British Racing, Foreign Riding and Breakfast

A short update from the weekend where we had quite a few athletes racing at home or hitting the bike miles abroad.

Tracy headed to South Cerney for the Olympic distance race to finish off her prep for Europeans in two weeks time. Despite some slight confusion over the run course and distance a good swim and bike followed by ‘grinding’ out a tired run saw her place 2nd overall. Becky made her seasons debut the same race and after a long break from racing produces a solid performance to finish 6th overall.

Jill returned to the Age Group ranks and followed on from her elite success at Windsor by winning the National Age group Champs overall. It made a change for Jill to be near the front of a swim and pretty soon she was leading on the bike meaning she was able to run controlled and pick up her first national title.

There were some big Driven to Tri bike miles going on at the weekend with Dave and Jane both completing a 200k sportive in Ireland whilst Kate and Piers were hitting the alpine climbs for up to 8 hours at a time. Just as importantly, Barry apparently has his Mojo back post last years crash and smacked out 60 miles over the weekend!

This week's photo is of Harry eating his 3rd breakfast 60k into our very hilly ride in the mountains!

Pete

Jill 2nd at Windsor

Last weekend was a big weekend of racing both home and abroad. Now we don’t normally give athletes a headline and we like to spread the love around, but this week is an exception to the rule! Jill, in her first season racing elite regularly finished a fantastic 2nd at Windsor, one of the most prestigious elite races in the country. Coming out of the swim a couple of minutes down, Jill road strongly to come off the bike in 6th and then gradually ran down the competition to cross the line behind winner, Jodie Stimpson. A great achievement and hopefully it won’t be the last big result for her this year.

Lorne, making his elite debut made the mistake of dragging 8 guys round the swim and then missing the jump on the train round the bike – a simple mistake and one we’re sure he won’t be repeating after a bit more experience of drafting racing.

Steve headed to UK 70.3 and finished 5th in his Age Group to qualify for world 70.3 Champs. He swam, biked and ran quicker than last year but like all athletes still believes there’s room for improvement on that course. Julie was making her racing return after a cracked rib and placed 2nd behind a flying Cat Morrison who’s definitely upped her game over the past year.

Harry and I were in Beauvais for the 2nd French Grand Prix which was as stacked as the first. Seeded last the swim was crazy as normal, Harry made his way to the front while I fought with the damsels in distress towards the back. A group of 8 went away at the start of the bike and Harry settled in the main front group of 40 which I managed to miss, meaning race virtually over. The run was about 4k rather than the advertised 5k and by the time Harry got going it was too late to move into the top 30 and he ended up 37th. I was 60th, enough said!

Pete

It's all kicking off!!

I’m sat in a campanile on the outskirts of Beauvais waiting to race in 5 hours time. Kahfelt, Gomez, Brownlee, Belaubre and pretty much the world top 25 are on the start line. Seen the course it’s going to be fast!

Currently Julie, and Steve are racing u.k 70.3 and Lorne, Jill Vicky and I think a few others are racing Windsor.

I’m going to try and get the updates from the last few weeks clear so that this weekend results get right at the top of the page.

Ok deep breath….

There had been rumours that my Brother in Law was considering a tri, bike had been brought, a couple of hours had been spent in the gym…. Then trawling the results I found he had gone to Fritton lake and pulled out a 2.10 Olympic Distance debut. Good work Marcus

Last weekend Ian and Di raced Blenhim Di made top 20 in her age group with a 1.43.40 whilst Ian got stuck behind an Ambulance yet still managed a 1.49.22, they are stepping up to ¾ length for their next outing!

Nicola was disappointed with a 6th in the European Junior selection race; she made the front group after the swim which was a massive breakthrough. As Sutto used to say, “With patience grasshopper you will jump high!”

Fran made her half Ironman debut at Weymouth she finished 8th overall female. Again lots of room for improvement, refer to previous quote!
Kate and Emma also played at Weymouth, despite some bike issues kate had a solid race and a good run. Emma won her age group also on ½ debut.

