CWTC

PONTEVEDRA SPAIN

Day 1:

After a very early 3am start, the group consisting of Mary & Aidy Campbell, Chan & Del Morton, Trudi Cunningham, Steve Hasler, Persephone Hagan, Matt Sturman, Mike & Ma Cooper and Andy & Jo Matthews made the arduous journey to Gatwick Airport then on to Porto Airport where we picked up a van and 2 cars to take the final leg to A Lama 20 miles outside Pontevedra. Unfortunately we managed to lose Mike, Ma Cooper, Matt and P in the last few miles and they ended up with the van having to turn around and find them in Pontevedra and brought back to the villa. We settled into the villa where we met Mike, Liz, Jake, Sam & Abby Pillans who arrived the day before. We had a dip in the pool and then went to the nearby hotel to have an evening meal, the owner who was celebrating his 43^rd birthday was a bit overwhelmed with catering for 17 people with no notice, however he managed and we had a great meal.

Day2:

We took the bikes into Pontevedra and whilst the cyclists practiced the cycle and the run route the remainder took in the sights of the town. Holly Avil and Jodie Stimpson out on a run, saw the CWTC cycling kit and shouted “hello” to the cyclists. But they weren’t the only ones to mix with famous faces, the rest of us sat in a cafe and the Brownlee brothers cycled past us. Steve was clearly affected by this as he then managed to leave his man bag (handbag) in the cafe and, it was only later, when Sam Pillans reminded him did he realise and made a hasty trip back to the cafe where fortunately the waitress had found it and gave it back to Steve with no doubt a funny look!!

In registration one of the officials asked for a photo shoot with the CWTC team and was later overheard on her mobile boasting that she had her photo taken with the Chichester club – famous at last!

Day 3

We went into Pontevedra to watch the junior girl’s race and we were all slightly awestruck when the Brownlee brothers ran past us on a training run. Mary loudly shouted “Look it’s the Brownlees”, which the locals overheard and started pointing and shaking hands with twins Sam and Jake Pillans. Sam and Jake were quite happy to pretend to be Alistair and Johnny!! And then within 15 minutes Holly Avil and Vicky Holland cycled past and stopped to ask us directions to the run route. We were clearly mixing with the Elite!

We watched the junior girl’s race in temperatures of over 30 degrees, they all were clearly affected by the heat and it was a tough race. Sky Draper didn’t finish much to Abby Pillans disappointment as Abby loves watching Sky, but Lucy Hall came in 9^th for GBR.

We left the cafe only to discover that Matt had parked the car in a car park that was closed until 9pm (after the races) and unfortunately this meant Aidy and Steve ended up staying in town in the soaring heat. They then sat in traffic for ages as the town was packed with spectators trying to leave.

Day 4

Rest day chilling by the pool – great fun – ask Ma Coops the new place to keep your mobile phone when you are wearing a bikini, we are sure she won’t mind sharing this with you.

Del, Aidy and Jake went to watch the Para Triathlon race. One of the competitors, Jimmy Goddard (a friend of Aidy’s), had a flat tyre and after limping back to where there were spectators he asked for help. We helped to change his tyre only to find out later that this was against race rules and he was disqualified. Jimmy’s race was essentially over when he got the flat so he wasn’t too concerned.

We all met up later after racking the bikes to watch the Elite men’s race, it was absolutely brilliant with an awesome result – Alistair Brownlee finished 1^st (and he punctured on the bike), and Johnny came in 2^nd.

Day 5

Race day. After an early 5am start for the team, the race got underway at 8am with temperatures reaching up to 32 degrees making it a very hot cycle and run. Andy Matthews had a bit of bad luck when he tried to take a corner too sharply, not managing to defy gravity he came off and sustained injuries to his leg and arm, buckled his front wheel and still managed to dust himself off and complete the race in a very good time.

The run was a 4 lap circuit going out of the stadium and back again, this gave opportunity for the team to give each other shouts of encouragement as they passed each other twice per lap.

We had a slight problem with Del’s camera as the battery died in the morning of the race but Jo stepped up to offer her camera to take the club photo’s with, which was great until her camera duly died as well!! Del reverted to his phone camera but that also died! A lesson to be learnt there I think!!! Photo’s were amalgamated from all camera’s/Phones and can be seen in the gallery soon.

The team did very well in the competition but unfortunately were just short of bringing home some medals, both Mary Campbell & Matt Sturman came 4^th & Chandra Morton came 6^th in their respective age groups, a very good effort considering the heat on the day. The full CWTC results are as follows:

Later that evening everyone had a deserved drink or 2 and a final meal in a local cafe.

Day 6 – Return day.

Needless to say day 6 started off with some very tender heads!! We packed our bikes and baggage and set off in convoy back to Porto Airport, when nearly at the airport we again managed to lose the rear vehicle, luckily they eventually spotted signs for the airport and found their own way. They had plenty of time however, as our flight was delayed by 2hrs 30 Mins. We traipsed in to Chichester at about 2am very tired and needy of a bed!

