I usually don’t write race previews for national championships, but this time I’ll make an exception, since it’s the race many of you have been waiting years to see – and because our friends from Age Group News aksed for it ;). So here’s a look at the inaugural British National Aquabike Championships, coming up this Sunday hosted by the Burghley Multisport Weekend.
Although the weekend also features a 100 km middle‑distance event with an aquabike option (2 km swim, 80 km bike), the championship title will be decided over the standard distance: a 1.5 km swim followed by a 40 km ride.
A first glance at the start list left me a little surprised. With 112 athletes entered, the debut championships won’t be the largest aquabike race ever held in the UK; in fact, it doesn’t even make the podium in that category. The top three spots still belong to the trio of standard‑distance World Championship 2024 qualifiers in Torremolinos – a race that, unfortunately, shares one unwelcome trait with these first British Championships. But before we get to that, let’s take a closer look at the course.
The Swim
Triathletes and Aquabikers will start in five waves every three minutes with the first wave starting at 7:00. The race begins with a single-lap, 1.5 km cruise around Burghley House’s private lake – water that’s opened to swimmers only once a year. The lake sits in a natural bowl beneath Lion Bridge, so expect pancake-flat, sheltered conditions and crystal-clear sight-lines marked by oversized buoys. There are no official statements about the current water temperature. However, the nearby Tallington Lakes measured 16.7°C yesterday, so I would expect the waters at Burghley are in the same range. Below 15.9°C wetsuits are compulsory. Temperatures are expected to rise over the next few days, so that probably won’t apply. But with air temperatures probably under 10 degrees at the start time, a swim without a wetsuit doesn’t sound too appealing.
The Transition
The way from the swim exit through transition zone to the mount line to start the bike course appears to be quite short on the map. Good news for those having problems to run for a bit longer.
The Bike
The bike course heads out through Burghley Park for 4 km before hitting the 16 km lap which has to be tackled twice. With the triathletes and aquabikers competing in the 100km race starting 30 minutes before the standard distance athletes and also with the duathlon athletes starting in between, they will all be on the bike course at the same time. But that’s not all. The first wave of athletes competing in the sprint triathlon will start 12 minutes after the last triathlon and aquabike athletes. This means that there will be 740 athletes on a 16 km bike lap at the same time.
As much as I would like to celebrate the organization of the first British Aquabike Championships… but this just seems… not right. I’m not a race organizer and I might not be aware of all the factors that influence the decision of the starting process. But if you let the sprint athletes start right after the long course athletes, they will have left the bike course before the standard athletes are there. That would be at least some relief regarding the traffic on the bike course. But planning it in a way that all triathletes, duathletes and aquabike athletes are on the bike lap at the same time makes me wonder if this is really necessary. Drafting will be inevitable in many situations, as well as blocking. So I sincerely hope you will all have a fair race out there.
The Finish Line
The finish time will be taken at the dismount line. Something I often criticized at international championships over the last few years. The World Triathlon competition rules in past years said that the finish has to be before T2, leaving the organizer the option to move it away to maybe a few hundred metres before the dismount line. What would have been a wise decision was often ignored, particularly in Spain, where organizers went for the more chaotic and dangerous option to take the final time at the dismount line. What is totally fine in local races becomes a big issue in championship races with significantly bigger fields of aquabike participants.
The latest change of the World Triahlton Competition Rules, to place the finish line 100 – 200 metres before the dismount line, is certainly a good idea. British Triathlon usually adapts those rules more or less – but always with a bit of a delay. Until 2024 BT competition rules said that the finish line must be after T2 (keeping the run to the finish as short as possible), which is certainly fine for most local events. In this year’s edition they changed it to “The finish time should be recorded at the cycling dismount or at a designated point in transition once their bike has been racked.” Which really doesn’t give the race organizer many options. Unless you have a quite free interpretation of the term “should”.
However, with the number of participants being not even a quarter of last year’s worlds in Torremolinos, it should not get too bad, I hope. In the Athlete Guide the race organizer is pointing out that “The rules require a finish time to be taken from the dismount line but we will not tolerate any reckless dismounts for the sake of a few seconds.” Well, nobody will take a huge risk “for the sake of a few seconds”. But for a national championship title some might will.
So, once again I would like to point out another reason, why having the finish line at the dismount line is not a good idea for big races: There is no possible penalty for dismounting after the dismount line for aquabike athletes. The penalty provided for that by BT competition rules is “Educational warning with Stop and Go once corrected. If not corrected, time penalty.” Not very effective, if the finish time is already taken at that point. Only “Cycling into the transition area having made no attempt to dismount at the dismount line” will lead to disqualification though.
OK, but let’s now get to the more pleasant part of the preview…
The Weather
Weather forecast looks good for Sunday – at least by English standards. The likelihood of a heat battle is rather low. Scattered clouds, 11°C and only light winds at start time – looks like cool but manageable conditions for some swimming and cycling.
The Favourites
The Men’s Race
Man to beat in the “Open Category” is will be Kris WHITELAW, two times Long Distance World Champion in his age group. While Kris has not yet competed in World Championships over the standard distance, he certainly showed some strong performances in several races in England over the last few years. One of his main competitors will be Phil PATERSON, who came second behind Kris in his only aquabike race yet, the Outlaw Half Nottingham last year. He lost five minutes to the winner, but being the stronger swimmer, he will have better cards in the standard distance race. Andrew MARTIN could be a bit of a dark horse in the race. His last aquabike race was the long-distance World’s in Pontevedra in 2019. He finished 16th overall but was the second aquabike athlete to exit the water. If he could keep his swimming form from 2019 his competitors will have quite a gap to close – which is certainly not easy on a busy bike course. Other men to watch for the podium ranks will be Colin NADIN, Josh LAHIRI and Mack GRENFELL who came in 10th-12th place at last year’s European Championships, separated by less than 30 seconds.
The Women’s Race
The clear favourite for the first British National Aquabike title in the Women’s race is Eleanore NASH. In the last two years she took the World Championship title in her age group, finishing as 3rd woman overall last October in Torremolinos. Gwen KINSEY finished 7th in the same race, two and a half minutes down to her fellow countrywoman and will be one of her main rivals on Sunday. An athlete who certainly would have deserved to make it on the podium is Claire MARTIN. Over the last four years she competed in four international championships, finishing 4th in her age group in every single one of them! Toni SENIOR, Martine CROFTS and Catherine SEN are all candidates for the overall podium who have one thing in common: They have not yet competed in an international aquabike race but all showed a strong performance in the only aquabike race they did over the last few years. Another one who should be up there is Ella CARTER, bronze medal winner at the world championships in her age group in 2023.
Good luck and all the best to all athletes who compete for the first British and English Aquabike titles on Sunday. I hope you’ll have a fair and safe race!
Some helpful links:
Burghley Multisport Weekend 2025 – Standard Distance Aquabike Race Details