Tom Perchard wins the Queens Valley duathlon in wet and windy conditions in St Martin. Sam Lee was the first lady home in a field of 26 triathletes. Full results available here.
Race Report by Mike Osborne
After some anxious forecast watching, it was our own “David Braine” (or maybe Sophie Bird?), Matt Ebbrell, whose optimism proved well founded and, despite the strong wind and the cold temperatures, the roads were ice free and the 2015 Queens Valley Duathlon was on.
26 hardy athletes assembled at first light and such a strong turnout in mid-winter is much appreciated by the race committee and the volunteer marshals and timekeepers for the day.
The first run leg was a circuit of the 3.1km undulating path around the reservoir and Sam Maher set a furious pace to lead home a couple of seconds ahead of Tom Perchard and nearly a minute ahead of the following field. Heading out onto the 14km Bike leg the strength of wind became apparent to the riders battling up to St Martins into serious head winds, but Demri Mitchell made light work of the conditions posting an insane split that was a minute and a half clear of the nearest rival. Demri put in a solid effort on the second run, another full lap of the reservoir, but was unable to hold of Tom (who was by this time warming up after his last minute registration) posting the fastest second run split by some way and coasting to a comfortable victory. Sam Maher completed the top three, edging Oli Turner into fourth in a very close tussle around the second run. Once again the performance of our junior athletes was outstanding.
Congratulations to Sam Lee for another good victory in the ladies race, with Pippa Worth and Della Roderick taking the next two spots.
It was great to see several new faces all racing with tremendous enthusiasm and looking good for the season ahead. As for the old stagers, special mention goes to Simon Roderick, who sneaked into the top ten, but must be reflecting on what could have been if he had done a few more training sessions and a few less sessions polishing the new van.
Finally, many thanks to V-Man, Sarah, Alex, Matt and Si for getting it all together. To Sarah, Paula and Lisa for immaculate time keeping. To Dougie for his transition set-up and marshalling and to the course marshals too numerous to mention (you know who you are).
So now on to Sunday 22nd, for the mud –fest that will be the St Cath’s Duathlon (we’re taking you for a run in the woods in addition to some road action). Bring it on!
