The morning sun shone brightly into the bleary eyes of 400 triathletes gathered on Bedford’s Embankment on Sunday.

First off were the elite men. A fast breakaway group of five led by the Army’s Neil Ferguson formed immediately. By the turnaround buoy at Town Bridge they had 30 seconds on the chasing pack. Ferguson exited in 19:46 with Todd Leckie, Mark Bruce, defending champion, Steve Harrison and Paul Smith all within ten seconds.

Next off were the women. Natalie Barnard of FVS disappeared into the distance and climbed out nearly two minutes ahead of former winner Yvette Grice. A few seconds back were Lindsay Smith and Melissa Vandewater.

Meanwhile the men were trying out the new bike course. The wind had got up so the going was tough and times were well above what was expected. Harrison has been competing well in the Corus Elite Series all summer and his strength definitely lies on two wheels. He surged ahead to return over a minute before Sigma’s Jonathon Hotchkiss who’d also made huge gains on the bike.

The women’s race was also unfolding on the bike course. GB triathlete Michelle Lee had turned a four minute deficit into a lead off the bike! She started the run a mere three seconds ahead of BRAT Club’s Lindsay Smith. Natalie Barnard was now over a minute back.

Steve Harrison was about to go into the 'hurtbox'. He’d dropped his water bottle at the start of the bike and was now running on empty – on a hot day. Hotchkiss was catching up and determined to take that £500 top prize. Harrison though, is light on his feet even under stress and held on for victory. Hotchkiss crossed the line only 35 seconds later with Darren Treadaway coming in for third. Harrison has won all three Bedford Sprints, the Series and now the Classic. The Autumn Sprint on 30th September would complete a clean sweep!

Michelle Lee showed why she competes for Great Britain and ran away from Lindsay Smith and the rest of the field. She came home in 2:10:53. Smith held onto second and Yvette Grice, still tired from Ironman UK the previous week, ran through for third.

The Jordans Mini Tri also took place on Sunday with many first-timers taking the plunge. The 200m swim, 15km bike & 3.3km run race was won by Jennifer Hewitt in 46:57 and Charlie Palmer in 43:59.

A revised set of results is now available here.