<?xml version="1.0"?><rss version="2.0"><channel><title>JohnLevison - Tri247</title><link>http://www.tri247.com/index.html</link><description>Latest articles submitted by JohnLevison on Tri247</description><item><title><![CDATA[Triathlon: the new team sport?]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_6479.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[While the sport of triathlon may be an individual event - at least at the non-drafting level - there is no doubting that the professional ranks of triathlon are increasingly seeing benefits of a team approach to the sport, and the marketing of athletes and brands in particular. 
In recent years we have seen an increase in the number of high profile professional and/or development triathlon teams, as sponsors and athletes recognise that there can be greater brand awareness and exposure by being associated with a group of athletes, rather than individuals alone.
With British athletes proving successful in all disciplines within the sport, it is not surprising that these squads have had, or continue to have, a strong British interest. Several Brits have started 2010 with some very welcome news... 
Commerzbank Triathlon Team
2009 ended on a positive note in once sense for former Ironman UK winner Scott Neyedli, as he regained the Scottish Ironman record at Ironman Western Australia, finishing in second place. That performance was however offset by the knowledge that it was Scott&#039;s last race in the colours of the Commerzbank Triathlon Team (formerly Kleinwort Triathlon Team), led by twice Ironman World Champion Normann Stadler. 

Despite that loss for Scott, there are a number of Brits who have recently announced positive associations with new or existing teams.
Team TBB (www.TeamTBB.com)
One of the pioneers, in recent years at least, is TeamTBB which has gained widespread public awareness in the triathlon world through the Brett Sutton coached squad. Chrissie Wellington turned pro with the team in 2007, and won her first two Ironman World Championships as a TBB athlete. Stephen and Bella Bayliss have been longstanding and successful members of the squad, and last year Brit Abigail Bayley also joined, going on to finish second at Ironman UK, her best result to date.

2010 sees another British athlete, Tamsin Lewis, join the team. In 2009 Tamsin finished third overall, and won gold (30-34) at the World Age Group Triathlon Championships on the Gold Coast, as well as winning the Hyde Park age group race by nine minutes, recording the fastest splits in all disciplines in the process. With a former Tour de France rider as a father, cycling is in the Lewis genes. We interviewed Tamsin last year, where she said &amp;quot;I would love to be given the opportunity to take time out of work and train   full-time. At the moment I feel I&amp;rsquo;m constantly chasing my tail and have very   little down-time.&amp;quot; It looks as though she has now got that chance.  
I spoke to Tamsin about this great opportunity:
&amp;quot;Its been a bit hectic of  late as finishing off my last few days at work. Taking time out from Feb 4th to  see how I go training full time. Reluctant to say I&#039;m &amp;quot;going Pro&amp;quot; as  it sounds a bit trite, but I&#039;m going to see how training and recovering well  without work stress allows me to develop as an athlete. 

&amp;quot;I was put in contact with Brett Sutton through a mutual friend and we spent  quite a bit of time talking about my potential etc and he invited me out to the  camp in Thailand in Feb to see how I go. 

&amp;quot;I finally got some financial sponsorship together which has allowed me to take  some time out of work. I will officially be sponsored by The Priory Group (current employer) and  Baxendale Walker LLP financially. Thanks also to Simon Ward, who has kindly given me a Computrainer to see me through the long turbo sessions. 

&amp;quot;I&#039;m really excited about training full time as fitting in life as a doctor and  a triathlete has been very trying at times!
&amp;quot;I&#039;m lucky to have the support and encouragement of my boyfriend and family to  push ahead with my goals. I have no illusions that it&#039;ll be hard work... but I welcome the challenge, the  opportunity to broaden my horizons, meet new people, and push my perceived  limits. Let&#039;s see where it takes me!&quot;

