New Mills Sprint, Sunday 5th August 2007

Report by Jonathan Dabbs

Schoolboy errors from the chairman at New Mills

Preparation is everything. I thought I’d done it this time. Spare goggles, spare race belt, spare wheels, I’d checked the bike course, and some of the run course out so I knew where the hills were. But it wasn’t enough...

I had also checked the weather. Heavy rain. So, it was a pleasant surprise to see sunny skies on the morning of the New Mills triathlon. Arrived on site in plenty of time to be greeted by a few MTC faces, and of course hear the dulcit tones of the ever cheery DQ who was organising New Mills, part of a 5 race series.

Rack up in plenty of time. Check bike, ****. What’s that bald patch on my tyre?

Schoolboy error 1: Check bike and wheels the day before so you can fix it. It was a new tubular tyre, and I’d meant to find out how to change them before, but hadn’t managed the time. I figured if I had a puncture, it would be in a race, and so would be the end of the ‘race’ effectively, so no desparate rush, not when there’s so many other things to do.

Schoolboy error 2: Learn bike maintenance basics before you find you need them. Quickly asked around, was offered a new tubular tyre, which Jason kindly put on for me. Back in action? No, this time a slow puncture on the tyre. It was ok though, I’d brought spare wheels for just this eventuality. On went the spare wheel, quick test, all seems okay. Back in business.

Looking at the course (very hilly), I’d decided not to nail the swim, but risked losing a few seconds, to hopefully save energy for the bike and hill. Quickly see off 16 lengths, and onto the bike, Andy Norman and Rachel Shepherd in sight. Start to catch them up only to go up a hill, change down a couple of gears and the chain starts slipping. The new wheel doesn’t like the lowest 3 or 4 gears of the rear derailleur – this is going to make the hills exceedingly tough.

Schoolboy error 3: test equipment compatibility. Out on the A6, and onto the aerobars, catch up and overtake Rachel (who was having a bad bike after she’d fallen off at the start) and Andy Norman. Going well again. A bit of undulations, not too bad on the gears, and then a long long hill up into Hayfield. God I wished I had those extra gears as Andy Norman the whippet came cruising past spinning quite merrily as I ground out a low cadence (got to be good strength training though right?). He’d long gone by the time I got to the top, and a nice long descent – here we go now, this is the fun part ….20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45mph this is more like it….. until an HGV sits in your path, dawdling at 40mph – and on a winding road that I couldn’t risk an overtaking manoeuvre (not with the way today’s going anyway!). Sit in, curse, have drink, look at the nice views.

The rest of the course was reasonable, with no further problems, see Gary and Viv out on the run – give them a cheer as I go past in the last 1K of my bike, and then back into T2, and off onto the run. An easy 200m to start, then greeted by Guy Dobson “Left at the signpost at the top, cross over a couple of lanes, until you see another signpost” – Guy must be so bored of saying this to every competitor by now, but he still manages it with a smile and a much needed “Come on Dabbsy!” as I started up a really tough first hill – and the effects of pushing a hard gear up the hills certainly kicks in. It wasn’t long before it flattened off though and I could get into my running. Unfortunately, as I was in the last wave, there were very few runners out on the course still to help motivate you and give you targets. There was the odd one or two – I guessed Mr Norman was long gone by now so I just enjoyed the nice views and clicked off the miles before another "come on Dabbsy" from Guy (thanks mate!) and an uphill finish and a sprint into the line.

Andy had taken Paul Savage on the run to be the quickest in the wave so was in contention for a win, only to find out that in the previous wave Ashley Norrie had logged a quicker time. Great result from Andy though in what is his first triathlon season.

Despite mechanical issues, it was a great race, well organised, well sign-posted and a really relaxed atmosphere around the centre and a catch up with all the other competitors.

As well as Andy’s podium, MTC won the men’s team prize - Andy Norman, Tim Johns (7th) and myself (8th). David Moon also achieved an excellent 2nd place in his age group and Viv Slack was 4th female.

Results

Position	Name	Sex	Age	Position in Category	Time
2	Andy Norman	M	25-29	1	01:06:18
7	Tim Johns	M	40-44	2	01:08:28
8	Jon Dabbs	M	35-39	3	01:09:52
13	Mark Abbott	M	45-49	4	01:13:41
31	Viv Slack	F	30-35	2	01:20:10
41	Gary Wolstencraft	M	35-39	9	01:23:38
53	David Moon	M	50-54	2	01:27:09
97	Alison Deykin	F	35-39	7	01:41:07

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