Tri247's roving Ironman athlete, Nick Saunders, stayed home to enjoy the hospitality of the Channel Islands this weekend and reports from the Jersey Triathlon.

The Ogier Jersey Triathlon is the main event in Jersey, it's a standard distance race and all the local triathletes enter. We had a few visitors from France, Guernsey and the UK, including Andy Brodziak of www.profeet.co.uk and also some good mates from Australia turned up. I first did this race in 1996 in my younger days when I was in the Army. It was a popular event to do; Tim Don won in that year. This was when he had sideburns like Elvis, we tried to shave them off but with the strength of a future world champ he fought us off and went on to win the next day.

The race was set off by Jonathan White from Ogier at 7.30am and there were a total of 51 individuals and 12 relay teams. It is a dash into the ocean and a two lap swim. Dan Hawksworth set the pace and exited the swim just over a minute ahead of the main pack which included myself, Paul Clements, Scott Pitcher and Doc Snook, a bulk of muscle originally from my homeland of Zimbabwe.

We set off on the 40k cycle leg in pursuit of Dan. It is a very scenic ride that takes in the west side of the island, it is mostly traffic free and well marshalled, one of the marshals was confronted by an honorary policeman who protested that the race should be stopped because all the bicycles did not have bells on them. He had escaped from the local mental hospital, we think, or has just never left the island! Paul and Scott dropped off the pace a bit and I managed to catch Dan on what we call the five mile road (it's our longest straight stretch of road here!) I entered transition in just under an hour and headed out for the two-lap 10km run. I held my lead and crossed the line in just over 35 minutes for the 10k and an overall time of 1hr and 54 minutes. In second place was Paul Clements and Dan Hawksworth was third.

The women's race was won by Catherine Prowie in 2hrs 28 minutes, second was Michelle O'Dea and third was Becky Francis.

If there are any triathletes out there that would like a relaxed race and to visit Jersey, have a good few days away from the hustle and bustle of the mainland then make sure you come over next year. I do hope there are more visitors from the UK next year, check out jerseytriclub.org to see when the race is on. Thanks to Ogier and Pedal Power for sponsoring and organising the race. Pedal Power sell a range of Orca products and provided some great spot prizes, it is worth entering the race just to try and win these.

There's an online photo gallery here with some great shots of the race.