Bickerstaffe Bash (NW Duathlon Champs), Sunday 1st April 2007

Report by Tony Jolly

This is becoming the season opener for the NorthWest Regional events and a very high quality field of NW athletes had turned out to try and carry off some of the silverware on offer. The race had been moved from last year popular Parbold course due to problems of securing the pub car park for transition.

The race was also part of the MTC club awards and as a result MTC was the best represented club after the host, Ashurst. After last years postponement due to snow I was all prepared for some bad weather, but with the exception of a blustery wind in open spots the weather was a warm and sunny, just perfect for April fools day.

While the bike course was much flatter than Parbold, the wind had some bearing on the race, with many with trispokes and deep section rims struggling somewhat with cross winds on the dual carriage way. No stopping Andy White from Chester with his rear disc wheel and fastest split of 26:03 min for the 11 mile course.

Ashurst took the team prize and dominated the higher placings, but MTC were second place in the team competition.

Alex Young put in a great first run and was 3rd out on the bike, with Brad Murphy and Paul Skipper not far behind. A bit further back there was a bit of a battle going on with Dave Shackley, Tim Johns, Rob Harper, Tony Jolly all coming in within 6 seconds of each other. Placings changed hands throughout the race, with final placings being settled mid way through the run. Dave Shackley suffering with stitch and cramp struggled on the final run, otherwise it would have been a much closer affair.

It was great to see a couple of new faces, including Gary Wolstencroft who had a great first event. Due to the very high quality field 44th place doesn't do the effort justice.

Afterwards there were some home made cakes (at least if you were in the queue ahead of Rob Harper), and the good weather was perfect for a post race chat, while the results were calculated and presentation took place. Personally I thought Matt and Marc at Ashurst had done a great organisation job and the race went without incident. A good season opener to put in your diaries for next year???

Rob Wilby's report

Good to see everyone this weekend. It was a great event, I thought, well run and good to see some familiar faces to start the year's racing off. Good turn out from the Man Tri Club lot.

I had a pretty good race overall, found the crosswinds on the bike a bit challenging with the new trispokes on, but was happy with the result. Managed to overhaul Tim Johns with about a mile to go on the final run, but it was hard going. I'd started the run only a few seconds back on him and he ran away from me, building his lead to over 100m at one point, but I worked hard and just managed to peg him back.

Results (3.3mi/11mi/3.3mi)

See the Club Awards Series 2007 page for Club Duathlon champions.

Pos	Name	Gender	AG	Run 1	Bike	Run 2	Total	Club
1	Matt Cullen	Male	25-29	0:17:10	0:28:08	0:18:46	1:04:04	Ashurst
4	Paul Skipper	Male	25-29	0:18:35	0:26:58	0:19:38	1:05:11	MTC
5	Bradley Murphy	Male	30-34	0:17:49	0:27:40	0:20:23	1:05:52	MTC
20	Rob Wilby	Male	30-34	0:19:46	0:29:45	0:20:47	1:10:18	MTC
22	Tim Johns	Male	40-44	0:20:34	0:28:57	0:21:16	1:10:47	MTC
23	Alex Young	Male	17-19	0:17:47	0:33:25	0:19:41	1:10:53	MTC
29	Tony Jolly	Male	35-39	0:20:40	0:30:54	0:21:40	1:13:14	MTC
31	Rob Harper	Male	30-34	0:20:35	0:31:26	0:21:41	1:13:42	MTC
35	Dave Shackley	Male	35-39	0:20:30	0:29:40	0:24:37	1:14:47	MTC
44	Gary Wolstencroft	Male	35-39	0:21:11	0:32:49	0:24:00	1:18:00	MTC
45	Vicki Wade	Female	35-39	0:21:54	0:33:06	0:23:05	1:18:05	MTC
47	Richard Hyder	Male	30-34	0:21:58	0:32:26	0:24:08	1:18:32	MTC
58	Hugh McKenna	Male	55-59	0:25:04	0:33:41	0:28:02	1:26:47	MTC

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