Quick results check on petes lot, as hes sleeping in reparation for this afternoon…

Alex was 2nd at the Weymouth Sprint

Tracey 2nd Cotswold womens only

Jill 9th Blenheim

Joyce 2nd Schull

Bill Hammerton 1st 55-60 category 2.45.15 Rother Valley

Going back a few weeks

Kate went to Austria 70.3, she motored around the bike to start the run 5th in her age group, Kate dropped a few places on the run, but says Austria is a must do race and we are already putting together the plan to run her up the field next year.

Jane and Joyce both raced at Athy, Joyce finished a very impressive 4th after placing 2nd at Valentia the week before, although she was behind her sister which we’re hoping to sort out for the next showdown. Jane, on the Triathlon come back trail after her ultra marathon managed a credible 8th in her age group.

Ryan headed for a European champs with Xterra Italy, despite a cracking black eye in the swim he managed to pull himself back up the field to finish 17th in his age group.

New recruit Sam had a bit of trouble with his wetsuit at Eton Super Sprint but put together a good run to finish 26th. The following weekend he went on to finish 3rd at Gloucester.

Emma got in some long distance training with a ride over to Dorney lake for one of the f3 mid week races, she felt there wasn’t quite enough riding involved so opted for an extra lap on the bike. Just to help her counting I sent her back the following week and she managed a 2nd place open female finish. I reckon this must have made her first Junior, but no age categories on the results, so she had better be first junior at Weymouth this weekend.

Piers proved he can go short as well as long with a 3rd place overall at the Eton ¾ Olympic 3rd.


Jill was our star representative at the National Elite Champs in Strathclyde finishing 6th in her first real season as an elite athlete and will now be focusing on dominating at Windsor. Vicky also took to the start line in Strathclyde.

David Egan opened his season at Valentia with a very solid race, finishing 50th overall whilst Alex Hopson finished in 2.08 at a very competitive Little Beaver. Abey Lawrence also put together a very good performance at the Little Beaver finishing 6th. Nikki came 3rd in the 20-24 age group which booked her ticket to the gold coast for World Champs later in the year.

Still with us…. I know lots of results but we are trying to dominate the world here…
News from Julie….

Daz is European Xterra champ after winning her age group at Xterra Italy. This also booked her place for maui....assuming she is accepting.

At the Eton Super Sprint, Kyle Kearey won the 20-24 age group and Emma Ruth Smith won the overall female race. She is also winning the National Point Series (NPS) MTB series after winning the 3rd race by over 8mins. The following day she went on and placed 5th in the UK National Marathon MTB champs which is an awesome result as she showed she can really mix it up with some of the best Pro MTB'ers in the UK. Travis has been deployed to Rome and so racing has gone on hold until he gets settled.

Rachel Bown had a disappointing finish at the London Marathon. She unfortunately picked up a virus before the race and ran well under par. This was highlighted even more when she recently "jogged" round the Edinburgh marathon after minimal training and ran quite a bit faster. Tough luck, but hopefully will set her self up for a great triathlon season to follow.

Paul Ryman came 3rd in his age group at the New Forest Olympic distance, and is getting ready to rest up for next weeks UK 70.3 That’s your lot, another update tomorrow when we have nailed

Driven to Tri .. on all 4's!

Thanks go to Rich Cruse who got wet and bitten by mosquitoes to get this shot of athlete coach Jim McConnel for the June Swimsuit Edition of Triathlete Magazine. It's a piece they were doing on XTERRA Guam in March 2009.


I know it looks like Jim has just fallen over but in fact .... he assures us that it's his super fast way of getting down waterfalls in a kind of scoot on all 4's with your bum above the water action. It's technical and fast, something that can be learned.

Sincere apologies go to Panasonic Toughbook teamate Sam Gardner as it was he who won the race, not Jim -- he got second. The words say different. Ah well.. don't sweat the detail!

So with content like this in Triathlete .. we're all looking forward to the imminent launch of Triathlete Europe .. 1st issue July ... it'll be great to have a magazine in the UK for us triathletes to read and enjoy rather than the current rags that get used as coffee mats once the pictures have been looked at.(Sorry is that a little un PC? .. hmmm :-) )