... tackle the St Neots NiceTri Sprint Triathlon

Last Sunday, 2nd September 2012, three St Neots Cycling Club members, Wayne Tunnah, Richard Hancock and Steve Pleasance, opted for the NiceTri Triathlon rather than the club’s Sunday ride.  The Triathlon was the last of the 2012 NiceTri Sprint series which consist of a 750m open water swim in the Great Ouse, a 25km cycle and finish off with a 5km run.  The temperature of the water on the day was 17⁰C which under BTF rules means wet suits were optional, although all three of us opted for the wet suit! The cycle route would be very familiar to club members and consisted of a single loop riding the B645 out to Little Staughton and returning to St Neots via the well-known Bushmead sprint. Finally, the run consisted of two flat and fast 2.5km loops around the Riverside Park.

As with most triathlon events the day starts early, with registration open at 6am. Next stop is the Transition area to rack the bike and religiously lay out the kit to ensure a quick transition between swim, cycle and run (see later). It is also the perfect opportunity to suss out the competition. Then there is the obligatory nervous queue outside the portaloos, prior to donning the wet suit. The three of us were competing in different age categories with Wayne setting off in the first wave swim start as a Male Senior (MS), and Richard (MV40) and Steve (MV50) setting off 10 minutes later in the second wave with the (other) ladies.

Wayne gets in

Wayne enters the Great Ouse for the Wave 1 Swim start

Open water mass swim starts can be a bit daunting with lots of thrashing of arms and legs from the start horn as people try like demented frogs to get clear of the melee and into clear water and to establish a rhythm. It can be sometimes useful to tag onto another swimmer and draft in their wake and save energy; however, the trick is to pick someone of the right pace and who also “sights” well, in other words someone who regularly looks ahead to keep on track. You can always spot the newbies zig zagging down the course desperately looking for the lines on the bottom of the river. Negotiating the large inflatable buoys that mark the course also provides more opportunities for getting kicked or losing your swim goggles. The three of us exited the water in reverse age order with Steve clocking the fastest swim time of the three (13:02). Richard was close behind and actually took a whole 2 minutes off his previous best time.

The transitions between swim and bike (T1) and bike and run (T2) are often called the 4th element of Triathlon and a closer look at the results below reveal that while Steve was out of the water first, Richard wiped out any advantage and got ahead by taking a mere 47 seconds to get out of his wetsuit, don his helmet and get out on the bike. Although Wayne also managed a relatively fast time for T1, he lost valuable time after having mounted the bike only to find he had put his shoes on the wrong the pedals!!

Shoes

Wayne discovers his shoes on the wrong pedals in T1

Despite (ambipedal) Wayne’s embarrassing transition set-up error, the bike times of the three of us reflected our performance during the Club’s Summer Time Trials with Richard putting in a storming 35:55 and actually clocking the fastest ride of the day. On the outward leg of the ride, all three of us passed Chairman Richard Ostler going in the opposite direction on the B645 on his way to the Market Square for the Group 1 Sunday Ride. Richard H had already gained over 2 minutes on Wayne’s 10 minute head start after the swim and T1 and closed the remaining 8 minutes over the 25km bike course catching him just coming back into St Neots.

Wayne run

Wayne at the start of the 5km run
 
After a very quick T2, Richard continued with an impressive 18:39 for the 5km run coming in 4th, both overall and in the MV40 category. Wayne had a similarly fast T2 and came in 26th overall and 11th in the highly competitive MS age category. Following his recent win in the club’s Handicap Time Trial Series, Steve was really chuffed to come 1st in the MV50 age category (47th overall) and pick up another trophy for the mantelpiece (if we had one).

All-in-all, a very successful day for the Three Amigos of St Neots CC. For Richard the event was a final practice for the Rother Valley Triathlon next week and his bid to qualify for a GB age group place at the 2013 ETU European Championships in Alanya, Turkey.

Watch this space!

Pos.

Total Time

Swim

T1

Bike

T2

Run

Name

Age Cat

Cat Pos

4

01:09:50

13:47

00:47

35:55

00:40

18:39

HANCOCK, Richard

MV40

4

26

01:20:10

14:19

01:19

41:22

00:43

22:25

TUNNAH, Wayne

MS

11

47

01:24:14

13:02

01:39

45:45

00:57

22:50

PLEASANCE, Steve

MV50

1