Del Morton

Gareth

A number of our junior members took part in the Open Water Triathlon at Dorney Lake on the 26^th June. Emma Maynard in the  15 -16 Drafting race  came 55^th out of 59. Sam Pink  47^th out of 205  in the  11- 12   age group and Adam Long 41^st out of 241 in the 8-10 age Group. The venue was fantastic and certainly Adam was in awe of competing at such a facility that will be used for the Olympic canoe events. The day was blisteringly hot and with a 12.15 start time for Adam it was definitely mad dogs and Englishmen in the midday sun.  Unfortunately we missed Harry’s event and  his unfortunate accident but were in time to shout encouragement at Emma as she set off on the run.  It was Adam’s first open water swim which was quite daunting but did not seem to slow him down although he was not too keen on putting his head in the dark water luckily for him it was not a mass start like for Sam and the others.

Results:

8-10 100m Swim / 3km Bike / 1km Run

11- 12 200m Swim / 5km Bike / 2km Run

15- 16 Drafting Race 400m Swim / 10km Bike / 2.5km Run

Gareth

Rother Valley Triathlon took place on the 12^th June in South Yorkshire in dry, sunny and windy conditions. The swim was in Rother Valley Lake which was quite exposed as we found out when the wind picked up. The bike was a two loop affair around the back lanes of Yorkshire with no flat sections and plenty of deep pot holes. The run was a single loop round the lake on a gravel path.

Swim; Excellent start put me on the toes of the eventual winner (luck rather than judgement) of the 45-49 age group and came out of the swim in second place.

T1; Not a bad transition making sure I put my helmet on as I kicked off the wet suit. Useful tip in the last edition of 220 mag.

Bike; I tried to pace the bike as much as I could as I didn’t want to blow up on the up hill section. The lead athlete in my age group disappeared and I was overtaken by the eventual second place athlete just as we turned onto a 3km down hill section back to transition. As I entered T2 I was within spitting distance of the lead athlete and in second position.

T2; A good run off the bike saw me in second place by a whisker leaving T2…. although this was short lived.

Run; The run out of T2 was solid but couldn’t match the pace of the eventual 2^nd place athlete. I had him in my sights all the way round but couldn’t muster the energy to recover the 10 second time gap.

I came 3^rd in my age group and 31^st overall with no injuries or cramp and a possible qualification for the 2012 Europeans! Good weekend racing. One Step Beyond did an excellent job in organising the race and couldn’t fault there organisation… I’d do again if I lived in Sheffield!

Gareth

Andy Matthews was the only member flying the flag for CWTC at the South Cerney Olympic Distance Triathlon on Sat 11/6/11. 

The gun went off on a damp and overcast early morning and 66 Triathletes in the veteran wave sprinted off towards the first buoy. 

Andy was trailing 10m behind the lead swimmer at the turn.  He kept the lead swimmer in sight for the whole of the 2 lap lake swim, but unable to bridge the 20sec gap, until hitting T1, had great T1 exiting onto the bike in the lead. 

The rolling roads around Cirencester were testing enough with constant changes of elevation.

At the 20k point Andy had pulled out a 2min lead on the chasing vets, and further extended this to 3mins by T2. But onto 2lap out and back off road run around the perimeter of the lake Andy could see his lead disintegrating each km. 

The vet winner caught Andy with 4km of the run left. Suffering due to a lack of training miles following injury Andy held on for 4^th place 1.20 off the podium (and 18^th overall), but a solid training session in preparation for the Europeans championships at the end of June.

Times below Swim 1.5k , T1, Bike 45k, T2, 10k run &, overall time.

And time behind winner.

Male Veteran

1 Ian Harkness NOTEAM 26:00 02:18 1:11:35 37:44 2:17:37

2 Jo Maddocks NOTEAM 20:27 01:40 1:13:12 43:22 2:18:41 01:04

3 Gavin McLaughlin team Kennet 21:19 01:05 1:15:29 41:26 2:19:19 01:42

4 Andrew Mathews NOTEAM 20:52 00:47 1:10:25 48:44 2:20:48 03:11

5 Mathew Wilson TriLiving 23:27 01:52 1:15:03 44:20 2:24:42 07:05

6 Paul Ganniclifft NOTEAM 01:45 24:58 1:12:56 45:53 2:25:32 07:55

7 Darren Samways NOTEAM 22:12 01:29 1:14:25 47:54 2:26:00 08:23

8 Andy Brooks Total Fitness Bath 26:37 01:14 1:18:00 40:31 2:26:22 08:45

9 Jim Preece NOTEAM 26:21 01:14 1:14:20 45:41 2:27:36 09:59

Gareth

400m Pool Swim, 25.5km Bike (26km with diversion), 5km Run

Club members Paul Reynolds, Dave Kitt and Lizzie Gerrard returned for the 2^nd year to take part in the above event. It was an early start for most with a 5.30am departure time to arrive for registration and briefing by 6.45am. Lizzie tried out a new pre-race tactic this time, by pressing the snooze button on her alarm clock, only to be woken by a frantic rap at the door for her lift! Lizzie therefore set the fastest transition time of the day, turning from sleep mode to something near to half awake and dressed in record time! J

