Results

Another good turnout and some fine performances on what was not an easy course. Hopefully I've got everyone's jokers, but let me know if I missed you.

Hugh won the wine and his report follows the results.

There were a number of warnings that this was an informal event.  As I drove into Charlbury I saw road closed signs and wondered if the tales were out of date.  But no they were not they were for a street fair the day before; I parked within 50 metres of the start wandered over and got my number.  This race was entries on day only, Graham had emailed a list of entries to aid them but that was nowhere to be seen. 

I then turned and surveyed The Green.  I could see a finish area in the middle, a course map which showed the start and finish in the same area, the positioning of the finish didn’t tie in with any safe or clear way in and we worked out that that you had to swerve around a bollard in the small gap in the corner.  By the time I had worked that out a throng of blue had arrived; Ben strode in purposefully (obviously there to do the business) we had taken over the patch of grass above the finish funnel, some 24 of us, around 90 lined up for 5k (6)and 10k (85) combined start and we were quickly off. 

The start was in the road and not as indicated on the map.  Downhill for the first 1k then up a slope past the gates and into Cornbury Park.  Never been there before as far as I can remember and most of my time there failed to take in the sights, a “herd” of deer I was told later studied the field deciding whether to see us off.  What I do remember is Denise passing me at about 6k saying where are the downhill bits.  I agreed, all I could remember from 2k to 8 k was going up and along, then a slight downhill before another rise.  Eventually we left Cornbury Park and hit the road and then turned onto the Oxfordshire way for a quick down and up on a rural track.  The turn left passed the station and the cricket club before the final assault uphill to the finish and to squeeze around the bollard and trot over the finish.  There were some notable performances, Ben coming 5th in sub 40, for a hilly partly grass course was a good time, Mark T  8th and Graham B 12th and a commendable 49.43 for John Bishop and the winner's time of 36.51 was, we all thought, miraculous.

Definitely a low key event, the low numbers and off road course make it good for someone who wants to race in an event with little pressure, the course certainly took you around a nice area of parkland, I just spent too much time looking at where my feet where going to be able to appreciate it.  It was good that it was dry as I heard tales of slippy, puddly, uneven trails in previous years which would have been a right pain!!

Well done to Kate, Katherine, Jacky and Larry for their County Championship prizes, and also to Robert and Dave for finishing 12th and 18th overall. Anne wasn't in ERR kit, hence no points (and yes, I do feel a bit of a jobsworth).

It was a busy weekend with six members taking part in various triathlon events across the country, below are a few details along with their results.

The Vetruvian  (Saturday 5th September 2009)

The term Vitruvian stems from Leonardo Da Vinci's attempt to demonstrate through the study of art and mathematics that it is possible to establish perfect human proportions.  

In direct contrast to Da Vinci, and having devised one of the toughest courses in the UK, the Vetruvian organisers believe that you do not need to possess perfect dimensions to be a Vitruvian, but you will need to be in good shape to finish it.

"Whilst closely related in distance to what are commonly referred to as half Ironman or a middle distance triathlon, the Vitruvian is devoutly none of the above for the simple reason that it is neither common and nor is there anything half or middleing about this event. This is a full on tough quad crunching, lung buster of a race that will push even the toughest of the longer distance triathletes to the limit."

So off went Nick Sheard, Lesley and Dan TP, (of Nik and Dan Fame) on Friday evening after work upto Leicestershire with their tents to camp out the night before, (or as triathletes know it, the 9th discipline)  in readiness for the start of the event early Saturday morning!

The race started with an initial 1900 metre swim which set the standard for the rest of the race. The following 84km bike included two climbs over the notorious Rutland Ripple and incorporated nearly 1000m of climbing and was just the second stage of suffering before the 21km run  to finish things off. The good news was the run was flat.

So how did they do? did they achieve their Vetruvian status?  Of course they did, results below.

Congratulations to all three for achieving some impressive times, especially Lesley's half marathon which was quicker than her result for the Burnham Beeches half marathon when she only had to run.

Congratulations to Dave on a top 20 finish in the last Motavation of the season. If any jokers were played (other than Marie) then please let me know.

A hot day and a pretty small ERR turnout. Still, it was good to see Lesley running again (training for a half Iron Man), and Greg made a promising debut. Wonder if we can get him to join...

So what is a classic triathlon? 1500m Swim, 40k Bike and 10k run and that's what Lesley did last Sunday when she took part in the Swanage Classic Triathlon. 

She finished 15th in her category and 44th lady in what looks like a very competitive field....the winning lady did the swim in 23:16, cycle in 1:08:58 and 38:09 for the run, total 02:10:23. (38 mins for 10k after the swim and cycle...we've got a bit of work to do girls!)

Obviously, this was just a training outing for Lesley who will be going for glory this Sunday in the ERR Sprint Triathlon. 

The official photos aren't out yet, but if there are any of Lesley in action we'll post them here in due course!

A pretty filthy night generally, but not too bad for running, and not enough to stop 30 ERR people from turning out. Let me know if any jokers were played - the tables have been updated assuming that no-one did.

