July performances & races
Performances & races
Again, lots of varied races to update on, many of them featuring Kester, who’s had a very eventful three weeks 😉.
He started his odyssey by qualifying for the Glasgow World Champs, with a sensational 3rd place overall in the Isle of Man Gran Fondo, before demonstrating his bike prowess, posting the fastest bike split overall in the British Triathlon Championships in Sunderland. He won silver in 20-24, qualifying for next year’s worlds in Malaga and finished a quite sensational 15th overall, in what was only his 2nd ever triathlon. His achievements really deserve time to reflect upon.
Sadly a bike mechanical issue derailed his chances of making it a hattrick, and he was arguably over-shadowed by Megan, who followed up her overall win in Sunderland, with a 9th place finish in the bunch sprint at Glasgow.
Sunderland wasn’t quite so kind to Charlie Brook, who wasn’t able to match his win the preceding weekend at Dorney, but still stands 11th in the Super Series with a chance to improve in the final two events. Another whose race didn’t go to plan, was the Cervino Matterhorn Ultra Race for Maria, for whom the previous night’s illness meant a DNF.
Oli Hammans and Gail Edmonds completed the point to point adventure Castle to Coast triathlon (Dorney to Brighton sea front), whilst due to a timing chip issue, Terry Hernandez was briefly showing as the overall winner of the Castle Howard triathlon (reduced to an aquathlon due to adverse weather).
Today saw another busy weekend, less impacted domestically by the weather. Steve Hughes finished 1st vet at the London Triathlon, posting the 7th fastest bike leg on his way to a 2:13. Mark Fielding-Smith posted a 2:50 and Oli a 6:10 in the 70.3 distance, as part of his preparations for Kalmar. We also saw a very welcome return to action for Josie Middleton-Smith in the sprint event, Another making a long awaited return to action was Mike Deevy, who turned in 3 solid legs on his way to a 2:10 9th place (2nd vet) at Dorney in his first race since lockdown. Out in Duisburg, Sara Deakin ignored the thunderstorms to post a 2:31 (35.6 kmph bike) on her way to a 5:06 in the 70.3, whilst husband Tim came home in 4:41.
I think we have a weekend off, before Mark, Oli & Ben head to Cork, Kalmar and Vichy respectively for Ironmen on 19th Aug.
All race results that I know of have been added to the https://thamesturbo.co.uk/club-champs/ and with the standings reflecting these. But as always, please let me know of events you’ve signed up to (thamesturboresults@gmail.com) so I can look for results and put you in touch with others.
Also as always, please can you share your photos from events or socials so we can post to social media to showcase the club to anyone looking in?
Social news & dates
Socially it’s been another good spell, with a couple of groups (and one solo) enjoying our annual Brighton trip, where the weather was never as bad as threatened.
Today’s club ride had one of the best turnouts for many weeks, and a new & to be recommended coffee stop at Velolife Wargrave. Having the numbers for multiple groups meant a better ride for all. Again, the same refrain, please get involved; help welcome newer members and having many of the stronger riders together improves everyone’s riding. On this note, we have another paceline ride coming up on Friday.
Again, as always, if there’s something you’d like to do together as a group, please suggest it. A few have mentioned the return to Parkrun tourism; I think this will have to wait until after the summer holidays, but would be great to get buy in to make it a proper group event.
If anyone is keen to join the Southwater Triathlon Relays teams on Sun 3rd Sept, please let Mark Bateman know, so that he can organise the team entries. It’s a 3 man sprint triathlon relay (each does their own sprint triathlon, before handing to the next team member). We had great success with the 3 teams we sent last year, would be great to build on this.
Whatsapp Groups Reminder
A reminder that the two main WhatsApp groups have been slightly repurposed, with all “TTTC Social & General Chat” and anything bike related (including club rides and Zwift) in “TTTC Everything Bike”, with Strava invites to the rides/routes here. There is also now a specific women’s only group – for which you’ll need to ask another member for an invite.