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Squamish Triathlon sells out again

Ninth annual memorial race has new bike and run courses

The ninth annual Squamish Triathlon, A Memorial to Bob McIntosh, is officially sold out with 50 relay teams and 350 individuals taking part.

This is the third year that the event has completely sold out, according to race director Peter Hotston, who is warning racers to expect a completely new course this year.

The 1,500 swim leg will once again take place at Alice Lake, but after that things are changing.

"The changes we’ve made are quite significant," explained Hotston. "We changed our bike route, and because of that we also had to change our running route.

"The previous bike route was very popular, it’s a beautiful ride and a lot of people like it but the drafting was hard to restrict. We’re not saying there was out and out cheating, but it was hard on sections of the road not to draft."

The new bike route will consist of four laps of a course with "tight corners" and a 2.4 km hill, from Squamish Valley Road to Government Road, and around Don Ross Secondary to Depot Road before looping back on Highway 99.

"We hope that will reduce drafting, but after our race debrief we’ll see what the comments are before we decide to do the same thing next year," said Hotston. "I know (Triathlon B.C.) won’t give us a championship until we address the drafting… and we owe it to the race to try and improve it."

On the plus side the new course will be better for spectators. The run course will also be mostly on the trails, and will include a new temporary bridge over the bike course on Ross Road.

Down the road Hotston says the goal is to build a bridge that can be put up and taken down easily for the triathlon, as well as used for other events.

Organizers are still looking for volunteers to help with the event. If you can help set up equipment on the course, volunteers are meeting at noon on Saturday, July 8 at Don Ross Secondary. Day of race volunteers are also needed. For more information visit www.squamishtriathlon.org.

As always there will be road closures and delays as a result of the race. Exact details will be published in the coming weeks.