Julie 4th at 70.3 Worlds

Julie finished off her season with 4th at the 70.3 World Championships in Florida. Not one to shirk a challenge Julie took the race out from the start and came out the swim 30 seconds up on the chasing girls. By 20 miles on the bike this had developed to 2 minutes over the chasing group. There was no holding back and by the time she headed out on the run Julie had 4 minutes on the chasing group, recording a bike split of 2.13!! Julie looked strong for the first lap but a combination of a lonely, fast bike and some very quick running from the other girls, meant Julie was caught in the closing stages and collapsed across the line in an agonising 4th place. Still a fantastic result and I'm sure Julie will be back next year looking to go a couple of places better!

Big Congratulations to AJ and Leanda who both picked up Bronze medals. Fraser Cartmell had a storming race to finish 7th in a very strong field and Toby Jameson put in a 1.15 half marathon to run himself up to 27th. When he learns to swim I'm sure he'll be a force to be reckoned with!

Julie Dibens WORLD CHAMPION!!!!

Julie won the xterra World Champs on Sunday.... woooohooooo

For full details check out her website www.juliedibens.com

Also keep your fingers crossed as Julie is having another go at the the World 1/2 Ironman champs in Clearwater next weekend.... Cummon Dibs do the dirty double!!

We have a Wetsuit Winner!!

Congratulations to Toby from St Albans who has won our Wetsuit Giveaway. Toby will be sporting a top of the range Snugg wetsuit for the coming season!

Thank you to everyone who entered and to Snugg Wetsuits for their ongoing support.

Swim Camp!

Sunday saw the first Driven to Tri swim camp of the winter. We were fortunate to have a great bunch of guys and girls along for the camp which made it a fun day to coach on! The standard of swimming was pretty high and we had some fun in the afternoon analysing everyone's stroke on the big screen. It was great to see the progress everyone made in the afternoon session and look forward to hearing of the improvements to come following the camp!

Thanks to everyone who attended, your CD's will be in the post shortly. We still have a few spaces left on the January camp, to sign up visit the camps section of the website.

Driven To Tri Hats and Hoodies

Pete and Harry Went to the seaside to get some pictures of the all new Driven To Tri Hats and Hoodies, what do you reckon? A modelling career if Triathlon doesn't work out!!

Driven To Tri Swim Drills Video Trial

We've been prescribing swim drills for a number of our athletes and getting a little tounge tied in the explanation. As they say a picture paints a thousand words so last week Pete and I put on our movie making hats.

Perhaps not the most professional of jobs, but its a work in progress and hopefully it shows the drills we have been talking about. enjoy!!

Harry Wins Bala Triathlon

First of all the picture here are Copyright Evan L Dobson not to be reproduced without express permission of the photographer!!

Bala was great fun, it’s a long drive from Tavistock to North Wales but worth the trip. My season was really over after Betton so I was just heading along for a bit of fun and to spread the Driven To Tri word. So I was very happy to win. Alot of age groupers were battling really hard for the last world slots for next season, well done to everyone who raced in some pretty tough conditions. Particularly Herbalife and Driven To Tri Athlete Patrick Collins who battled through his toughest open water swim yet to have the fastest run split in his age group.

Julie wins XTerra UK

This years XTerra was on a brand new course in Neath, Wales, and what an event! Talk about challenging! Well the bike and the run anyway! The swim took place in crystal clear 15 degree water, and Julie exited in 3rd behind age group athlete Gary Dressel (who interestingly attended our Driven to Tri camp!), and US pro Seth Wealing. The swim turned out to be just a little short with Julie entering transition in just under 15 mins! After that it was all the easy stuff done with.

The Challenging bike course consisted of both punishing steep climbs...including the aptly named "impossible climb", endless gradual climbs on fire roads, and tricky single track descents. Thanks to Julies super fast BMC she was well up to the task though and having only hit the dirt once, came into T2 with a healthy 8 minute lead on Michelle Lombardi and Ester Erdeyli (european xterra series champ).

The run was also relentless and after running a mere 1km on the flat it was pretty much either straight up and straight down. The organizers even found the time to include the legendary "impossible climb" on the run course again. As if once wasn't enough! Anyway Julie comfortably held on to her lead, even though she did lose a couple of minutes to Ester. Ester really can run, and is becoming renowned for being one of the fastest runners on the Xterra scene. And Michelle stormed home in 3rd.

All in all it was a fantastic day, and a great event. The organization was definitely top notch, and despite there being endless trails out on the terrain only one lady was reported to get lost. And she just couldn't believe that the first climb was going on as long as it did, so thought she had to have gone wrong, so turned round and went back! So thanks to Gareth Thomas and all his team for all the hard work in making the event a one truly worthy of the Xterra name. Anybody interested in doing something a little different should really consider giving Xterra a try!

Julie now has a few weeks off racing before the last big races of the year in October and November. Just 3 more to go! Dallas - the last in the LTF series, Maui, Hawaii - Xterra World Champs, and Clearwater, FL - 70.3 World Champs.

Julie 2nd in the prestigious Los Angeles Triathlon

Once again Julie keeps her podium streak alive for the year, coming in 2nd in the LA triathlon this morning. This race was the 4th in the series of LifeTime Fitness races held this year. This result will help secure Julie in 2nd in the series, but leaves her with the small task of having to win the last race in Dallas to get enough points to earn the bonus! If that doesn't make sense to you then you are not the only one! For more info go to www.ltftriathlonseries.com.