I also caught up with Alex Bok, Managing Director of The Bike Boutique (TBB), and asked why they had selected Tamsin for the squad, and also his thoughts on this development of professional triathlon teams generally.
On Tamsin Lewis, and why she was selected for the squad... 
&amp;quot;Team TBB has had an excellent strike rate in developing strong age group  competitors into international triathlon stars.
&amp;quot;A lot of people look at Chrissie as the age group-to-champion pro story.  However Chrissie in many ways was following the path already trodden by Rebecca  Preston of Australia, who won the world age group title and then went on to win  four ironman races while with us. She indeed followed the same path as some of  Brett&amp;rsquo;s earlier athletes who before meeting him, never thought they could be  pro athletes.
&amp;quot;Tamsin Lewis is the latest identified for whom we hope such a meteoric rise.  Winning the age group world championship, Brett feels  that she has a  hidden ability not yet unlocked for the long course races. While she was  training for the short course races we feel her strength lies in the longer  endurance events.  I don&#039;t think too many could argue with Brett about  spotting the needs of an ironman athlete.
&amp;quot;Like Chrissie, we have offered Tamsin the chance to come to camp train with  great people who are fast athletes and will take her along slowly for the first  12months.
&amp;quot;Brett has very guarded but high hopes that she too will hit the ironman podium.&amp;quot;

On the development of professional teams in triathlon... 
&quot;It would be great to see more teams emerging in the sport for the  benefit of the athletes. A team should also be the win-win partnership between  athletes and sponsors. The sport of triathlon is rapidly gaining international  media attention, but often sponsors and athletes do not know how to find each other.  So called athlete managers is still an underdeveloped area in triathlon as the  yearly salaries of the athletes are still too small for athletes to be able to  afford individual managers. 
&amp;quot;Bringing athletes under &amp;lsquo;one roof&amp;rsquo; with a manager who can sell the team  as a package deal to a sponsor simplifies the work of a sponsor and enables  both the established athletes to get bigger deals with less effort and development  athletes to get access to sponsors they would otherwise simply not be able to  reach.
 
&amp;quot;However positive these team developments are I know Brett well and he  definitely wants and hopes that the races stay individual and not go down  the road of what he describes as farcical racing of the short course distance.&amp;quot;

Team Abu Dhabi (www.teamabudhabitriathlon.com) 
Headed by former Ironman World Champion Faris Al Sultan, Team Abu Dhabi will be entering its second season in 2010. Team Abu Dhabi is backed by the Abu Dhabi Tourist Authority (ADTA), as part of an initiative to promote the Emirate within Europe, and Al Ain in particular as a training destination. When the team was announced, part of that strategy was to &amp;quot;establish a firm foundation for Abu Dhabi to host an international triathlon   event in the not too distant future&amp;quot;, and as most readers will have seen, the Abu Dhabi International Triathlon set for Saturday 13th March 2010 is one of the most eagerly awaited triathlon debut races ever, with $250,000 in prize money up for grabs plus a course that takes in the Yas Marina Formula 1 circuit. 

One British athlete who had a stunning 2009 season - two Ironman podium finishes plus sixth in Kona - is Rachel Joyce, and she has recently been announced as one of three new members of an increased squad. Not surprisingly, Rachel is very happy: &amp;quot;I am  so excited and feel really lucky to have landed a spot in the team. It&#039;ll be a great experience getting an opportunity to cycle with a &amp;uuml;ber biker like  Faris!&amp;quot; 
Trek/K&amp;bull;Swiss Triathlon Team
Only announced this week, the new Trek/K&amp;bull;Swiss Triathlon Team may possibly be the strongest &#039;team&#039; in depth around. Brits Julie Dibens and Fraser Cartmell are members of this newly formed squad, which with the addition of Michael Raelert and Chris Lieto amongst others, means that is has the current male and female Ironman 70.3 World Champion, ladies XTERRA World Champion and Kona silver medal winner. Not surprisingly for a bike company, the many of the athletes are exceptionally strong on the bike - while Andrew Yoder and Heather Jackson may not be that well known (yet) in the UK, watch out for both of them in the years to come, as they have shown glimpses of brilliance.

