British Duathlon Championships

Race Reports

Report by Ashley Robinson

The British Duathlon Championships, also world championship qualifiers, took place
at Oulton Park motor race circuit last Sunday 3rd October. After the Sprint distance
race in the morning, the Standard Distance started at 1:00 PM.
We ran 2 laps of the 4.25k circuit in fine sunny conditions, then cycled 9 laps on the
super smooth surface, finishing with one more lap running. The biggest challenge
was dealing with the gusty wind on the 2 nd , 3rd and 4th bike laps. Turning the corners
before and after the start/ finish line was like riding into hammer blows, causing
difficulties controlling the bike at speed.
It was a chance for me to rekindle my friendly rivalry with Mick Anglim from
Hampshire. I completed the first run about 30 seconds ahead of him, but his speedy
transition routine wiped out that lead, so we started the bike leg with nothing
between us.
1h 16m 20sec later I came back into transition, just one second ahead of Mick, so
there was only a couple of metres between us at the start of the last run. However,
that's my strongest part of the race and I ended up beating him by nearly 3 minutes.
Most people seem to be slower on the second run, but I tend to run faster at this
stage. My first 2 lap run time was 41.44, my last single lap time was 19.38. I had
already beaten Mick to the gold medal in the English championships in April and the
European Championships in 2019, but in both of those races I had had to make up
more than 2 minutes over the last 5k.
Croft bragging rights went to Neil Taylor – just! Although both of my runs were faster
than his, his bike legs gave him a minute and a half advantage over me. I couldn't
quite catch him, crossing the line 4 seconds behind him.

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