Five members of the club took part in the Thame Triathlon Sunday 26th July, the distances were 400m pool swim, 11mile bike and 5k run

Marie was off first at a slightly too early 8:44am, whilst the rest followed about an hour later. It didn't rain, but it was really windy, which made it quite tough on the bike going out, but a bit easier, (not much), coming back.

It was a close run thing between us all and the results are below, photos can be found in the gallery.

Well done to all, and Congratulations to Pete and Denise for winning their age categories.  

Big thank you to Graham and Pam, (Marie's Mum) for support.

"High Mountains - A sporting perspective

Some of the Tour de France’s most legendary pages—glorious or tragic—have been written on the slopes of “Mount Baldy”, but it has never been on the route just 24 hours from the final finish. Whatever the lead of the rider wearing the Yellow Jersey, he will have to face the Tour’s toughest climb with fear and humility."

Stage 20: Motelimar to Mont Ventoux

They tried to break Bradley Wiggins and Lance Armstrong on the way up this gruelling climb and nearly succeeded on Saturday 25^th July, but how did our guys Daniel Talbot-Ponsenby and Nicholas Roberts, more affectionately known as Dan and Nik, (Nik and Dan) fair on exactly the same route, 5 days before?

If you ever go drinking with Dan, at some point he will start talking about the L’Etape du Tour, a popular event that allows amateurs to tackle a mountain stage of the Tour du France before the professionals ride through a few days later.  Dan can talk passionately about anything which unfortunately has the effect that the more susceptible want to have a go, so that’s why Nik agreed to do it with him. 

They trained through the winter and cycled outside(?), did sportives with real cyclists over stupid distances and took on rides with the word ‘Dragon’ in the title.  They basically sought out the toughest climbs available to get them ready for the challenge they’d signed up for.

So the morning of the 20^th July arrived and they started at 7.30am in Montelimar, capital of Nougat, (Newgar, Nugget, the pronunciation  was contested for most of the trip), "positioned at the crossroads of the Rhône-Alpes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur and Languedoc-Roussillon regions".

When their support team, (Sophie, (Mrs Nik), Rachel, (Mrs Dan), Graham and Denise), spotted them the first time on the route, at Nyon around about 9.00am they were cheery and fine, the next sighting was at 2pm, in the town of Bedoin at the foot of Ventoux, where Dan was in his element and couldn’t contain his excitement and Nik was quiet, (Nik is never quiet!).

They only had 20k to go at this point, (about 12 miles), which in theory, around the Oxfordshire countryside would normally take these chaps about an 35-40 minutes, but such is the intensity of the climb, that they were hoping to do it between 2-3 hours. 

The support team with Graham as team bus driver, made their way to the other side of the mountain and encountered the population of France along a narrow mountain pass with no means of turning round until you got to the top, mad cyclists hurtling down the mountain towards you and French drivers doing what is best for them...nerves were frayed by the time we got to park the bus alongside the road about half way down again.

The Union Jack was hung on the back doors and we waited for news ... and then it came.  Nik had stopped at about 800m up and didn’t think he could go any further.  (incidentally, he also updated everyone on Facebook as well).    Next news flash, Nik had started again and felt a bit better, his Facebook following were relieved, as were we.    Next contact, Dan had reached the top and had finished.  We waited for Nik’s next update, he’d got some water and was moving, but was now panicking about the sweeper truck, (everyone had to finish at 5.30pm otherwise you were thrown into a truck and driven to the top), he had about 4k to go.

Dan then came hurtling towards us, jumped off his bike and talked non-stop about what an amazing experience it had all been.  He didn’t actually take a breath for about 20 minutes...and did comment on the "piddly" medal...it was quite small considering the effort required to achieve it.

Meanwhile Nik was still making progress, he’d updated us again, about 1k to go and it was 5.10pm.  Dan confidentally predicted he would be fine and get to finish...and he did at about 5.23pm with no sign of the feared sweeper with his lorry.  A relieved Sophie, support crew and Facebook following all looked slightly less anxious but not completely happy until he arrived at the bus.  

The trip down the mountain took an age, (about 2 hours) due to the amount of traffic, so top tip, don't go up the mountain to pick up your cyclist, let them come all the way down to you.  They don't have to pedal and they love shooting down the slopes passed all the cars.  Thankfully, after a very long day, our hotel in Provence was really nice and we drunk quite a few bottles of Mont Ventoux red that evening and the following day.

So how did they compare with the professionals? The winner of this stage in the Tour de France did it in 04:39:21 and they took about an hour to climb Ventoux.

Dan completed the stage in 08:50:58 and took 02:09:44 to get to the top of Ventoux.

Nik completed the stage in 09:43:19 and took 03:02:04 to get to the top of Ventoux.

Chris Boardman MBE, (Olympic Champion, winner of a few Tour stages and a former wearer of the Yellow jersey), completed the stage in 08:09:46 and took 02:43:38 to get to the top of Ventoux...so Dan was quicker up the mountain, than an Olympic champion. (Don't tell him, we won't hear the end of it)

Congratulations to them both for a fantastic effort and no, I don’t want to do it next year.

Denise

Facebookers can see photo's here:

Nik's First L'Etape Album

Nik's Second L'Etape Album

Rachel's L'Etape Album