I caught up with Fraser Cartmell following the announcement, who said &amp;quot;Being named as part of the new Trek/K-Swiss  Triathlon Team is, for a self confessed tri-geek like myself, a huge deal! Both  companies are industry leaders and are striving to provide the absolute  benchmark in terms of equipment and athlete support and have the goal  of creating a co-branded world leading triathlon team. This is  seriously good news for me and obviously provides a fantastic platform for  me to continue down the road towards becoming a world class 70.3 and IM  athlete. Furthermore, the calibre of the other athletes on the team are  without question second to none, and I look forward to  learning as much as possible from them during the coming seasons, as I see  this as one of the major benefits of this team structure in our individual  sport&amp;quot;.  
Team Activinstinct (www.teamactivinstinct.co.uk) 
UK based pro/development team, Team Activinstinct made quite a mark in its first year during 2009. In Philip Graves, one of the next global superstars of triathlon could well have been born from the team, as Phil won both Ironman UK (the youngest Ironman winner ever), and Ironman 70.3 UK, amongst a host of other wins and top performances in cycle time trialling too. Sister Vicky Graves made a major impact too, with a &#039;full house&#039; of gold (Euro Duathlon), silver (World Duathlon) and bronze (Euro Triathlon) at junior level, while the team as a whole racked up a highly impressive list of wins and podium finishes. 
These results, and others from the likes of Dann Brook and Lois Rosindale, reflect the emphasis of the objectives of this squad - to develop and nurture talent, to bring athletes to &#039;the next level&#039;. In Philip&#039;s case, that has been achieved arguably quicker than anyone expected - perhaps even Phil himself - as his is a name now known on the world stage. 

A new team: nuun-blueseventy tri project 
Could you be the next emerging British star? How about trying out for the nuun-blueseventy tri project. The elite squad will receive $,4,500 worth of gear including a Kestrel framest, Bont shoes, blueseventy wetsuit, nuun, team kit and much more. Applications are open now...
The year ahead. 
So, who will make the biggest impact in 2010? Nobody forecast the Chrissie Wellington express in 2007, while last year, how many people predicted Philip Graves as an Ironman winner at the beginning of the year? 
It should be a fun year, and hopefully these associations and teams should provide, as Alex Bok described, a &amp;quot;win-win partnership between  athletes and sponsors&amp;quot;. I look forward to following the action as the season unfolds. ]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Long haul, long distance spectating.]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_4948.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[I&#039;ve been involved in triathlon for a long time. I&#039;ve not yet hit the &#039;vet&#039; categories, but it was still 20 years ago that I first started reading about the sport, and my first multi-sport race was over 18 years ago.
This weekend however I have a long overdue debut: my first ever Ironman... as a spectator.
I raced in four Iron-distance events myself (Switzerland, Denmark, Austria, Roth), and have been to countless other races in spectator, competitor or official capacity, but have never spectated at an Ironman.
I&#039;m hoping I can bring my good luck from short course to long course too. I&#039;ve been at four ITU World Champs as a spectator, and each time witnessed a British World Champ: 1993 Manchester (Spencer Smith), 2002 Cancun (Leanda Cave), 2006 Lausanne (Tim Don) and 2008 Vancouver (Helen Tucker).
The omens are good - both Stephen and Bella Bayliss are defending champions at this weekend&#039;s SpecSavers Ironman South Africa, so fingers crossed that one or both will be able to defend their titles, and keep the British flag flying at long distance triathlon.   
Somehow I&#039;m not expecting the day to be any easier (and certainly not any shorter), than as an athlete, but I&#039;m sure it will be an interesting and emotional experience. I&#039;ll report back next week on how it contrasts to racing! ]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Is this the way to 2012?]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_4505.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[It&#039;s all been happening at BTF HQ of late, but what does Tri247 Editor John Levison make of it all?
Changes
My, oh my!; it&#039;s  holiday time. Christmas is  here, and I&#039;m pretty sure that the great and the good at the British Triathlon (BT) HQ in Loughborough are going to need to recharge their batteries for the new year. Race season may be over, but we reckon that it&#039;s been frantic there of late. In case you haven&#039;t kept pace, here is a quick summary (of just some...) of what&#039;s been going on over the past month or so:

