ORGANISERS behind this year’s Ironman event say they are preparing for both rain or shine — and admit the course could be cut short to protect athletes if adverse weather sets in.

Thousands of visitors from across the world are expected to descend on Bolton on Sunday as 1,500 athletes compete in the triathlon.

Competitors will start with a 2.4-mile swim in Pennington Flash, then cycle 112 miles through Rivington, Chorley and Adlington and finish by running a marathon to Bolton town centre.

But with uncertain weather conditions having so far been a feature of the summer, organisers said they have contingency plans in place should athletes become either too cold or too warm.

Ironman UK managing director Kevin Stewart said: “We don’t think the weather is going to be an issue. It’s looking like it’ll be around 16 degrees but we’d expect it to fall as low as 14 degrees.

“We have contingencies for cutting the swim short so the athletes aren’t too cold by the time they come out of the water.

“As they go on to their bikes there’s the wind chill factor, meaning they could get colder and colder and could become hypothermic.

“It doesn’t happen often, but that’s when you see the silver blankets and hot drinks.”

He said: “We’re doing a lot to advise the athletes so they can prepare for when race day comes. Everyone thinks they’re going to be in their best kit and not in an overcoat.

“The other extreme is if it’s a hot day we don’t want them getting overheated when they’re on a bike.

“If so we’d get them to some shade and get some cold water poured over them.”

But the recent heavy rain has had one positive for organisers, helping to dissipate cyanobacteria — also known as blue-green algae — in Pennington Flash. The algae can cause health problems for swimmers.

Mr Stewart said: “Blue-green algae is a common problem in still water. The main thing about that is that sunshine promotes the growth, but we’ve had nothing like the sunshine required and rain also dissipates it.

“If we did have to take steps we could cut it short or curtail it, but we’d want to give the athletes as fair a chance as we can to complete the real Ironman course.”