Viceroys welcomes Adam Buck, another of our new breed of ‘Super Cyclists’, to our ranks – you may have seen him pedalling off in to the distance in front of you on group rides, or even remember his friendly email inviting us all down to the coast… nice 2 hour drive? NO, nice cycle for Adam.

Adam always been into fitness and sport anything from playing ice hockey to dinghy sailing for Great Britain, but one thing he has never lost is a passion for  cycling. He claims only really to have got into road cycling about a year ago! Adam is currently more of a cyclist and a runner than a tri athlete and  states: ‘to be honest what I know about swimming probably isn’t worth knowing. Hopefully getting involved with the Viceroys with give me the training I need to enter my first tri and meet some like minded people, I look forward to meeting everyone.’

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Viceroys Simon T and Adel were among the 1061 crazy swimmers who started and 845 hardy swimmers who finished the 2.25 mile (3621 metres) swim from Hampton Court to Kingston. Simon spoke to MySmartCoach aka The Chairman aka Mark the Shark a month before the race and his instruction paid dividends.

Having got so used to swimming in a wetsuit Simon ditched it for his last 4 swims at the lake and pushed the distances – 4k in 2 sets then the following session 3.75 in one; he had done a 1 hour 16 on the last 3.75k and so was expecting a small improvement under race conditions wearing a wetsuit, possibly to 1 hour 10. Simon was delighed to finish in an impressive 1:01: 48, 131st overall (25/102 in AG) out of 845 finishers and 1061 starters – top 16% overall, with Adel close behind in 1:08:24 in 317th  place (27th in AG) Continue reading →

Trevor, Conor, Fab, Phil Goss, Pete Bell, Em and Colette took the Vachery Triathlon Festival by storm this weekend – achieving between them an amazing one AG winner (Trevor, who would equally have been winner in either of the 2 age groups beneath his ‘vintage’ group) a third place overall sprint female (Colette) and a third AG place (Fab). Conor completed his first ever Olympic tri and all competed an a challenging race over some brutal hills.

Panic was the first reaction of each competitor to the lake swim: for Phil, being told on arrival that wet suits were banned did not go down too well, having not swum OW without one before (apart from at the beach, obviously!), his stomach turned – but worse was to come. Each competitor told their own horror story of reeds and water lillies hooking themselves around arms, legs and goggles. Continue reading →

Graham Chapman competed cycled this weekend in the British Heart Foundation South Downs Way  and tells us: ‘ a day challenge which was 100 miles off road with 4000 metres of climbing over the course. A very tough yet enjoyable day if anyone wants to do it. Some of the descents were epic. The shallow ones were the best where you could pick up speed (blew the front tyre doing 35 mph down one such trail but managed to stop normally without landing on my head), had to spend a lot of time on the brakes on the steep ones avoiding large rocks and cow s**t (it’s slippery when fresh and rock hard when baked in the sun). It took 13 hours with a pub stop.’

Mark Yeoman, Simon Colvan,  Andy Tugwell and Joel Stainton all headed to Dorney – the first 2 for an Olympic race, the latter 2 for a Sprint Tri. Viceroy highlights were Andy’s 3rd (AG) place, Joel’s 4th (Sprint), Chairman Yeo’s 2nd (Olympic) and Simon’s first sub 2.30 Olympic .

Chaiman Yeo (as always) had the most to prove, but had a tough pre race taper, as he had a full Saturday morning of coaching followed by swimming with 70.3 pro James Third. Lack of food, sleep & energy meant that he wasn’t looking forward to the race. After numerous pit stops he put on his wetsuit and struggled through the swim exiting in a close third. However, he I exited T1 in 2nd place by 2km he was in first.

Simon meanwhile adopted a couple of Coach’s techniques in the swim to post a 26-min swim followed by a commendable time of 1:16 on the bike. Continue reading →

For Kate, Thorpe 3 was the second of this series she’s raced, so she was looking to take a few minutes off her time from the previous event; Jon was looking to set a swim pb as he has been racking up the kilometres in the lake. Both were disappointed with their lake performance, though perhaps not surprised – Jon zig zagged his way down the first long straight, adding metres to his swim, whilst Kate (used to swimming with the breast strokers) was disappointed that the well spread field meant she struggled to draft… but still took 1 minute off her previous swim time.