Sarah Springman, British Triathlon President, became an International Triathlon Union (ITU) Vice President and was re-appointed to her BT role.
Hyde Park, London, was announced as one of the eight venues for the inaugural Dextro Energy Triathlon - World Championship Series, on August 16th 2009. This will bring live television coverage to the sport, and also showcase Hyde Park three years prior to the London Olympic Games triathlon at the same venue.
UK Sport announced that triathlon had been awarded &amp;pound;5.39 million as its budget for the London 2012 Olympic programme, an increase on the Beijing cash, despite British triathletes not securing a single medal so far in three Games.
A change in the elite coaching structure, resulting in the departure of Men&#039;s Head Coach Dan Salcedo, and a global search for a new Head Coach to oversee both the men&#039;s and women&#039;s programmes over the next four years.


Leadership
In my last column, I talked about the future of British triathlon at the Olympic Games, given our lack of success in meeting the (agreed, and realistic) target of securing one medal at any of the past three Games. I also said at the time, &amp;quot;it was only earlier on this year that Zara Hyde-Peters became the new Chief Executive Officer of British Triathlon. Now is the time for her to take stock of the set-up for the next four-year cycle.&amp;quot; 
On that front, I think it&#039;s fair to say that she has presided over some major changes to date, and has certainly made an impact such that you would expect (and hope) a &#039;leader&#039; would have. Whether everything proves successful remains to be seen, but positive, proactive action is usually better than none. So far, so good.

Performance
I wanted primarily, however, to focus on the performance element of British Triathlon. In addition to the flurry of press releases and news highlighted above, British Triathlon also announced their 2009 Squad Selections. For me, this was one of the most interesting pieces of news.

Initially at least, the most exciting element of this type of announcement is &amp;quot;who is in, who is out&amp;quot; etc. And, I guess I&#039;m no different on that front! 

However, looking beyond the names, I&#039;d suggest there are some changes - both explicit and implicit - within the revised performance pathway, that suggest to me that someone has been showing some clarity of thought (and probably learning an awful lot from British Cycling...).

First, a step back. It&#039;s long been a moan that BT don&#039;t care / ignore / don&#039;t understand non-drafting triathlon, long distance triathlon or duathlon. To a point, possibly true, and it&#039;s certainly the case that the vast proportion of all funding (UK Sport / external sponsorship) is focussed on draft-legal triathlon competition. There is a reason for this:

&quot;UK Sport&#039;s mission is to support the delivery of medal success at the world&#039;s most significant sporting events &amp;ndash; principally the Olympic and Paralympic Games&quot;

Over the past three seasons Leanda Cave, Bella Comerford and Chrissie Wellington have won the ITU World Long Distance Championship. Chrissie Wellington is double Ironman World Champion. Julie Dibens is double World XTERRA Champion. Ultimately, those performances don&#039;t contribute directly to the delivery of Olympic medals and hence the support for them from the governing body is limited - the funding is ring-fenced for a different objective!

This is not new, and the primary funding of athletes for all of my time in the sport has been for those focussed on standard distance, draft legal racing. However, in case that wasn&#039;t entirely clear, the revised World Class Performance Programme in my opinion seeks to leave absolutely no doubt of this: 

&quot;... the focus of our World Class Programme will be targeted more than ever before to succeed in the Olympics in London and beyond&quot;

So, you might not like the objective, but at least it&#039;s completely clear.

