Tripurbecks very own Sika Duathlon!

Well despite pretty much two weeks of rain and wind, come race weekend the temperature dropped like a stone, but the sun came out and the wind finally dropped for some fantastic racing from ages 5 up to those over their 60s. Doesn’t get much better then that!

First up were the Juniors, and a lot of the Tripurbeck Squad were out illustrating their multi sports skills. All the results can be found at www.tripurbeck.co.uk, however, a mention has to go to Harley, who blew the opposition away in the Tristarts, Heidi, who came in first female, second overall in the TS 2 category, and Lola and Lily, who despite having a hectic week, came home 2nd and 3rd in the TS 3, not very far  from  the speedy SW Academy Athlete Daisy. (A special mention also has to go to our very own Annie Bungay, who was about a foot smaller and a year younger in this race, plus had a nasty cold, but did not complain once, and put in a fantastic effort. Very proud! )

The Youth athletes were racing the same race as the adults, and we had Tripurbeck Jed, Jack and Sam racing. Sam had already clocked up a fair few miles as our lead out for all of the junior races, but this didn’t stop him, as he flew around the first run, and went to work on the bike. I think the wheels fell off on about lap 3 of the bike, however, he still made it back to win the Youth race. Jed, who I think was the youngest youth racing, came in 2nd place, and was solid from start to finish! Jack also put in a great effort, in what I think is his longest race to date!

Onto the adults! We had Goalspecific athletes Claude, Mark and Evan lining up on the start line. First time in a very long time that they had swapped their fancy road bike bling for the mountain bike, and there were a lot of post race comments  with regards to being a bit too tentative on the corners, however, they certainly didn’t hang about. Claude was the first to venture back off the first run with the 9th fastest time, closely followed by Mark and Evan! Then Mark went to work on the bike course, on his fancy new bit of kit, and posted the second fastest bike split, in his first ever duathlon, (not to mention only the second time on the bike!). However, he was far too busy chatting in transition, and high fiving the crowd to notice the other athletes running past him in transition, however, still managed a top 10 finish. Claude wasn’t far behind either, placing 14th Male overall, 9th Vet.  Evan, who clearly thoroughly enjoyed the whole occasion as he had a smile on his face from start to finish, also put in a solid performance across the whole race, and despite having a rather tough training week, topped with swim squad and strength and conditioning the night before, he still came in 17th overall, 12th Vet.

So, overall, some great results for their first winter training race of the season and many more to come!

Thanks Goalspecific Clodie, who sacrificed the opportunity to race to be our first aider for the day, plus time keeper! Very much appreciated!