Venice street race

[Spookster]

Has anyone found any start times/information yet?

http://www.orivenezia.it/mov/movbase.as ... &page=grig
First start is 9am, so add "Ora Partenza" to that.

The event centre (for bag pickup and payment of entries) is where it always is (the big zig-zag building on Sestriere Castello)

Is anyone going out early (we will be there Thursday evening)?

We're going out Friday (1015 from East Mids) and back Monday.

[Roomungous]

Weather forecast is promising....

[Freefall]

What's the Pett and the Anno? My Latin was very poor at school despite the teacher threatening to thrash me with the strap.

[madmike]

Anno is year

I think Pett. is abbrv for entry number but that's a guess

The Italians use . and , the otherway round from what we are used to so 1.240 is actually
1 240 and 1.240,45 would be 1 240.45

[Arnold]

Pett stands for Pettorale which is your bib number - they're nice keepsakes too!

The weather forecast does indeed look promising if a bit cold:
http://www.weather.com/weather/tenday/ITXX0085
Somehow it's always nice when the race is on.

The other site to keep an eye on is the "Servizio Maree" (tide forecast) - it's "acqua alta" (high tide) season in Venice so you often get a bit of high tide, sometimes a lot. If it's a little bit you might just get wet feet on St Marks Square, if it's a lot they might even cancel the race (unlikely but not entirely impossible). So far it looks OK but they only do 3 days out - you want to worry if it gets significantly above 100 at peak tide, like 120+ when 28% of the city is under water (only 4% at 100). Forecast here:
http://www.comune.venezia.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeBLOB.php/L/IT/IDPagina/2104

A few other ideas if you've got some time to spare:
- Do the "secret tour of the Doge's Palace" which is great but you need to pre book. Avoid the queues and it's a "private" guided tour for about 20 people. Best place to book is from the Museum directly: http://www.vivaticket.it/evento.php?id_evento=785691&idt=566 - pick up on the day, be there 10 mins before and don't be afraid to muscle past the general queue
- Have "un ombro", a pre dinner drink standing up at one of the traditional bars in Venice. Best is if you come down Rialto on the west side, turn right off the main drag after 50m into a big courtyard with lots of them. Or just anywhere you find them!
- While it's good to walk around with an old O-Map to get used to it, I'd also recommend walking round without one for the fun of getting lost. Walk, walk, walk!
- Visit the event centre on Saturday to get into the mood, then walk back Riva Degli Schiavoni when it starts getting dark. Magic!
- Instead of the Vaporetto which is really expensive and crowded (though admittedly it is fun), try a Traghetto (direct crossing across the Grand Canal by gondola) instead. Cost is normally 1 Euro and you'll feel like a proper Venetian
- I quite like the Guggenheim museum too though really Venice for me is about the city itself, getting lost, discovering bits, not "sights" as such

Sooo exciting

[pyrat]

Cheers for the tips Arnold. Does anyone know anything about the Park race on the Saturday? There doesnt seem to be any start times up. Where is it?

[Spookster]

Sooo exciting

The one thing I'm disappointed about with the Venice race is that they never put the results on any sort of splits analysis or route analysis system afterwards (splitsbrowser, winsplits, routegadget, etc), so the usual analysis of how much time mistakes cost, or which routes people took, is far harder.

As a former planner, do you know anyone in the organising committee that we could talk to to encourage them to do this?

[Arnold]

I'll talk to Stefano Cordella who looks after the technical side of things.

On another note the planner this year is Czech (Dusan Vystavel) so 3rd year in a row that it's a "guest planner". So if any of you are interested...

Re Park race - it's always from the event centre and usually on an area called "Sant'Elena" which is the eastern tip of Venice. Nowhere near as technical but still quite good fun. They said they'll publish the start lists beforehand so probably will but I guess haven't got around to it yet.

[Spookster]

Re Park race - it's always from the event centre and usually on an area called "Sant'Elena" which is the eastern tip of Venice. Nowhere near as technical but still quite good fun.

Yes, and just a reminder that Sant Elena is within the WOC 2014 sprint embargo area, so anyone with any intention of being in the team (or team official) mustn't do the park race.

[epocian]

Re Park race - it's always from the event centre and usually on an area called "Sant'Elena" which is the eastern tip of Venice. Nowhere near as technical but still quite good fun.

Yes, and just a reminder that Sant Elena is within the WOC 2014 sprint embargo area, so anyone with any intention of being in the team (or team official) mustn't do the park race.

Don't think that will trouble most of us!

[epocian]

Park Race start times now available at
http://www.orivenezia.it/mov/movbase.as ... &page=grig

[brooner]

Park Race start times now available at
http://www.orivenezia.it/mov/movbase.as ... &page=grig

Anyone know about getting these changed, or just turning up later? Don't think I'll have made it across from the airport in time for mine...

[madmike]

On another note the planner this year is Czech (Dusan Vystavel) so 3rd year in a row that it's a "guest planner". So if any of you are interested...

I'll think about it

[Spookster]

There are now some brief final details published.

[King Penguin]

Anyone know about getting these changed, or just turning up later? Don't think I'll have made it across from the airport in time for mine...

I seem to recall eldest son having a very long split to control 1 several years ago because he was late for his start.