I&#039;d also suggest that it&#039;s been made pretty clear to the athletes exactly what their objectives are.  This appears more subtle, 
but I don&#039;t think it&#039;s a coincidence that the four performance pathway levels have been (re)named:


OLYMPIC Podium Squad
OLYMPIC Academy Squad
OLYMPIC Foundation Squad
OLYMPIC Talent Squad


So, if you are an athlete and you want to get on the plan... you better make sure that Olympic success is your goal, and your talents are directed in the appropriate manner. Weak swimmer? Best find somewhere else... 

British Cycling
Reading between the lines, I&#039;m pretty certain someone has been researching, listening to and learning from the British Cycling team. Rightly, David Brailsford, Performance Director of British Cycling has been hailed for his work in developing the legacy left by Peter Keen (by no coincidence, now Head of Performance at UK Sport), into the most dominant Olympic team in the world.

British Cycling have a remarkably simple, and direct approach to athletes within &amp;quot;the system&amp;quot;, as outlined by Brailsford: 

&amp;quot;... every person within the system is there because we genuinely believe that at some point in time they have the potential to win an Olympic medal for Great Britain. As soon as they reach the point that we feel that they can&#039;t, they are removed from the system. It&#039;s as simple as that really... there is no favouritism.&amp;quot;

That hasn&#039;t been the case historically within British Triathlon, where I would argue that there were plenty of athletes subject to support and funding in years past who never showed the required ability or potential to perform to that level.

It&#039;s perhaps also no coincidence that British Cycling&#039;s system, in aggregate called the &#039;Olympic Development Programme&#039; (ODP), has four levels, called: 


OLYMPIC Podium Programme 
OLYMPIC Acadamy Programme 
OLYMPIC Development Programme 
OLYMPIC Talent Team 


Sound familiar?! 

It will also be interesting to see whether another element of the British Cycling approach is implemented: selection policy.

Rewind to 2004, and you may remember the selection dramas, arguments and legal action around the Athens Olympics and the selection of Jodie Swallow. For Beijing, learning from mistakes made four years earlier, the selection policy for triathlon was extremely detailed, and gave opportunities for athletes to qualify at either the 2007 World Championships, the 2007 Beijing World Cup or the 2008 Madrid World Cup.

Contrast this to the British Cycling selection policy. While there are plenty of words there, it can basically be summarised as:

&amp;quot;... selections will be discretionary and based on the professional judgement   of the Team Great Britain Selection Panel&amp;quot;

That must be a scary prospect if you are an athlete! But did it work?! Ten Olympic track events, seven golds, only two events we didn&#039;t medal in and only one squad member (Mark Cavendish) who didn&#039;t return from Beijing with at least one medal. We left behind the likes of Jason Queally, Craig MacLean and Rob Hayles, all former Olympic medallists, and still dominated.

If you want to see evidence of this policy in action, check out this video. It features Scottish cyclist Kate Cullen who was not selected for the World Championships earlier this year, in preference for Lizzie Armitstead, who she had beaten at the National Championships. Just six months later, and Armitstead has played a massive role in Nicole Cooke&#039;s World Championship Road Race win in Varese, and then won three events at the Track World Cup in Manchester. If future Olympic success is the goal, I&#039;d suggest that perhaps the Midas touch of Mr Brailsford (and the flexibility to implement the &#039;discretionary&#039; selection policy) was right again... 

But cycling isn&#039;t perfect. Brailsford described, effectively reflecting on his own performance, British Cycling&#039;s failure to even get a rider qualified to ride in the ladies mountain bike event in Beijing as &amp;quot;disgraceful&amp;quot; - and you would imagine that won&#039;t be allowed to happen again. We had a similar issue in triathlon, of course, qualifying only two ladies for Beijing. While Michelle Dillon may have been suffering from what was ultimately a career-ending injury, that should never have happened for a nation of our resources and talent. I trust that British Triathlon are looking back at that with the same honesty, and learning from it for 2012.

