Last Sunday morning the curtains were drawn back to reveal torrential rainfall and gale force winds and it seemed unlikely that anyone would turn up for the event! However by the 9am start time the rain had eased and most of those who had entered turned up to race.
From the gun it was a race –long tussle between Graham Beal (above) of thebicycleworks.com from Edinburgh and Nick Swinburn, a junior, studying at Durham University. Swinburn flew round the tough first 10k run in 32.49 with Beal second in 33.53. Another junior, Tom Perrins of NE31 Tri Club was third in 36.33. Out onto the bike and into gale-force winds Beal made his experience tell with the second fastest bike split of 1.25.13 while Swinburn lost 6.39 on the bike and was passed by Colin Robson, also of NE31 Tri Club who posted 1.27.20. The fastest bike leg was from veteran Timothy May of Edinburgh Road Club with 1.23.39.
Out onto the run and Beal had a good lead of 4.59 over Robson and 5.35 over Swinburn who by now was down in 5th place and had also been passed by May and Paul Figg of Cleveland Biketraks Tri Club. Only 36 seconds covered second to fifth. However Swinburn wasn’t in the mood to concede and now having his strongest discipline in front of him he quickly caught and passed May, Figg and Robson and made inroads into Beal’s lead. However Beal had done enough on the bike leg and was able to cruise the run in 21.04 to Swinburn’s 19.08 and came in the winner with an inaugural course record of 2.20.10 to Swinburn’s second place 2.23.49.
Kim had suffered in the wind on the bike and slipped to fourth, a position she wasn’t to improve on even though she still put in the fastest second run time of 24.23. Marietta moved through from third to take the win and complete a victorious double border raid for Edinburgh clubs with a second-best time of 24.34 and a total time of 2.48.46, 1.15 ahead of Helen with Hilary only ten seconds further down.
When the race was over the sun came out and the wind died down!
Activcycles from Corbridge are keen to make inroads into the north-east triathlon market and they had a stand at the event where they displayed a new range of Felt bikes and other triathlon-related cycling gear. We are indebted to them for their presence. You can contact Mark Nye of Activcycles here.
Photo's of all competitors can be seen here.
Full results including split times are on the UK Results website.
| 1 | Graham | Beal | SM | TheBicycleworks.com | 00:33:53 | 01:25:13 | 00:21:04 | 02:20:10 |
| 2 | Nick | Swinburn | MJ | Unattached | 00:32:49 | 01:31:52 | 00:19:08 | 02:23:49 |
| 3 | Colin | Robson | SM | NE31 Tri Club | 00:36:45 | 01:27:20 | 00:22:08 | 02:26:13 |
| 4 | Paul | Figg | SM | Cleveland Biketraks | 00:36:38 | 01:27:39 | 00:22:41 | 02:26:58 |
| 5 | Timothy | May | M40 | Edinburgh Road Club | 00:40:52 | 01:23:39 | 00:24:18 | 02:28:49 |
| 6 | Steve | Robertson | SM | Sun City Tri Club | 00:38:06 | 01:27:35 | 00:24:05 | 02:29:46 |
| 7 | Will | Kaye | SM | White Rose Tri Club | 00:37:04 | 01:30:43 | 00:22:20 | 02:30:07 |
| 8 | Stuart | Lynn | SM | Quakers RC | 00:37:55 | 01:29:30 | 00:23:23 | 02:30:48 |
| 9 | Mick | Golightly | SM | One Life Racing | 00:39:08 | 01:29:54 | 00:22:21 | 02:31:23 |
| 10 | John | Franklin | SM | Unattached | 00:37:45 | 01:32:00 | 00:21:48 | 02:31:33 |
| 11 | Stephen | Gilroy | M40 | Unattached | 00:37:41 | 01:30:53 | 00:23:14 | 02:31:48 |
| 12 | Ian | Parker | M40 | Pheonix Cycles | 00:39:43 | 01:29:02 | 00:23:55 | 02:32:40 |
| 13 | Tony | Dawson | M40 | Gosforth Road Club | 00:37:40 | 01:33:26 | 00:23:55 | 02:35:01 |
