ICTri Take on Hillingdon Duathlon
On a crisp November morning, when all should have been asleep and enjoying a Sunday morning lie-in, 15 brave Imperial triathletes decided to brave the cold weather and race at the Hillingdon Duathlon. The skies had cleared from the Saturday’s rain to leave us all with brilliant race conditions: sunshine, gentle breeze, and not too hot (but it was freezing). The race consisted of a 3km run, 15km bike and a 1.5km run.
At 8 am, men’s race began. It was a strong start with Henry Hart leading the run, Romain Barnoud hard on his heels. Matt Ryan and Tom Butler were also just behind them. After some speedy runs, they were onto the bike stage, and Imperial boys had to come to terms with counting the ten laps required of the bike course. This was very challenging, despite everyone having strong mathematical backgrounds, but luckily they were no miscounts from our squad. The bike laps sped by, and before we knew it the men were coming back into transition. Henry Hart sped away with an incredibly fast 3.03min/km to win first place for Imperial. Romain Barnoud soon followed winning third. Matt Ryan and Tom Butler came fourth and fifth respectively. It was a fantastic result overall for the guys with bottles of wine being rewarded for the podium finishers. New to the club this year, Ben McDonnell, Roman Allais and Thibault Lavallé, all had strong finishes as well and enjoyed their time racing at the Hillingdon race circuit.
After the boys had cleared their bikes from transition and the girls had racked theirs, the women’s race began. The wonderful Ben McDonnell and Romain Barnoud played the much-appreciated role of personal photographers and support squad for the girls, helping them finish with terrific times. Fiona Sander stormed away with her run and bike times, lapping many as she made her way to the top of the podium. Sophia Vorderwuelbecke did incredibly well and finished her brilliant race in the third position. Marion Artigaut and Jess Eichel decided to have an ultimate game of cat and mouse and were chasing each other all around the circuit. Cass Kennedy, despite her many injuries, had a successful race and finished with a relieved smile on her face. Mary Chapman was the athlete of the week for TriIC and finished her first race in great time and eager to do more races. TriIC alumni, Esme Hoston Moore, realised how much she misses tri and joined for the race and had a lovely time racing and catching up with her fellow IC triathletes. Treasurer Emma Claxton also did great.
Overall, we had a fantastic race with 1st, 3rd, 4th and 5th in both the men’s and women’s races. Well done all!
