Bike Course Adjustments: focus on improved safety and resident access
New traffic management plan / 100% traffic-free bike course for greater safety for everyone involved / Two adjustments to the bike course
The safety of the athletes, the volunteers, supporters and, last but not least, the fire brigade and police who will be cordoning off the course is the focus of the Roth triathlon district. In cooperation with TEAMCHALLENGE, the Roth District Office and the Roth Police Headquarters have been working over the last few months to further improve the already high safety standards on the bike course and to make planning easier for all residents on race day.
Elaborate traffic management plan for residents' access
The Roth Police Department, the Roth District Office and TEAMCHALLENGE have jointly developed a comprehensive traffic management plan. This will help residents along the bike course with access on Sunday, 7 July, while the athletes complete the bike part of the world's largest long-distance triathlon. This applies to the bike course from around 6am until 6pm at the latest. At all other times, the bike course is open to all road users. As before, residents of towns and villages bordering the cycle route will be able to cross the route at several defined points. Residents living outside the cycle route can still exit the route.
100% traffic-free route thanks to two adjustments to the bike course
From 2024, athletes will be able to ride the DATEV Challenge Roth course completely without traffic. This guarantees an even safer and fairer race.
Up to now, there have been a few sections of the DATEV Challenge Roth bike course where traffic travelled in the same direction as the participants, as well as two smaller sections where traffic met the participants in a separate lane.
The first section led from Eysölden via Zell and Unterrödel to Kränzleinsberg. Until now, traffic has combined between Unterrödel and Kränzleinsberg. To avoid this in future, the route will now run from Eysölden via Pyras to the Hofstetten/Kränzleinsberg junction. For the second affected section coming from Mörlach to Hilpoltstein via Freystäder Straße, the organiser is unable to provide an alternative route. Residents can leave Hilpoltstein via Hofstetten.
For this reason, the traffic routing for residents will be changed on race day, which can be seen in the traffic routing plan. This measure is intended to further increase the high level of safety for 3,500 individual starters, 700 relay teams, the fire and police services, helpers and all those involved.
As the adapted route via Pyras is slightly shorter than the previous route, a second change was necessary. The bike course will now be routed from Alfershausen via Stetten to Thalmässing. This change is not entirely new for the athletes of DATEV Challenge Roth. It was already part of the bike course in 2021 due to construction work and proved to be an excellent route. It also avoids a dangerous spot, the so-called Dorner-Eck in Thalmässing.
Lessons learnt from the tragic accident in Hamburg last year
District Administrator Ben Schwarz is aware of the changes for the residents of the district, but emphasises: ‘The events in Hamburg in particular have encouraged us to close the route completely to motorised traffic from this year onwards. If we can prevent even one accident in the future by removing traffic, the road closure will have been worth it.’
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‘We would like to thank the district administration and the authorities, as well as the police and fire services, for addressing the issue and actively supporting us in further improving the race. In addition to the safety of all those involved, our common goal is also to minimise the disruption caused by the race to the residents of the triathlon district. At the same time, we ask for your understanding that the event may result in traffic restrictions during certain hours on this one day of the year. We would like to give all residents the opportunity to plan even better with the traffic management plan we have drawn up,’ says race director Felix Walchshöfer.
TEAMCHALLENGE has set up a service e-mail address for individual support requests. Residents living along the cycle route can send an email to service@challenge-roth.de if they have any queries, for example about visiting the sick or similar. From Friday to Sunday during the race week, the Roth police headquarters will once again be setting up a service telephone for residents who have individual questions about access on race day.
GPS file available for training
The length of the bike course remains almost unchanged due to the two changes. The elevation gain of around 1500 metres also remains the same. The course is now available for download free of charge as a GPS file on the DATEV Challenge Roth website. The signposting of the adapted sections by the DATEV Challenge Roth bike course team will follow shortly.
The digital route on ROUVY will also be adapted
Athletes can experience the course not only on-site in Roth but also worldwide and at any time via the digital cycling platform ROUVY. A team from ROUVY will soon be coming to Roth to film the route with the new adaptations and make it available to all indoor cycling enthusiasts.
For even more safety: safety training for motorbike crews and other measures
In order to further prepare the riders of the support and press motorbikes to the topic of safety, TEAMCHALLENGE is also offering the DATEV Challenge Roth motorbike team a free safety training course in May this year.
TEAMCHALLENGE has already taken a number of safety measures for the race on 7 July, for example there will be no more starting places at the St Niklaus event, the number of race referees will be doubled and more starting groups with fewer participants will be introduced to even out the field. As the organiser of DATEV Challenge Roth, TEAMCHALLENGE already improved safety on the course last year. For example, the number of motorbikes on the course was reduced and the coordination between athletes and referees was significantly improved.