Racking, Transition and Parking was an absolute disgrace, with athletes ditching cars in and around windsor in order to make the transition window, traffic was unreal due to some poor soul attempting to take £3 from cars for the right to park in a boggy field (which many people required a tractor to leave) - transition ruined bikes, cleats and trainers. Many people lost shoes, and withdrew from the race before the start, and after T1 due to the inability to use the bike because of the mud. Such a shame as the course was outstandingly beautiful

I had high expectations of this event given that it was being organised by none other than British Triathlon who should be able to to put on a good event (and just about manage to at Liverpool triathlon!), but these weren't in any way met on the day.

The parking arrangements were shocking, the transition a dangerously muddy bog which made racing difficult (running in just socks, clogging up the bike with mud between the wheels and frame etc), a delayed start, the first run course being 40% off road without any prior warning, the bike course being horrendously busy with ~1200 athletes on a 10km loop, you can do the maths! That coupled with the race briefing giving contradicting information to that in the race pack emailed out which left athletes all over the road and made overtaking very difficult and dangerous at times. The race being stopped whilst the queen crossed the bike course to go to church...

No contingency plans appeared to have been in place and they simply didn't cope with the fact it had rained over night at all. It is April and we're in England after all. 

Poor effort British Triathlon, lets hope they take on board the feedback from so many disgruntled atheltes and the event is much better in 2017. I'm not sure if I'm going to return, but anoyingly it's most likely going to be British Champs again. 

Where to begin? I've had a week to calm down and finally remove all the mud from my bike which included having to dismantle the front of it!

I've read all the other reviews and agree with them all.  

I know that we can't control the weather, but to have no contingency in place for bad weather in the days leading up to the race meant that transition was a muddy bog.  That it's self was a 1km walk across a water logged muddy field from the car park.  Luckily I had arrived early so wasn't held up in the traffic jams getting in which lead to a delay in the races being started.

Transition has to be my biggest issue with this event as it wreaked bikes and cycling shoes.  I saw several people loosing their trainers as they ran around the transition area.  

The race itself wasn't that impressive.  Supposedly closed roads were mainly open to the public walking their dogs etc... Not really a good idea when bikes are hitting 30+mph.  Marshalls didn't seem that interested in what was going on.  Saw several just playing with their mobile phones.  I was under the impression that the whole race was on roads\paths in the park.  But the second half of the 10k run was cross country.  Then the first 1/2k out of transition for the 5k run was also cross country.

I really can't rate this event well, but I hope the organisers take onboard all the comments on social media and make some serious revisions for next year.  BIG thumps down from me!

I agree with some of the criticism levelled at this event and the organisation.  However, it's often easier to point the finger of blame before thinking about what you could have done to improve your own situation.

Planning and preparation might have avoided some of the difficulties experienced.  Maybe it's too much to ask but it's always good with these events to do plenty of research before the big day. Especially in the case of a championship and qualifier if you intend on preparing and competing well.

The race route map published on the event website shows the event car park off the A332 as a grey square.  I'm not familiar with the area so checked it out on Google maps Earth view in the week prior - there's no concrete car park, just a grass field.

The competitor guide also had some key points - it pays to read it more than once.

'The main event car park is 200m from transition' - Google maps: still in a field.

'Arrive at the venue in plenty of time on race day'

'The main race briefing is provided by way of this document'

'PLEASE NOTE: The start line is approximately a 1km walk/jog from the transition area'

'The more prepared you are when you arrive at transition the quicker you will get in'

'The run ... using park roads, hard packed gravel paths and some off-road grass sections'

No one likes getting up early, least of all me, but if more people had arrived earlier then maybe the surge of congestion in the car park between 7:15 and 8:00 would have lessened.  If you could have avoided the car park stress then perhaps the knock-on effect of hurriedly trudging across the field to registration and transition could have been avoided too.

Also, go to transition first and rack your bike then collect your chip.  It's not necessary to stand in the registration line waiting with your bike, helmet and kit.

Triathlon and duathlon race prep can be a fine art and you'll inevitably forget something on the day but you have to engage your brain as well as your body.  It's not ParkRun.  Plan and prepare in every way you can to avoid start line stress.

OK, the mud...  transition was less than ideally situated in a waterlogged field.  That's not optimal and is going to make things difficult.  But it's only mud folks, and it washes off.

Yes, it's hard to run on soft grass and it tires you out but it's no worse than transition at BallBuster on Box Hill can be, or plenty of other races.

The mud on the run was really not that bad.  The majority of the first run was park road, then onto hard gravel and the final kilometre or so on grass.

The cycle route was fantastic.  Technical with plenty of corners and undulations.  I think the difficulty of combining an Brit Tri age group event with a mass participation event is that it can create safety concerns on the bike.

Age groupers are gunning it and in full race mind-set which can be a dangerous thing to mix with first timers/inexperienced cyclists who are drifting around left to right.  The course is often narrow in places and not closed to other park users either.

Final run was a flat out and back loop along the Long Walk.  Perfect for seeing what you've got left after the rigorous previous two legs and creates some tension as you eyeball your chasers, or leaders, around the hairpins loops.

Hopefully next year Brit Tri will get on top of the organisational problems they had with this first event.  As others already pointed out, as the sport’s governing body and with all the promotion preceding it they really need to get on top of their game (see nicetrievents.com for how to do race organisation very well).  Right now, London Duathlon in Richmond Park is a better overall event by far.

Happy racing!

Good course let down by the congestion! Weather did not contribute to the conditions causing it to be a swamp in parts mainly in transition and around race village! As for the bike leg because of the numbers unfortunately this made for some inexperienced athletes to be all over the road! 

