Cover Up: Triathlon Travel Insurance (Preview)

Think about this: you're at a training camp abroad, getting some sun as you fine-tune your physique and your technique, and you're feeling great. Then it happens - you, your bike and maybe even someone else crash at high speed coming off a mountain descent. You're off to the hospital and your bike is off to the scrapyard.

Financial risk

Your training and holiday have been ruined and that could be the least of it because if you don't have the right travel insurance you could find yourself in so much debt that you cannot afford to go on holiday for years to come.

Travel insurance is essential when you are going away to either train or race, and because you are a triathlete, regular policies are unlikely to cover you. The reason? Amazingly, triathlon is often considered an 'extreme' sport. However, there are a number of travel and sport insurance companies, including Dogtag, Snowcard, Insure and Go, and JS Insurance, that will cater to your specific needs.

Do your research

If you have an existing policy for travel insurance, check the policy details because you might be able to add kit, such as your bike or wetsuit, onto the policy.

If not, you will have to buy elsewhere. The cost of the insurance is based on where you are going, how long you will be there, what you will be doing, the amount of cover you need and your age.

On the user-friendly Snowcard website you can use a slider to increase or reduce the value of your bike, with cover available up to £3,000. Other variables, such as baggage and duration, can be adjusted, too. For a triathlete aged 26-45 (the oldest age group is 76-79), a single trip in June for eight days with a bike covered for £2,000 is £55.60.  

Annual savings

It is usually cheaper to take out an annual policy, provided you are going to be making at least two or three trips a year. But with Snowcard, an annual policy to cover you for training and racing, using the same criteria, would cost £263.50 - meaning you would have to go away to race five times to get value for money.

"We do not have a fixed price for a week or annual cover - all policies are tailored to the individual's requirements," says Russell Dadson from Snowcard.Dogtag classes triathlon as an extreme sport. A single trip on the same basis as used for the Snowcard quote is at £57.34. (You will need to check how much your bike would be covered for.)

An annual policy costs just £120.02, and you can be insured up to age 64. So shop around and no matter which company you choose, always read the small print to make sure you are getting what you expect.

Subscribers can discover more ways to cut trave insurance costs in the full article. If you'd like to subscribe, you can enjoy a significant saving on the newsstand price by subscribing online now.