Saucony 10k at the TCR show

I've been making the TCR show 10k an annual excursion for the last 4 years both as an opportunity to say hello to the Torq crew but also because it's a really unique course with a great mix of terrain. I'm happy to say 2011 saw my best performance to date with an easy 2nd, just 11 seconds behind 1st and a time of of 32 minutes and 49 seconds.

So how did it all pan out? The field of 250 set off on a 2 lap heavily undulating course around the Sandown park race course and the field quickly settled down with Ironman pro Stephen Bayliss taking an early lead. I clung onto Stephen for pretty much the entire run conceding up to 20 seconds half way round and managing to bring this deficit down to 11 seconds at the end of the race. The race behind us seemed to be over by about 4 or 5k with nobody else managing to get close to 32 minutes.

Big names squashed by the power of the pre-race Torq Banoffe gel (!) were Ironman pros Phil Graves (34.18) and Dion Harrison (36.01). I was also fuelled by Torq Energy and a Torq Apricot bar.....yum yum.

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/

All photos by Jolekha Shasha

1 - All smiles before the pain
2 - At the start of the 2nd lap
3 - Nice prize and shoes, courtesy of Saucony

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