of race series monthly it could be alot of fun to go and race the same people on the same course over and over again.
I agree 100% with you on this. I would get bored very easily doing the same race. Some people however have the ability to turn their brain of and simply race.
I think two ways to “keep it fresh” would be:
I would also love to see road racing added to list of possibilities. A lot of people say that one of the hardest logistic things about putting on bike races is shutting down the necessary roads/traffic control.
I am pretty familiar with the area where they are building and hope they do a REALLY good job of clearing out little critters and things that slither before anybody races
I hear what you guys are saying but there are some people that are the opposite, like myself. I’ve run the same marathon 7 times and done B2B half 4 years in a row. To me there is something about knowing the area/location and that you’re going to do a well organized race. That’s not to say I don’t race other races but I enjoy not having to worry about logistics. I look forward to this coming to fruition seems like a cool idea.
Curious for those familiar with the exact location, is there lodging near by? Is it convenient to get to? These are things that would certainly help with the long term viability.
any info on the owner or ownership group?
I believe Tri Habitat is connected to Setup Events…not 100% sure on that, just what I’ve heard
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Looks really promising. Going to be interesting to see how it all turns out. Unfortunately, I’ll be moving out of NC right around the time it’s supposed to open.
I believe Tri Habitat is connected to Setup Events…not 100% sure on that, just what I’ve heard
This is correct.
what is the open date?