Total Buzz ran their Wincanton Triathlon on Sunday, and the field of over 100 competitors featured quite a few familiar faces. The event was based at the Wincanton Sports Centre and is classed as a sprint distance competition. After a 400 metre swim, there was a hilly 27 kms bike ride followed by a 5 k run which was both on and off road.
Vince Hounsome did really well to take ninth overall and first place in the 50+ age category. His bike time of 46.01 was good enough for third overall. Simon Barfoot was 20st overall with a 48.59 for his bike section, which was the 14th fastest ride time. Simon Whitehead was 31st overall (50.06 on the bike), Rob Gale 47th (54.47), Justin French 71st (58.40) and Pete Dyer was 78th with a 56.07 on the bike.
Of the women competitors, Carole Miller won the 50+ age group, Carole was 80th overall with a 61.33 ride time with Julie Hillier second in the category in 87th.
Many of you will know the overall winners of the event from local and regional tts, Matt Griffin (Cycology Bikes, was riding as a junior last season for Chippenham Wheelers) won from Jack Plummer (West Country Tri) who was also a junior rider last year, riding for Somerset RC.
Wheal Mead Valley near Redruth was the venue for round two of the National mountain bike series, with was a technical and much shorter lap than normal, mainly made up of singletrack which made overtaking difficult. Paul Hopkins (Merida) was second in the Vets race, 1.06 down on the winner Marc Chamberlain after six laps. Nigel Brown (Westbury Wheelers) was 28th adn Andy Parsons (Offcamber) was 31st.
Kim Little was sixth in the Masters race, which was another competitive event. Kim came in five minutes down on race winner Jonathan Pugh (Cycletec).
Offcamber held the first of the summer time trials on the Stour Provost 10 mile course with Josh Day winning with a time of 25.08. James Chant was second (25.47) and Poole Wheeler rider Denzil Hunt in third. Liam Teesdale was fourth and fastest junior on 26.32, James Foster was fifth and Julian Chown seventh and Chris Mullett finished in eighth. Everyone who rode the GDW Wednesday evening tt was slower this time out, although there seemed to be no obvious reason for this except for the chilly temperatures.
Simon Rouse took part in the mega-hilly Dursley RC Hardrider time trial at Wotton-under-Edge. The 28 mile course really has to be experienced to be believed, made up of a series of long steep climbs up and down the Cotswold escarpment near Stroud. Many of the riders opt for using road bikes rather than tt machines due to the nature of the route. Simon did well for 23rd place with a time of 1 hour 47.16. There was a home win for Derek Smetham who won with a new course record of 1.22.40.
Some triathletes –
