TORQ’s Nick Shasha took part in this hugely competitive race, clocking some impressive splits and taking 3rd spot overall in a closely fort race.

Here’s what Nick had to say: “This well-known duathlon takes place in central London in the wonderful surroundings of Hyde park and the Serpentine Lake.  As part of the London triathlon league and also by virtue of being organised by possibly the largest running and triathlon club in Britain (well over 2,000 members) it always sells out in hours rather than days and attracts the cream of UK duathletes and triathletes.  Fortunately, I was able to grab a place this year!

Rather like the Worlds in Spain, I had a pre-arranged strategy of getting into the first transition with a nice comfortable lead, sustaining this on the bike and then flying on the last run.  Unfortunately though, plans are often scuppered by competitors! Having looked at the entry list the night before, I was rather worried when I saw that 2 of the guys from Serpentine had recorded super fast 10k’s of 29 and 31 minutes in the past year. This blew my initial strategy out of the window and I knew that I had to have a strong bike and some blistering transitions to stay in contention.  The first run was around 4.5k and I went round in a pretty tasty 13.10 though this was only good enough for 4th.  

However, I had an excellent transition and managed to power away on the bike, catching up 2 positions on the first bike lap and briefly taking the lead on the 2nd lap. The rest of the bike soon turned into a blur of riders as within 2 laps most of the competitors had taken to the 8 lap bike circuit, so it was just a case of focusing on my own race, keeping the power down and taking each dead turn as efficiently as possible.

Coming into the 2nd transition I had another fantastic change over aided massively by my excellent Lake triathlon shoes and Limar aero helmet that are beautifully optimised for multisport and help you save precious seconds.  Out onto the 2nd run (of just under 8k), I soon started picking off other competitors and got to 4th position by the end of the first lap.  I then decided to take on board a TORQ Banoffe gel as I was starting to feel weary after an hour and knew that if I was going to crack the podium I would need an edge.  It worked!  I managed to grab 3rd with only about 500 metres to go and then pushed on through to the finish.

Again, this race showed me that every little help you can get can make all the difference. After 70 minutes of racing the first 5 places were only 60 seconds apart!”

Thanks, as ever go to our wonderful sponsors:

Delicious, natural and healthy nutrition: www.torqfitness.co.uk
Frames – Merida: www.merida-bikes.com
Cycle Shoes – Lake: www.lakecycling.co.uk
Helmets & Glasses – Limar: www.limarhelmets.com/eng/
Cables – Jagwire: www.jagwireusa.com
Aerobars – USE: www.use1.com
Wetsuits – 2XU: www.2xu.com
Wheels – Fast Forward: www.ffwdwheels.com
Powermeters – Powertap: www.cycleops.com

All pro snaps courtesy of Jolekha Shasha