Last weekend Fraser Cartmell, who races for Total Racing Inc went down to Wimbleball to defend his UK 70.3 title. The following is his account of the race -
“I defended! Pleased? You bet. The much-hyped participation of Chris McCormack turned out to be just that, and much to my disappointment. His bike wasn't going to be racked in transition. He is a real iconic figure in our sport and I was really looking forward to the chance of once again racing him, after swim/biking with him at Wildflower in California last month. I felt I had gotten myself in sufficient shape to give him a good run for his money, and given that both myself and Stephen (Bayliss) ran a good chunk faster than he did in 2006 (having watched him win that year, I'm confident it was the same course) I think I was on the right train of thought. I'm not one to usually bother about times or course records either, but since I took both the run and overall times under those posted by Chris in 2006, I will make an exception on this occasion!
Race morning had a decidedly brrrrrrr factor to it, so I decided not to get in the water until I absolutely had to. Once in the water we had to hang around a little bit and this created quite a view as we gazed out towards where the first turn buoy should've been visible. A scene reminiscent of the film Pirates of the Caribbean unfolded as the mist engulfed the whole lake. I'm just glad the lead canoeist knew where to go. Blair (Cartmell – Fraser’s brother) and I swam hard to the first invisible bouy and then I hit the front of the race solo. I felt good in the water and as I hit dry land had a cheeky sneak-peak to see if I had gapped anybody. I had about 20 seconds, which I extended to 30 or so onto the bike.
I hit the bike hard, like I had intended, as I hoped I could get out of sight and out of mind. This seemed to work as the gap was over a minute by the 5k mark, but then I realised I had a potentially race ending problem in the form of a loose saddle. 'You have got to be kidding' is the polite way to describe my conversation with myself at that point, but since I didn't actually have any other good ideas I kept going. At 15kms I just wasn't sure it was safe and clambered off to look. This did nothing but confirm my saddle was indeed loose and it wasn't particularly safe! Decision time - stop or go? Not really a decision in my book to be honest and with a plan as simple as 'stay in the saddle in case it falls off when I get out of it' I carried on. Lap one came and went and still I held the lead. Mile 40 came and with it Stephen and Luke Bell too. My confidence was growing as I now reckoned, by some small miracle, that T2 was a possibility.
Once into the change tent I watched as Stephen shot off like a rocket. 'That'll be that I thought. He's gone'. But never say never and by the mile 1 marker we were shoulder to shoulder. Like that it would remain until 400m to go! During the run it became obvious I could get up the hills a bit better than him and he could get down them a lot better than me. And so in turn we tried to gain the upper hand on each other one uphill and consecutive downhill at a time. Lap 1 turned into 2 and then 3 and we were moving pretty quickly towards the finish. I think we both knew it was all down to the final ascent to the finish. It had been a great race, a real duel – 'epic' I think I described it as afterwards, and thankfully I got it by a lucky 13 seconds. Many thanks to all the folk on the course who were giving us great encouragement, and well done to everyone who got round such a brutal course – I had forgotten just how tough it is!”
Bella Comerford claimed the women's title in 4:49:33. Julie Dibens was second in 4:54:59. Age group athlete Sara Sig Moeller was third in 5:07:03
This was one of Fraser's key races of the year and he has become the only athlete to sucessfully defend the UK 70.3 title as well as setting a new course record.