Today's Milford New Years Eve Duathlon may will be the final multisport event of the year in the UK, but that's no reason for Tri247 to ignore it!

Prior to the event, your Editor had contacted John Franklin (www.johnfranklintriathlon.blogspot.com), who he knew was racing, and asked "If you get a chance, would you be able to send me a few lines about the event? Of course, let's hope you win too…" No pressure then!

Thankfully, John was able to deliver on both fronts, and so not only do you get a report, it's also a race winners report too...

This morning's race was a quality affair. Although only a small field (compared to the larger races down South), it managed to succeed where so many races fail and be be both impeccably organised and have a great relaxed feel. It was a cold morning, I had to scrape the ice off my aero bars when I arrived, but not a drop of wind and no ice on the road so good conditions. We started on the dot of 10am and I ran out front for most of the hilly 2.4 mile first run leg. Steve Penney and Tony Caulton kept me company and we entered T1 within 2 seconds of each other. Having been informed by Tony that he, "couldn't ride a bike", it seemed that it would be me and Steve out front for the ride.

The course has a steep climb out of T1 and keeps on climbing for for about 300 feet over the first three miles of nine. It's then a nice descent back into transition. The ice made it hard going and my glasses actually frosted over on the first climb. Steve and I stayed together until the start of the descent but I took full advantage of the TT bike and put the hammer down on the quick and quiet Derbyshire roads. I managed to get a 30 second gap going into T2. Special mention to the cyclist from Team Martin Kids, whose name I did not catch but he managed the only sub 26 minutes bike split of the day on a quite challenging route.

Although I had a gap going into the final run, a repeat of the first leg, I knew that Steve was nippy from the first run and had no idea how much he'd left in the tank. I decided to go for it out of T1 and try to increase my lead. At the turn around I had another 15 seconds and thanks to a last ditch sprint I was able to cross the line with a cushion of just under a minute over Steve.

It's great to come back and race at Milford again not just because of the organisation (splits for all three legs and overall times were posted within 20 minutes of me having crossed the line), and the complementary tea, coffee and toast, but because the last time I raced here was two years ago and it was only my second ever duathlon. This time round I was just under six minutes quicker... it's always nice to see a little improvement.