| 14 | Tim | Cook | M40 | Unattached | 00:39:47 | 01:32:11 | 00:25:55 | 02:37:53 |
| 15 | John | Clubb | M40 | Cleveland Biketraks | 00:37:05 | 01:38:25 | 00:22:49 | 02:38:19 |
| 16 | Paul | Christon | SM | Cleveland Wheelers | 00:40:57 | 01:33:44 | 00:25:44 | 02:40:25 |
| 17 | Tim | Humphries | M40 | Ryton Tri Club | 00:41:36 | 01:35:23 | 00:26:01 | 02:43:00 |
| 18 | Michael | Gill | M40 | Team Chevin Cycles | 00:43:35 | 01:30:27 | 00:29:57 | 02:43:59 |
| 19 | Tom | Perrins | MJ | NE31 Tri Club | 00:36:33 | 01:44:06 | 00:26:48 | 02:47:27 |
| 20 | Elliott | Makin | SM | Durham Tri Club | 00:37:03 | 01:44:37 | 00:26:45 | 02:48:25 |
| 21 | Graham | Bradshaw | M40 | Durham Tri | 00:40:56 | 01:42:20 | 00:25:22 | 02:48:38 |
| 22 | Marietta | Van Der Linden-Beal | SL | Edinburgh Road Club | 00:41:08 | 01:43:04 | 00:24:34 | 02:48:46 |
| 23 | Jackie | Boyce | M40 | Unattached | 00:40:29 | 01:42:54 | 00:26:19 | 02:49:42 |
| 24 | Andrew | Whiteside | SM | Unattached | 00:40:02 | 01:44:28 | 00:25:20 | 02:49:50 |
| 25 | Helen | Trees | F40 | Unattached | 00:43:19 | 01:40:12 | 00:26:30 | 02:50:01 |
| 26 | Hilary | Ross | F50 | Unattached | 00:43:30 | 01:40:29 | 00:26:12 | 02:50:11 |
| 27 | Thomas | Feather | SM | Unattached | 00:44:17 | 01:37:24 | 00:29:31 | 02:51:12 |
| 28 | Tom | Kaye | SM | Unattached | 00:39:40 | 01:47:43 | 00:25:26 | 02:52:49 |
| 29 | Keith | Holden | SM | Unattached | 00:46:00 | 01:36:49 | 00:30:37 | 02:53:26 |
| 30 | Kim | Threadgall | SL | Edinburgh Road Club | 00:40:39 | 01:50:04 | 00:24:23 | 02:55:06 |
| 31 | Jeff | Belt | SM | Cleveland Biketraks | 00:44:07 | 01:43:05 | 00:28:42 | 02:55:54 |
| 32 | Glen | Richardson | SM | Unattached | 00:43:09 | 01:47:31 | 00:26:55 | 02:57:35 |
| 33 | John | Gribbon | SM | Unattached | 00:42:20 | 01:46:52 | 00:30:00 | 02:59:12 |
| 34 | John | Kettle | M60 | Unattached | 00:45:03 | 01:47:24 | 00:28:13 | 03:00:40 |
| 35 | Mark | Bradley | M40 | Unattached | 00:46:02 | 01:51:08 | 00:27:22 | 03:04:32 |
| 36 | Richard | Broster | SM | Unattached | 00:45:01 | 01:51:17 | 00:29:51 | 03:06:09 |
| 37 | Jenny | Holland | F40 | Unattached | 00:47:25 | 01:54:35 | 00:27:54 | 03:09:54 |
| 38 | Andrew | Clarke | M40 | Tyne & Wear Fire Service | 00:45:22 | 01:56:32 | 00:28:24 | 03:10:18 |
| 39 | Jo | Outterside | SL | Stockton Wheelers | 00:49:58 | 01:48:52 | 00:31:57 | 03:10:47 |
| 40 | Luke | Gribbon | SM | Unattached | 00:44:58 | 01:56:43 | 00:30:39 | 03:12:20 |
| 41 | Paul | Beal | SM | Unattached | 00:50:57 | 01:49:29 | 00:33:15 | 03:13:41 |
| 42 | Ian | Swinburn | SM | Unattached | 00:45:51 | 02:01:05 | 00:31:24 | 03:18:20 |
| 42 | Tony | Richardson | M40 | Unattached | 00:45:52 | 02:01:08 | 00:31:20 | 03:18:20 |
| 44 | Jeff | Emmerson | M50 | Elswick Harriers | 00:46:50 | 02:00:47 | 00:32:04 | 03:19:41 |
| 45 | John | Chance | SM | Unattached | 00:51:34 | 01:56:09 | 00:37:16 | 03:24:59 |
| 46 | Stuart | Drew | M40 | Durham Triathlon Club | 00:49:58 | 02:01:52 | 00:34:33 | 03:26:23 |
| 46 | Tony | Prince | M50 | Alnwick Tri Club | 00:51:19 | 01:57:47 | 00:37:17 | 03:26:23 |
| 48 | Simon | Raine | M40 | Unattached | 00:48:17 | 02:08:06 | 00:34:13 | 03:30:36 |
| 49 | Herman | Du Preez | SM | Unattached | 00:53:55 | 02:14:05 | 00:32:57 | 03:40:57 |
| 50 | Jonathan | Brown | SM | Unattached | 00:49:45 | 02:21:13 | 00:30:38 | 03:41:36 |
| 51 | Huw | Evans | SM | Unattached | 01:02:57 | 02:16:30 | 00:40:38 | 04:00:05 |
| 52 | Elizabeth | Hill | SL | Unattached | 00:52:29 | 02:48:16 | 00:41:28 | 04:22:13 |
| 52 | Sukhpal Singh | Sandhu | SM | Unattached | 00:52:29 | 02:48:16 | 00:41:28 | 04:22:13 |