Glentress Duathlon
Run and Ride in the 7 Stanes
04.03.2008
On a very windy day with the odd snow shower seventy nine hardy souls to ventured out for the last, and longest race, in the Duathlon series which takes place in the mountain biking mecca of the Glentress Forest, near Peebles. The courses were set by the Peebles cycling club and designed to bring everyone back to the Buzzards Nest car park where race HQ and the ‘Hub Bus’ café were situated, on two loops of both the bike then the run course. These made use of the surrounding fire roads, technical trails and natural features on complex but well marked course and the finishing times for the run and bike courses were almost exactly the same for each leader, with fastest at around forty two minutes.Prasad Prasad, who came from third off the bike to pull through by the start of the second lap, won the race again. Neil Crampton was fourth off the bike and came through to second, with Andy Barlow, second on the bike having a super run to finish third. Adam Ward reasserted himself as first V40 male with Garry MacInnes second and Andrew Patience third, to give a Carnethy 1,2,3. Vet 50 honours went to John Goldsworthy followed by Bob “sniffles� Waterhouse, with Adam Anderson again representing V60 men.
The ladies race was superb, with Ruth McGavigan finishing first senior woman in 19th overall! Angela Miller took second in front of Claire Fennel. First Veteran 40 woman was Debbie Carr, with Cali Ingham V50 woman after a heroic effort. Debbie and a few others sacrificed time to assist an injured biker, who required attention.
The team race was well attended as many felt the Long was too far for a solo effort. Oliver Young and Mark Nixon took pole position in 4th overall with Mark having the fastest run time of the day. Ross Creber gave dad Chris a superb lead, with father taking the decision to do the short loop first, thereby giving Prasad a near heart attack in his efforts to catch him on the first, longer, loop. Nice one Chris!
Overall Series winners
There was disappointment for some who had gone off-course on the Short course race earlier in the series and could not make up the deficit. The overall series was won by Prasad with two wins and a second, with Andy Barlow close on his heels with one win and two third places. Chris Boustred took third place with a total of 19 points. Ian Sill took advantage of Adam Ward’s poor placing in the short to steal Adam’s V40 trophy by three points, with Ian Bell taking third and holding off a strong challenge from two athletes just two points behind. Bob Waterhouse and Adam Anderson won in their respective classes, as did Bob Soutar and Ewan Gowrie in the Team event.
The Women’s overall was won with three excellent performances by Ruth McGavigan, with Angel Miller not too far behind in the points totals. Debbie Carr also had three straight wins and left Monica Magnessen with consolation 2nd place. Cali Ingham had to finish the Long to take V50 woman and despite missing the prize giving was given her own special event, along with Bob, who had chivalrously gone to escort her in.
Full results are on the event website.See All Event Posts