It was also a grey chilly start with heavy rain expected later on, but fortunately held out for the entirety of the race. The Race briefing also proved to be important due to a diversion in place following cable laying works in Twineham, resulting in an extended route with a compulsory foot down rule at a right turn junction in Hurstpierpoint.

Paul was first to go in the swim with a zig zag route ducking under the ropes after every 2 lengths, in an 8 lane pool. Paul set the most significant pool swim of the day, cutting down a 10min predicted swim time down to 8min 31secs!!!!! Dave and Lizzie then followed in what was supposed to be race number order, although there didn’t seem to be a rigid system to this, having seen one athlete commence ahead of 30 others from his race number. The bike route then involved a steady climb for 1.5miles, with a rolling route thereafter with some further smaller climbs to do later on. The new diversion also included some narrow roads with parked cars leading to much frustration when trying to pass slowing traffic. Lizzie also got stuck behind a tractor at the foot down point.

The run was then an out and back route, crossing at a marshalled controlled junction to a turn point and then back to the Triangle leisure centre for the finish and collection of a nice medal and a generous goodie bag, photo’s can be seen at http://gallery.sussexsportphotography.com

The results were very close between all three with Dave coming out on top by only 6 seconds!

Full results are as follows:

Gareth

In a blatant club series points capture, 3 members of the club entered the Dorset Try A Tri on Sunday 12^th June, the points however were well and truly earned as the appalling weather made the 16 mile cycle and the 7km run very cold and very wet, the 400m swim was not much better as the pool was only 18m making it a 22 length race, this meant that there was lots of overtaking and turns to negotiate and the amount of people in this size pool made for a lot of waves more akin to a sea swim.

Our intrepid trio Del Morton, Gary Williams and Steve Long completed the course in the following times:

Gareth

7 members of Chichester Westgate Triathlon Club decided to get more practice in 1 of the 3 Triathlon disciplines and participated in the Arun 3.8km river swim on Saturday 4^th June. The weather held out and the tide was right for the 248 starters.

Andrew Matthews had a particularly good race and came in 2^nd in the Male Veteran category, and Persephone Hagan also came 2^nd in her age group (45-49), well done both of you.

Full race times are as follows:

Gareth

2.6km lake swim, 120km bike, 22km

My first aim for this race was just to finish the swim, after my new found ability to get sea sick even in a lake! My second aim was to finish, and my third aim was to finish within the cut off times (H+1.5 swim, H+6 bike, H+9 run).

There was a 4th aim to finish in a "not so embarrassing time", but 3 out of 4 isn’t bad!

Registration and briefings took place on the day before at Sandy Balls leisure site.

After at least 10mins sleep the entire night due to 1) traffic noise (a certain "lodging company for travellers" having double glazing with 1cm air gaps around the windows!) and 2) an absolutely sweltering hot room, it was up at 4am for a 6am mass swim start. I had a big "woozy moment" after about 200m when I was surrounded by competitors on all sides, but managed to get into some space, got my head down, and made the 2 laps around Ellingham lake in 56mins. First aim achieved!

After a leisurely 9 minute transition (yes, 9 minutes in which I lost about 5 places!) there weren’t many bikes left in the transition area when I finally departed! But I wasn’t too concerned as it was going to be a long day and its all in the preparation! I then headed out and recaptured these 5 places on the first lap of the bike. This was despite the very strong winds which caused the organisers to extend the cut off time by 15mins. The laps consisted of 2 long laps, and then a 3rd cut down lap taking in the beautiful features of the New Forest.

Some familiar voices came from behind as I stared the run, as Chan and Del shot by me on their bikes. Knowing I still had a half marathon to go this was most welcome… running certainly isn’t my strong point! Despite this I managed to only concede a couple of places, again trying just to focus on finishing.

It started to rain quite hard at the end, which was nice and cooling. All the marshals were very supportive and remained very cheerful keeping you going. I also had supportive parents following me around.

I was very pleased to finish half an hour inside the extended cut off time, so meeting all of my aims. My next middle distance (1.9km, 90km, 21km) race is in September at the same location, so I can aim for the 4th target then, with the big physiological boost of now having this race under my belt.

Swim: 56 mins

T1: 9 mins

Bike: 4 hrs 53

T2: 5 mins

Run: 2 hrs 50

Overall: 8hr 48 mins 26 secs

34th out of 35 (M30)

96th out of 100 finishers

Gareth