Where to start?  

1) Injured and contacted organisers two weeks before asking to transfer (willing to pay), defer or refund. Categorically no. 

2) Price 60 quid for a Duathlon with just a medal at the end 

3) Car park three pound (Windsor half marathon use same car park for free).  Queue for car park 1km long race delayed by 30 minutes 

4) Rude staff #1 Asked Staff to help put on my wristband at transition. Rudely told 'No'? Really,  helping someone put on a wristband is too much trouble 

5) Transition in a mud pit. Surprisingly the grass was wet in April

6) No timing mat at the start line so people furtherdown the start lost time 

7) Rude staff #2 Had to pull over to stretch my lower back (I'm injured remember). Staff next to where I stopped said,  'What are you doing Dickhead'. Honestly I'm not making this up.  I asked to lean my bike against his van.  Again another load of abuse. 

8) Stopping the race because the Queen wanted to go to Church! In a National Championship! 

Never doing a GB triathlon race again 

This event has plenty of potential, but it was let down by poor organisation this time. It was muddy, which isn't exactly the fault of the organisers, but not having any kind of contingencey plan certainly is. If your car park is a field, it's going to get wet when it rains. And that lack of planning sums up the event pretty well. The car parking fiasco, which stressed everyone out before the event started was typical in that many of the little niggles in this race could have been avoided. There are plenty of ingrediants that could make this a fantastic race, great course, iconic location but the 2016 event tried to be both a mass participation event and a national championships, with a wide variery of abilities as a result. The organisors also encouraged spectators, promising a covered grandstand, when all they got was some haybales. Many of these little issues would have been easier to accecpt if the BTF hadn't been talking up the event. It felt like it was organised by a local triclub rather than the nation federation.

Now, I can't understand these recent obsessions with mud runs/obstacle courses etc., and after today's Duathlon in Windsor, my dislike for mud has grown deeper.

I hear that parking was an absolute nightmare for many and I could see the long queues from the race HQ. I was one of the lucky ones that got in early and actually got a good parking space in the field which was on reasonably firm ground. However, the sight of the ice cream van being pulled across the field by a tractor pretty much tells the story.

A previous review mentioned the lack of signage to registration/chip collection, and I have to agree. The only sign I saw on the marquee was Help Desk/Expo on the outside. Very misleading I must say. for one I didn't see an Expo and the marquee seemed to be for chip and goody bag collection only (thumbs up for the goody bag). Maybe that was the sign they needed.

The biggest problem on the day other than the parking calamity was the transition area. It was horrible. I've spent hours this afternoon cleaning out my rather expensive equipment and I'm still not finished yet. I've done many triathlon and duathlon over the years and I've never experienced anything like it.

On more than one occasion I nearly lost my footwear as I sunk into the mud.

Minus the transition area, the rest of the course was pleasant (although not accurately measured in my opinion). 

The start was too far from transition, but this is not uncommon. The 10k first run (a bit more than 10k I think) was nice until you came back along the grass/muddy area beside The Long Walk before entering T1. I enjoyed the bike course, but it was very narrow in sections and at times it was impossible not to draft as the volume of cyclists were just so high. Maybe the sprint race should start 40-60 minutes prior to the Standard race in future to ease some of the bike course congestion.

In to T2 and back in the quagmire. The run out was energy sapping and again almost lost a shoe on a couple of occasions. The mud would not drop off my running flats and felt quite uncomfortable under foot throughout the final 5k (I think this was longer too).

A nice medal at the finish, but then the muddy walk back to transition and back to the car.

Another point to make was the overpriced catering on site. I didn't have anything myself, but my wife paid £7.50 for three small ice creams for my kids. Is that really necessary?

If you take away the mud and parking fiasco, there is an opportunity to build this into a great event. Time of year might be the problem. Maybe an early Autumn Duathlon (late September/early October) would work better with the likelyhood of firmer ground.

Unless some major changes are made I'm afraid I won't be returning to this one.

I've competed in 14 multi-sport events over the last 3 years, across all distances. I've raced domestically and abroad during this time, Would rate myself as back of the front pack on a good day.

Windsor duathlon had the potenical to be a great addition to the british race calender, but overall it fell short in so many areas I felt cheated out of my entry fee.

Firstly, the parking situation in the morning was a complete joke, instead of finding a carpark closer to the race site, a field about a mile from the race site was used. This was waterlogged and cars had to be pulled out using a tractor in several cases. I understand that the race organisers have no control over the weather but there seemed to be no contigincy plan whatsoever. Those that did manage to get parked in time or had to abandon their cars then had to 'walk' across a waterlogged field for over a kilometer before arriving at the race site itself.

The race briefing was shoddy at best, unclear directions and a lack of real infomation led to a lot of concerned voices at the startline. I'll take this oppotunity to say that the map suppiled to athletes was incomplete and difficult to interpet. 

The course itself was a waterlogged mess, most grassy sections of the course resembled a winter mudbaths, people actually lost their shoes in some sections it was that bad. Again, the organisers should have had a contigincy plan in place (Such as an alternative course)

The bike course itself was great fun. However I saw very few marshalls outside of the key turns, this created a gap in safety requirements I believe. Course overcrowding wasn't too much of an issue however.

Second run course was a basic out and back affair, nothing major. however at the finish you were only given water, no fruit or savory snacks. I'm not expecting Five star cuisine, but at every event I have raced snakcks have been provided at the end.

One more thing, Before the race many queues formed at the portaloos...only a 1/4 of them were open. Go figure.