Rivington Tri, Sunday 9th September 2007
Report by Martin Webb
MTC Clinch Men's and Women's NW Series Team Awards
This year's event saw a good turnout form the club as we looked to clinch the men's and women's team awards in the North West series. I use the term, we, liberally, as this is a report from very much the back of the race!
Personally this was my first Olympic distance event for three years so it was with a bit of trepidation that I arrived to find Rivington shrouded in mist half hoping that the swim might be cancelled, even though it's my best discipline comparatively speaking.
Tony Jolly was putting everyone to shame warming up on his turbo trainer followed by some sprints up and down the road.
To win the team prize the men needed to have four good finishers and the women needed three to finish.
Before we knew it we were in the water and off, a nice wide start and the water not to cool.
At the business end of the swim Lee Symanski, Richard Hyder and Chairman Dabbs had good swims to finish in the top 15.
Further back Viv Slack, starting near the back, started to claw her way through the field. Here's what Viv had to say about the swim:-
"The swim was a blur for me though don't get me wrong, not because of speed - a combination of water in my goggles, lots of bodies and an inability to swim in a straight line made it confusing. At one point i seemed to be in line with several people doing breast stroke - a sure sign things weren't going well. I was very relieved to get to dry land."
The bike leg turned out to be an good, challenging course, the same one used in the Horwich Triathlon, not much traffic and fairly scenic. The long climb into, through and out of Horwich got the heart rate going but was fairly manageable by spinning a low enough gear. It did however seem to be the course for punctures. Jon Dabbs takes up the story:-
"I knew I needed a 13th place or better to move up into 4th spot in the NW series. I was on track for this after coming out of the swim in 17th, and having moved up to 14th on the bike was going well until puncturing. Undeterred (and also thinking about the team prize still up for grabs for MTC which needed 4 club finishers), the wheel was changed and set off hell for leather to try to make up some places. After finishing the bike in 20th position set about the run, and gained 9 places to get the result I needed."
Meanwhile after a slow swim (for him) Tony Jolly was flying through the field on his bike closely followed by Viv who was showing no ill effects of her time trial performance the previous day. Konrad Steinert was also making up significant places after the swim.
I spent 12 minutes recovering from my puncture and in retrospect I would have been quicker running to the finish with my bike (it turned out I was less than a mile from finish!) unlike the girl from Ashurst Bike Club who actually had to run back from Chorley with her bike.
The run is a really lovely route - past the reservoir and through the forest. As an out and back course you see the leaders on the way back. Lee, Jon, Tony and Richard secured good places for the club and hence the NW Team Series.
Konrad made up an amazing 20 places on the run to clock the 7th fastest run time.
Viv had the fastest ladies bike leg and a solid run saw her finishing 4th lady.
Amy Hibbett, in her second Olympic race, had a solid bike leg and consolidated to make up a further 8 places on the run to be the 2nd team counter for the ladies.
Becky Roberts in her first Olympic race finished in style with a sprint finish to secure the ladies NW team title. All the counters get a trophy I believe.
This race clashed with Hellvelyn and the Vitruvian (previous day) where a number of club members were racing. It was good however to see a good turn out here with Pqartick Holtby and George Lipscombe also racing. A good, well organised race, post race massage and shower, plus bacon butties and unlimited supply of toast and teacakes.
It was a great effort by all especially the team counters especially by those who entered specifically so the team could win the NW Series - you know who you are!!!!
Results (1.5k/40k/10k)
| Pos | Name | Swim | Pos | Bike | Pos | Run | Pos | Overall |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 | Lee Szymanski | 00:25:24 | 8 | 01:11:02 | 12 | 00:40:11 | 9 | 02:16:37 |
| 11 | Jonathon Dabbs | 00:27:06 | 17 | 01:17:02 | 34 | 00:38:16 | 5 | 02:22:24 |
| 14 | Tony Jolly | 00:32:40 | 60 | 01:12:03 | 13 | 00:40:23 | 10 | 02:25:06 |
| 28 | Richard Hyder | 00:25:24 | 9 | 01:18:23 | 44 | 00:46:05 | 48 | 02:29:52 |
| 31 | Konrad Steinert | 00:36:22 | 82 | 01:14:30 | 23 | 00:39:33 | 7 | 02:30:25 |
| 49 | Viv Slack | 00:33:06 | 66 | 01:17:24 | 36 | 00:48:25 | 65 | 02:38:55 |
| 55 | Amy Hibbert | 00:29:54 | 30 | 01:26:25 | 79 | 00:46:18 | 52 | 02:42:37 |
| 57 | Ranald Mackay | 00:32:54 | 64 | 01:22:22 | 59 | 00:48:35 | 66 | 02:43:51 |
| 61 | George Lipscomb | 00:33:14 | 69 | 01:19:02 | 46 | 00:52:19 | 85 | 02:44:35 |
| 75 | Martin Webb | 00:30:30 | 39 | 01:33:42 | 94 | 00:47:44 | 59 | 02:51:56 |
| 92 | Patrick Holtby | 00:36:00 | 80 | 01:32:17 | 91 | 00:53:21 | 89 | 03:01:38 |
| 108 | Becky Roberts | 00:50:22 | 111 | 01:38:05 | 101 | 01:02:25 | 104 | 03:30:52 |
| DNF | Vicki Wade | 00:26:36 | 14 | ---- | -- | ---- | -- | 00:00:00 |
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