Results

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 

32 ERR people at Waddesdon, the biggest turn-out from any club there. Well done to our various prize winners, and if I've missed a joker or a pb then please let me know.

7:30pm, Wednesday 15 July 2009

It was a sultry July evening as we wound up the drive to Waddesdon Manor retelling  now legendary stories about those who have famously blown up on ‘The Hill’ to Matthew Marks, pointing out spots where remains of those runners can still be seen.   

On arrival, we continued to warn the other  Waddesdon virgins, “don’t go too fast down, because you’ve got to come back up... and THEN go round the house”, so when the Waddesdon 5k started, and the field sprinted away at mad speed, those of us who’d suffered before, hung back trying to limit any early damage whist still trying to stay vaguely in touch.  This included myself but behind me being even more cautious was Katherine.

At the 1k marker, I’d managed to join Kate, but when I looked at my watch 03:55min, “We are going to pay for this”, I commented, but further down the road, I could see Anne and Jackie still speeding away, Wiley Fox Katherine? Still behind.

At 2k, the road started to flatten out and this is the point where your legs and lungs start to tell you, you might have gone too soon, but the leaders were coming back up, so I used the opportunity to distract myself and cheer on Robert, who was about 6^th, Graham and Kev.  (Did anyone see Ben Breaker run back up?  No, me neither!  Ben are you sure you ran all the way down?)

At the turning point, I was pulling in Anne, her early pace starting to tell and I passed her around 3k.  The hill started to climb, the other Eynsham runners were shouting encouragement as they continued down, but I could only manage a wave as I tried to keep it going as the hill got steeper. 

Up ahead, I could see Ben C, could I catch him?  He disappeared into a cloud of smoke...everytime we do this race, the groundsmen  are always having a bonfire by the side of the course, why?  it’s hard enough without a lungful of smoke.  Anyway, rant over,  as Ben and I got through the smokey bit, our positions had changed and we gave each other  comedy “How did that happen?” glances as we continued up the slope. 

My next target was Jackie, but she was way ahead and there was this heavy breathing getting closer and louder.  My subconscious had worked it out already and a quick glance confirmed, it was Katherine.  She steamed passed me like I was standing still, her more cautious start now paying dividends, but I still had work to do, I could see a Vale of Aylesbury runner struggling in front of me and I remembered we were strong contenders for the ladies team prize...and then she stopped running and started to walk!  I sped passed, she might start again!

By this time, I’d reached the front of the house, Jackie was actually not that far away, could I catch her?  probably not.  We ran round the side of the house, she was gaining on some guy, but I was catching both of them.  As we got to the front again, Jackie got passed him, but I overtook them both just before the corner, it was then a panic sprint up to the line as Jackie doesn’t give in that easy and she finished only  4 seconds behind me.

So three ladies in, just one more to go for the team and then Kate and Anne could be seen battling it out to the line with Anne beating Kate by 2 seconds.  Was this enough for our team prize?  More encouragement was given as the runners streamed in and the funniest thing of the night was Natalie laid out on the floor, not talking, (yes you read that right).  Eventually, she sat up and said “That was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, I couldn’t breathe!”, to which the response was, “Now you know how Linda feels when you’re both running up hills, and she's struggling to keep up  and you’re giving a running commentary!”

So onto the prize giving, it was a bit of a role of honour for Aylesbury to be honest who cleaned up most of the prizes, but there was Eynsham success as well:

·         Matthew Marks 1^st MU20

·         Katherine 1^st FV45

·         Kate 1^st FV50

·         Larry 1^st MV60

·         Two PB’s for Katerine and Elaine, well done to them

·         The biggest turn-out from any club there with 32 of us taking part, Yay us!

·         Once again Eynsham took over the ladies toilets and turned it into their changing room, good pincer movement girls.

Did we get the Ladies Team prize? Well it depends how you work the results out.  If you base it on the first four finishers, yes, morally we won.  Unfortunately, the organisers used  the “adding up finishing positions, and lowest score wins” method, so no we didn’t. 

Congratulations to Nick Sheard who completed the Forestman Triathlon on Sunday 12th July, 3.8k swim, 180k bike and 42k run.

Nick's stats for the ironman are as follows:

The winner completed by event in 10:28:12 and full results and race director's report can be found at: http://www.racenewforest.co.uk/index.html

He had two supporters, Team Bridges, who let the side down by not turning up for the start at 5.30am and were subsequently berated by other supporters for being lightweights. (Denise would just like to point out that it was Graham who didn't want to go and not her, she would have gone, if Graham had got her up). 

Regular text messages were sent to Nick's wife, Hanne, to keep her informed of his progress, (we glossed over the bad patch at 14.5 miles of the marathon, we didn't want to worry her).

Can't help thinking he could have chosen better accomodation for the night before, check out the picture of his tent in the gallery, Graham is laid next to it, just to show how small it is...

....and as for the tattoo, disappointingly, the ironman tattoo is a trademark of Ironman events so you have to do one of their races to be allowed to have it scratched onto your body, so Nick got just a medal and a tshirt.

Nick was heard to say "Never again" in a Sir Steve Redgrave sort of way, I'm not sure I believe him.

Denise