TriPurbeck Supersprint race report…….

Mid summers day seemed like an excellent choice of date for us to put on the first TriPurbeck supersprint – at the time we set the date we envisaged some quality racing followed by Pims on the lawn watching the juniors afterwards. Ummm. Well the quality racing was there but the junior races were more like swim-swim-swim than swim-bike-run. Didn’t seem to put them off though and they produced some excellent racing despite the heavy conditions, particularly on the bike.

In the tristart girl’s race, Heidi led from start to finish followed by Jade and Ella. Ryan put on a show in the tristart boys race putting a clear margin between himself and the 3 way battle for 2nd between Lloyd, Max and Charlie. Lloyd got away on the bike leaving Charlie to take 3rd in a sprint finish. The tristar 1 race was dominated by Rachel with Annie in 2nd. Stand out  performance from Harry though, who came from last place in the swim to win the boys race from Lennon and Matthew. Jed got back to winning ways in the tristar 2 boys race with George 2nd and Isabelle won again in the girls race, once again holding off Lily with Lydia 3rd despite having the fastest swim time. Finally, another stand out performance from Flora in the tristar 3 race – 2nd out of the swim, she overtook Richie who was leading the bike out (doesn’t bode well for ironman Austria next weekend mate) and never looked back. Jonathan won the boys race with Joseph 2nd.

So back to the supersprint……  in a minute, but first a public service announcement:

 BALANCING ON A FIT BALL IN THE GYM IS A BIT TRICKY.   

This was brought to you by Jane ‘no honest I hadn’t had a drop’ Robson – I’ll let her fill you in on the details.

Back to the race and the rain and wind eased just in time for the start so racing conditions weren’t too bad. The racing was close throughout with Steve Vye posting a great time from the 4th wave – enough to take 3rd overall. In the final wave Nigel Brain and Chris Wood were neck and neck all through the swim and bike but it was Nigel who stretched out on the run to win and set the course record at 36min42sec. Chris came in second although Justin tried to pull a fast one by nipping in to the finish after 2 laps of the run – not really his day as he was still fixing a puncture about 5 minutes before his wave start! In the ladies race, Helen de Montes led out the swim and a battle developed on the bike between Liz Hall and Helen. Liz’s new wheels were put through their paces as she posted the fastest bike split and had a enough of a lead to stay ahead on the run. Helen finished 2nd with Elspeth de Montes 3rd.  Jenny Brain completed a family double, winning the female vets prize – although she doesn’t look a day older then 25.

So who took the TriPurbeck honours. The boys were nearly all in the same wave so the race was on with Guy posting the fastest swim of the day – 3min49sec for 250m. They all headed out on the bike in a bunch and I was forced to put on my sunglasses due to the bling on Peter Fraser’s hubs. Roddy, bereft of sandwich box, went to work on the tri bars with Carl, Mark and Jonathan in hot pursuit. Guy couldn’t hold on to Peter ‘the wheels’ Fraser but biked well to follow him out on the run. There was no catching the big man though and he took the male vet’s prize and 5th place overall. Roddy rolled back the years (or something) and pipped Guy on the line. Great racing from the chaps, so the fastest Tripurbeck athlete of the day was….. Liz Hall – she beat them all!   

Great performances from all the other TriPurbeck athletes as well including Mark Woolley – the sly old dog – who was very fast in his first race, Sharon Bardsley who finished 6th in the ladies race and posted a great time, Simon Carvisiglia who borke 50 mins and swam really well in only his second race and Cheryl Weeks who also had a really good race and finished as 9th lady.

Just enough time left for John Skilton to do an impression of a jellyfish. Huge thanks to the team and the marshalls who all did a great job in tricky conditions.

Results are posted here:

http://www.tripurbeck.com/blog/tripurbeck-supersprint-results/

More race reports from other races at the weekend to come later………….