Both competitors were pleased with their bike, Kate particularly as there were only 2 minutes between hers and Jon’s times on this discipline and she was 3 minutes faster than at Thorpe 1. A steady cross country run for them both, but one which certainly showed that this is the area which both have been missing out on in recent training sessions, left them both glad they’d made the 6am start – especially as there was only 2 minutes between their finishing times!

Erica Hawley competed in the National Youth Elite Series High Performance draft legal race in Liverpool, continuing to learn something and improve at every race she does. The race took place on the beautifully restored docks area of Liverpool with a pontoon swim start, 2 laps of a fast/flat bike and 2 laps of a fast run course Race conditions were perfect for a Bermudan  (31 degrees!); it was so hot that it was not a wetsuit legal race for the Elite races.

Erica was 15th overall ( 39:14) in a race which saw athletes from all over Britain race in this National Series event. The draft legal format is very exciting and tactical. Erica had a strong swim  and came out in the bunched top 1/3 of the field. She formed part of a pack of 6 riders. 2 of the riders from this group attacked towards the end of the bike and joined the front group of another 6 riders.

She held on to her run and fought for her place in the end.

And meanwhile, mum Julia  raced Olympic Distance ( British Age Group Championships) and came 5th in 50-54 in 2:22:20. Nice warm up race  before UK Ironman on August 4th! A great race for both, well done Julia and Erica.

Sixth in her age group for her first Half Ironman… doesn’t get much better than that. Carla tells us about the Cowman 70.3:

‘We travelled up to Emberton Park Saturday for registration, to familiarise ourselves with the course and I was also keen to see the lake. The setting was great in the middle of the Park (with ample parking and loos close by!). The course was right up my street, some undulating hills and predominantly off road run – fantastic.

Would you Adam and Eve it, we are in the middle of a HEATWAVE – I’m not complaining, the weather is stunning (if you’re relaxing by the lake with a picnic and playing rounder’s like ‘normal’ people). Completing a half Ironman in it, another story, so anyway I crack on…..

Continue reading →

For Simon Tack the MAA triathlon was his second ever tri and his first Olympic Distance event. The timing for Simon wasn’t great as he was just recovering from a lung infection, but 15^th in his age group 45^th overall are not bad stats! Even more worthy of  congratulations are that Simon managed a personal best in the cycling and most importantly a PB in the run.

Simon says: ‘The run is by far my weakest discipline but I managed a 54.12 even though I left transition with my helmet on, did not realise for 150m so had to run back to the exit and give it to a marshal. Prize muppet. Still, the first time I have run under 57 minutes for a 10k and it was after the other 2 events. Colette was racing as well which really made the day.’

Times:SWIM 26.45; T1 02.31; CYCLE 1.22.11; T2 01.24;RUN 54.20

TOTAL 2.47.12

Good luck with your next race Simon – a 70.3 at Eton none-the-less!

As Kate and Nicola headed for Dorney Lake for the Shock Absorber Women’s Only Tri, both were nervous about the consequences of the heat: potential wet suit ban and challenging racing conditions. Their 1.40pm Sprint race start time meant, however, that getting into the lake was a welcome respite from the heat.

As the swim started Nicola was soon ahead, but Kate on cornering the final buoy before the 150m straight for home caught sight of a pink shoulder in the distance, so sprinted to catch it… and did so just before the swim exit ramp. Nicola sped through transition though and was out on the bike course first; only to be caught by Kate again half way round the first lap of 4. Nicola overtook Kate again on lap 2. Kate overtook Nicola on lap 3. Nicola regained the lead on lap 4, but the 2 hit transition together. Nicola was once again much faster in transition and out on to the run course first…  but was caught by Kate half way through the first of 2 laps!

Brutal heat, but friendly rivalry certainly made both work much harder and really enjoy the tri.