Hi folks, co-RD for Cranberry Trifest here.
As this is the official Cranberry thread, I wanted to let you know we have made a change to the bike course of the olympic distance race. A link to a map of the new course is on the "Course Info" page of the Cranberry Trifest section of the Sun Multisport Events website and is also pasted below.
Course changes were made at the request of the Lakeville police. As some of you may have heard, back in June there were issues with Lakeville police stopping some cyclists during the Patriot Half triathlon at the intersection of Rte 79 and Rte 18. Cyclists were stopped due to a significant build up of auto traffic. Getting stopped in the middle of a race was understandably upsetting to cyclists
(many of whom, unfortunately, directed their frustrations at the police
) and the significant back-up of traffic was upsetting to many of the townspeople
(many of whom also directed their frustrations at police
). As a result, we agreed to the Lakeville police request to eliminate this intersection from the course and developed the new route.
Trust me when I say we don't take course changes lightly and made every effort to find a workable solution with the police in order to retain the old course, but, in the end, there was no getting around the fact we had to eliminate the Rte 18-Rte 79 intersection. Police support is critical to the success of a triathlon not to mention necessary in order to receive the required approvals of the Lakeville Board of Selectman.
The new course
(26.3 miles
) is slighltly longer than last year's
(24.9 miles
), but features many of the same roads used in the past. A new section along Neck Road is beautiful and includes a scenic pass of Snipatuit Pond. We think you'll find the new course every bit as enjoyable as last year's.
We appreciate your ongoing support of Cranberry Trifest and look forward to delivering to you another great multisport experience. Fyi, we'll be emailing all registered racers news of this course change within the next week.
LINK TO NEW OLY BIKE COURSE:
http://www.mapmyrun.com/run/united-states/ma/lakeville/583127850233...
-Mark