Anyway back on to the race. The conditions at Venice Beach were pretty much perfect for the start of the race. Temperatures were cool, sun was just rising, and the wind and surf were pretty calm. Julie was first through the surf and lead out the swim for most of the way along with Emma Snowsill. This is becoming a bit of a habit after having swam side by side at both NY and Chicago. There was a 3rd girl with them, but waiting on confirmation as to who it was.

Out on to the bike Julie and Emma put the hammer down putting minutes into the rest of the field. Despite her best efforts Julie never got rid of Emma this time and they came into T2 with Emma right behind her. We think that Emma had a great bike today, rather than Julie a poor one, as in all the other races this year Julie has managed to put some daylight between them. Julie also had quite a big knock earlier in the week, when she came off her bike doing some Time Trialling. And so her confidence was a little down, as this was the first time she had really been able to get back on the bike since the accident.

Out on the run, it was always going to be a tall order to stay with Emma, as she is undoubtedly one of, if not the fastest runner in the sport. But Julie kept focused and put in a strong run today, and held on comfortably for 2nd with Miranda Carfrae in 3rd.

Snugg Wetsuit Give Away

Driven to Tri are giving one lucky person the chance to win a top of the range custom fitted Snugg Wetsuit. Snugg's Custom Made Slipstream 2007, which retails at £320, is a unique wetsuit that caters for each triathletes individual swim needs by providing a choice of 3 variable flotation styles. The suit will be tailored to your exact requirements and hand-made at Snugg's factory in Cornwall, ensuring the highest quality.


For your chance to win, click here and fill out your contact details. Entries will be accepted from 9th September 2007 to Midnight 20th October 2007. The winner will be chosen randomly and results posted on our website www.driventotri.com.

To be eligible to win, you must live in the United Kingdom or Ireland. Only one entry per person will be accepted. By entering the draw you are agreeing to the use of your contact details by Driven to Tri and Snugg wetsuits only as part of future promotions, your details will not be passed onto any third party.

For further details on Driven to Tri Triathlon Coaching visit www.driventotri.com
For more details on Snugg visit www.snuggwetsuits.co.uk

August - London Triathlon

The world's largest triathlon saw Harry and Pete put together their best races of the season. The men's race featured a couple of world champions, Olympic medallists and probably the world's fastest swimmer in Ben Sanson. This meant the swim was on from the start and a group of around 12 athletes had a large gap over the chasing pack by the end of the swim. Harry was 2nd into transition with Pete being the last member of this front group out the water. These few seconds proved vital with Harry latching on to some of the strongest cyclists in the sport resulting in a front group of 6. Pete missed this break and was forced to sit up and wait for the 2nd pack after 15k.

The biking strength at the front resulted in Harry's group gaining a big gap on the rest of the field as they came off the bike. With Tim, Stu and Matt Reed pushing the pace from the start Harry ran with U23 athlete Dann Brook for the first 5k before pushing on to hold off the fast approaching Hendrick De Villiers and Bevan Docherty and come home in 4th place in a time of 1.44.

Pete's group didn't work quite so well together and came off the bike with a big deficit on the top ten athletes. Pete managed to build through the run picking off athletes who had headed out too fast in the heat. By 5K he'd caught everyone in his pack and ran the last 2k with Kiwi Ben Visser for company. Unfortunately Ben had more in the tank for the sprint with Pete coming home a few seconds back in 12th and 2nd U23 Brit. Due to the biking prowess at the front his time was outside 3% of the winners time meaning he missed out on qualification for the U23 world championships.

Julie 2nd in New York Triathlon

This morning was the second race of the LifeTime Fitness series in New York. It was an early kick off with the men starting and 5:50am and the women at 5:53. The women's, much like Minneapolis had a small but strong field with Emma Snowsill once again being the pre race favourite. Julie was obviously a little sleepy at the start of the race, and actually did a false start falling in the water before the gun!!!! This is a first for Julie....and not a great start to the race. The current in the Hudson River was so strong that there was no way they were going to pull her back, so they went ahead and started the race. It definitely didn't end up as an advantage to Julie as the girls dived in over her! Lesson learnt there then! Once into her swimming groove though, she made up the small gap she had lost and exited the swim in second, right on Emma's toes. The run into transition was then a good 600-700m and Julie struggled with this loosing a little time. Some of you will remember Julie has had a couple of surgeries on her foot, and the one thing she still struggles with is barefoot running. Anyhow she lost about 20 secs and went out on to the bike in 4th behind Emma, Rebecca Wassner, and Pip Taylor.

Once onto the bike Julie once again put her head down and hammered home, coming into T2 in 1st 1:20 up on Snowsill, 3:10 on Wassner and 4:30 on Taylor. Julie held off Snowsill til about mile 2 or 3, and then came home comfortably in 2nd. So she keeps her Podium streak for the year alive, and keeps her self in the running for the Lifetime fitness series bonus.

Julie is now returning home. She has decided not to race for a few weeks, as she has now had 6 races in 7 weeks. Her next race will be in Chicago for the 3rd of the Lifetime Fitness races. She will however be up at the London triathlon, but with her Driven to tri cap on!