The 3rd of 9 Mini-Series Triathlons took place at Oundle, over the usual course and distances:
swim 400 yards in the 50 yard pool.bike 10 miles. 1 undulating lap around Glapthorn and the Benefields.
run 3.5 miles - out to Glapthorn and back.
Simon Hoppe won for the 3rd time out of 3. He has still to beat
the 50-minute barrier this year, but was just 15 seconds over this on
Wednesday. It stayed dry and was a decent night for biking, which
always helps.
39 competitor's lined up. 15 recorded PBs on the night,
including Richard Luff and Tim Kent who both went under the hour for
the first time. 3 competitor's were new to the sport.
Neil Tandy was first out of the water, closely followed by Henry Morton and Ross Kent,
with another 12 seconds to Simon Hoppe. The other main contenders, Jaap
Flikweert and Tom Stead were a further 30 seconds down at this point.
All changed on the bike, with Simon moving to the front, with a 30
second lead over Jaap, who had a further 45 seconds on Tom. These
positions remained the same on the run, with Ross claiming 4th and the
fastest run of the night taking Sean Beard up to 5th.
The 1st lady home was Roz Giles, making it 3 in a row so far this year for both
Simon and Roz.
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The following day, Thursday, saw the 2nd Box End Evening Triathlon near Bedford.
This was over the distances of:
swim 750 meters in the lake.
bike 6.25 miles off road - 2 laps of the permanent, undulating grass
and trail route.
run 3 miles, again off road - 1 lap of the same course.
Roz Giles had already competed the day before in the PACTRAC
Mini-Series Triathlon, and was first lady home in both races. Husband
Steve, and Rob Hammond were 2nd and 3rd respectively in the over 40 Age
Group.
Results:
5. Rob Hammond 12:01 30:22 20:46 = 63:09
6. Steve Giles 15:28 28:30 19:19 = 63:17
17. Roz Giles 13:42 30:52 23:53 = 68:27
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In the 4th of the summer Mini-Series Triathlon's,
Simon Hoppe won for the 4th time out of 4, whilst Roz Giles
was the first lady, again for the fourth time out of four.
Henry Morton lead the swimmers out, closely followed by Simon Hoppe, Tony
Daniels and Tony Nicholson. It was a further 30 seconds before Austin
Smith emerged, and another 15 seconds before Giles Cooper lead the main
bunch out.
Simon and Tony soon took hold of the race on the bike, and
fought it out to come into T2 together, over 2 minutes clear of the
chasers, now lead by Steve Coward.
Simon recorded a run split of 21.39 to pull ahead and eventually win by 2 1/4 minutes, just outside the
magical 50-minute barrier by a mere 4 seconds. Tony held onto 2nd, but
only by 8 seconds in the end from a rapidly approaching Steve Giles,
whilst Sean Beard had the fastest run of the night to make it a tight
finish in 4th place. Sean came in off the bike in 11th place.
Further down the field, the Pike Brothers were involved in their own little
race. Coming out of the swim together, Richard pulled ahead by 26
seconds on the bike, only for Chris to have a faster run by a mere 33
seconds to finish 7 seconds ahead. Both recorded PBs in the process.