Nick once again showed the duathlon world, how fast the TORQ team are, with an excellent 4th place in the International draft legal race. Below is Nick account of the race…

The 5th running of the elite race of the world’s largest duathlon took place in fairly unsettled weather for the first time. For me, this was a cause for some concern given that the World duathlon championships are only 2 weeks away.  As this race is for the elites it’s also draft legal, more exciting but also riskier. The early morning rain settled by the time the race started but the field was still left to contend with the strongest winds I can yet remember at this race.

I did my usual pre-race preparation and got my shoes ready for a swift transition with the aid of a couple of tactically placed elastic bands.  I also like to pace up and down the transition area and get it in my head.  

Out onto the run and within 2 kilometres a group of 4 formed consisted of myself, elite GB junior Rhys Park, 2011 European bronze medallist Irish international Kevin Donagher and 2010 World bronze medallist Hugh Mackenzie.  At about the 5k mark, Hugh started to trail off leaving just a group of three.  And coming into transition it looked possible that we might be able to hold off the biking talent of Hugh by working together.

Sure enough we soon started working together as a pack each taking a turn at the front and trying to confront the heavy winds in the park.  The 1st lap breezed by, but with 2k to go of the final lap, Hugh somehow managed to catch us up.  Understandably this changed the dynamic of the group altogether.  And then…just before the course wound its way back to the start, Rhys somehow lost control and crashed.  Fortunately he was ok but the incident broke up the pack for good.  By this stage I was suffering from cramp due to the earlier fast pace of the 10k run, so I couldn’t quite manage to bridge the gap that had been created.

Coming into transition for the last 5k I was really starting to suffer and just had to struggle round and get 4th.  A good result though given the level of competition today. A podium would have been nice but with only 2 weeks to go before the World championships my priorities were only 2 fold:

i) Get some race specific miles in the legs
ii) Don’t crash!  

Mission accomplished.  Spain, here we come!

Thanks as ever to our wonderful tri team sponsors that keep us stocked, fast and winning.  They are:

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