F3 Events duathlon (Dorney Lake)

F3 Events have been organising duathlons down at the Olympic rowing venue for a few years now and indeed the venue was the setting for my first victory in duathlon 2 years ago. Since then the series of winter races have developed and grown in reputation attracting some of the finest duathletes around and it's easy to see why. Despite being "closed road" the course is fairly imaginative and interesting, much more so than many events organised on racing circuits.

Out onto the first run and it was clear that the pace being set by Hugh MacKenzie and Switzerland's Stephan Wenk was exceptionally quick. I settled back into a still reasonable pace and built a decent lead over the rest of the field whilst still losing time to the leading two. Into transition and........disaster. For some inexplicable reason the routing in transition had been altered just before the race start (confirmed later by the race director!). Unfortunately I was in the "zone" so ran straight into one of the mount poles before realising I would have to find a different way of finding my bike. After eventually getting out of transition I had a good bike feeling strong on all 6 laps. By the 5th lap confidence got the better of me and I conceded 2 places. However I was fairly confident I could claw these back on the 2nd run and sure enough I crept back up to 4th almost immediately. However, 3rd proved much harder to grab and I didn't decisively gain 3rd until the last 500 metres putting in so much effort that I collapsed over the finish line and almost caught up Stephan who I was to discover finished 15th in the pro field of last years World duathlon champs in Edinburgh!

What really helped on that definitive last run was taking on board a Banoffe (with guarana) gel in the last 2.5k of the run. I would never usually take on board a gel so late in the game but I was having a real battle shaking off 4th that I needed all the help I could get! Looks like it worked. I also had a Torq Tangy Apricot bar, about 2/3rd's of a bottle of Torq Energy (Natural) and a Forest Fruits (with guarana) gel just before the start.

Many Thanks to all our sponsors this year including:


Frames: Merida: http://www.merida-bikes.com/
Wheels: Fast Forward: http://www.ffwdwheels.com/
Power: http://www.cycleops.com/

Cycle Shoes: http://www.lakecycling.co.uk/

Helmets: http://www.limarhelmets.com/

Aerobars: http://www.use1.com/

Wetsuits and compression: http://www.2xu.com/

Photos by Jolekha Shasha
1) Out of the bike and feeling strong / 2) It's a dogs life / 3) The podium