PACTRAC held the 5th Mini-Series of 9 on Wednesday. This was
held in conjunction with the 2nd Novice Race. A record 61 competitor's
signed up on the night. Simon Hoppe, having won the previous 4, was
away on business, leaving Tom Stead, who won the first Novice Race, to
battle it out with Rob Hammond. Rob started the run in 6th place, 45
seconds down, and caught all 5 runners ahead of him, just catching the
final one, Tom, in the finishing straight. (see photo of Rob and Tom in
the finishing straight).
Roz Giles was the first lady for the 5th time. She has now won the
Lady's Mini-Series Trophy with a maximum 50 points.
Neil Tandy lead the swimmers out, just ahead of Henry Morton,
with Tony Daniels a further 17 seconds down. Rob Hammond was the next
main contender out in 8th place, closely followed by Tom Stead in 9th.
17 swimmers came out in under 6 minutes.
It was a good evening for
cycling with 7 riders recording less than 24 minutes for the 10 miles.
Tom Stead had the fastest time of 23 minutes dead, to bring him into T2
just ahead of Neil and Tony. 37 seconds later, Dave Wagstaff brought
the next 5 riders in, and the chase was on. Tom held onto the lead
until the final finishing straight, where Rob managed to catch him just
before the line! Chris Brennan moved up to 3rd with John Murray who
started the run in 15th place, taking 4th with the fastest run of the
night.
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In the 6th of 9 Mini-Series Triathlon's at Oundle, 34
athletes took to the water, with Neil Tandy leading Ross Kent and Henry
Morton out. Tony Nicholson soon followed, but then there was a gap of
38 seconds, before newcomer Jim Carmichael lead 20 other swimmers out
in the space of the next minute.
Neil also had the fastest bike split
of the night, by almost a minute to power into transition, a minute and
22 seconds ahead of Ross, with another 51 seconds to Jon Crowley in
3rd.
Ross made inroads on the run, but only by 12 seconds, leaving
Neil to come home 1:10 minutes clear for an emphatic victory, proving
that "if anyone can, the Tandy man can". This was Neil's 2nd ever Mini-
Series win, following on from race 7 in 2011. He recorded a Personal
Best time by 51 seconds into the bargain.
Results are on http://www.pactrac.co.uk under races.