NICKY McGEE WINS "CITY OF DURHAM DUATHLON" 2010

Nicky McGee of Black Hawk Bikes powered to victory in the City of Durham Duathlon in a time of 1h 18m 23s. Nicky was in 3^rd place entering the bike leg where he showed his cycling pedigree, to post the fastest bike split of the day (41m 36s). Gary Grounds of Bike Tracks Tri, a previous winner of the event, put in a storming final lap on the run to overhaul Ben Howard of Durham University Tri and take 2^nd place, 35s behind Nicky.

The Women's race was won by evergreen Hilary Ross, racing for the host club Durham Tri, in a time of 1h 35m 52s. The race was ideal preparation for the European Age Group championships in France where Hilary will compete next month.

Durham University Tri Club showed the strength and quality of their young athletes to take the team prize. Ben Howard 3rd, Sam Hatfield 6th & James Wildgoose 12^th were well clear of the trio from Durham Tri.

Good spring weather conditions, ideal for racing, greeted a capacity field for the first 5km (3 mile), 3 lap run. The duathletes soon got in to a good rhythm on the fast sections of each lap after climbing a short sharp hill in the first 500m. The first half of the 25km (15 mile) bike leg was "challenging" especially the one mile climb out of Esh Winning and the second half was "fast" on the descent back to transition. On the second 5km (3 mile) run, only the strongest runners posted positive run splits.

The race action was not only confined to the front of the field. Some of the closest battles were seen further down the field where every place was hard fought and where every competitor raced against the clock to achieve the best time possible. The event was successful in attracting a good number of competitors new to the sport and the positive, friendly, supportive atmosphere helped all entrants enjoy the challenge of the event.

Prize List.

1^stNicky McGee, Black Hawk Bikes 1h 18m 23s

2^ndGary Grounds, Bike Tracks Tri. 1h 19m 8s

3^rdBen Howard, Durham University Tri. 1h 19m 11s

1^st Woman Hilary Ross, Durham Tri. 1h 35m 52s

2^nd Woman Rachel Walmsley, Ryton Tri 1h 38m 7s

3^rd Woman Liz Oates, Durham Tri. 1h 42m 29s

M40 Ian Walton, Total Racing. 1h 24m 27s

M50 Graham Bradshaw, Durham Tri. 1h 29m 24s

M60 Alan Smith, Elvet Striders. 2h 2m 14s

F40 Dianne Chaney, Ryton Tri. 1h 46m 24s

Club Team Prize. Durham University Tri.

Relay Team Prize. Waterston/Scott.

Event Prize Winners

DURHAM TRI MEMBERS

Despite a large contingent of members being committed to Marshalling the event, the club still managed to field a good contingent of competitors in the race.

It was the women members who grabbed the headlines, with the host club having two of the first three in the women's race. The women's race was won by our own Hilary Ross, who also won the F50 category. Third was Liz Oates, putting in a strong performance, following up on her recent success at Stokesley.

Jason Allison's pedigree as a runner is well known, but in the duathlon he put in a much improved bike split, showing his all round athleticism. Graham Bradshaw trailed Jason on the first run but caught him in the later stages of the bike. However, Jason soon made up time on the second run, finishing 1m 50s ahead of Graham to be first across the line for Durham Tri. Although Graham had to settle for 2^nd from the club, he was delighted to win the M50 prize. Dave Lawson put in a great performance in his first season with the club to complete the trio of counters in the Club Race. On the day we had to settle for second place in the Club Race, behind a high class trio from Durham University Tri.

It was also great to see Konstantin do himself justice with good new bike to ride the event with. Ian Tutty, Tony McNeil & Stephen Hessler also put in good performances and congratulations to Jen Maddison on rising to the challenge of the event.

FINAL RACE FORENAME SURNAME AGE CLUB RUN 1 POS CYCLE POS RUN 2 POS TOTAL

POS NO. CAT TIME TIME TIME TIME

11 097 Jason Allison M Durham Tri 00:18:44 5 00:49:44 19 00:19:14 9 01:27:42

15 034 Graham Bradshaw M50 Durham Tri 00:21:39 23 00:46:42 11 00:21:03 17 01:29:24

20 094 David Lawson M Durham Tri 00:21:26 22 00:49:56 21 00:21:45 23 01:33:07

25 024 Hilary Ross F50 Durham Tri 00:22:34 30 00:51:35 29 00:21:43 21 01:35:52

34 080 Konstantin Visegra'di M Durham Tri 00:23:23 38 00:55:10 43 00:22:11 28 01:40:44

41 018 Elizabeth Oates F Durham Tri 00:22:28 29 00:56:52 50 00:23:09 35 01:42:29

42 060 Ian Tutty M40 Durham Tri 00:24:18 48 00:54:34 42 00:24:31 46 01:43:23

45 030 Tony McNeill M40 Durham Tri 00:25:38 64 00:53:38 39 00:25:09 55 01:44:25

69 044 Stephen Hesler M Durham Tri 00:26:34 73 00:57:25 55 00:28:58 74 01:52:57

79 001 Jen Maddison F Durham Tri 00:31:36 79 01:15:51 79 00:31:52 79 02:19:19

Womens Race winner, Hilary Ross, Durham Tri.