The future?
But can this work in triathlon? I think it can, in fact you could make a strong case that Canada used a similar approach to great success by selecting Colin Jenkins solely for the purposes of acting as a support / domestique to silver medal winner Simon Whitfield. There were several seemingly &#039;better&#039; Canadian triathletes than Jenkins (Brent McMahon for one), but the Canadians believed their best chance of winning was by selecting Jenkins (a very strong swim / biker), in a support role, a decision that  so nearly ended in a second Olympic gold for Whitfield. Such an approach would be very difficult to implement under the current British selection system.

However, I think it all comes down to strong leadership from the top. British Cycling, with Dave Brailsford and his key advisers such as Shane Sutton and Chris Boardman, clearly has it. If anything, I&#039;d say the biggest pressure is now going to reside on Heather Williams, the British Triathlon Performance Programme Director. The appointment of the next Head Coach is going to be a critical decision too, as they must become a key part of that decision-making team.

There can be few excuses - we&#039;ve got funding secured, and surely we have the talent?

I think you could argue that a potential for future success could be results at junior, under-23 and elite level at the ITU World Championships. On that basis, with the likes of Helen Jenkins, Kirsty McWilliam, Alistair Brownlee, Jonathan Brownlee, Hollie Avil, Will Clarke, Tim Don and company all in the system (with some incredible talents in the tristar and youth age groups not far behind them that I&#039;m aware of), lack of resource surely can&#039;t be an issue?

In summary
I like a lot of what I&#039;ve seen from British Triathlon over recent months. I like much of the new performance pathway, and I truly believe we have the talent to compete with anyone. If 2012 isn&#039;t a significant enough carrot to finally achieve on the Olympic stage, nothing ever will be. As well as a carrot, it could be a stick too, and the last chance to prove our worth as an Olympic sport, as the funding decision makers may well not look favourably upon another perceived failure in London 2012.

So, I say a cautious &amp;quot;well done&amp;quot; to those who have set the scene for the next four years, and hope that you can show the required strength of leadership and decision making that will be needed to make it work.

Without that, as Simon Lessing recently said, &amp;quot;with PowerPoint presentations you can convince anybody of anything, if it&#039;s done well&amp;quot;!]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Olympics: past, present and future?]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3901.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[My earliest recollections of the Olympics are Moscow 1980. I would have been approaching nine years-old, and looking back, already well on my way to sports addiction. Moscow 1980 was the year of &#039;the boycott&#039;. It was the midst of the Cold War, and the US-led boycott was driven by protests against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. A couple of decades later, and the cold war appears consigned to history thanks to Gorbachev, Reagan, Glasnost and the collapse of the former Soviet Union while, last time I checked, the US were dropping bombs on Kabul... Oh, how the world changes!
But this isn&#039;t a history lesson, certainly not of the political kind.
Looking back at the 1980 Olympics though, that was the year of Coe v Ovett, (and everyone had a favourite - mine was Coe...), Daley Thompson, Alan Wells and a bald chap called Duncan Goodhew. And...that was it, at least in terms of gold. 
Fast forward 24 years to 2032, and will we be able to look back and think &amp;quot;ah, Beijing 2008; that was the year of Degale, Brabants, Goodison, Purchase, Addlington...and (insert plenty more)&amp;quot;? I doubt it, at least not simply from memory and without referring to Google! One thing is certain, Team GB has certainly brought home the metaphorical bacon. Atlanta 1996 - one gold. Beijing 2008 - nineteen. That&#039;s a jump from 36th in the medals table to fourth...
So what are my thoughts on the Olympics?
What is / should be an Olympic sport?
Firstly, come London 2012, Baseball and Softball will be gone. Good, that saves me a few lines of text. I won&#039;t miss them, doubt many others will. In fact, not sure I ever knew they were there!
I have a relatively simple &#039;standard&#039; for an Olympic sport. Well, I have several, but this one is a must for me - if the Olympic Games does not represent the pinnacle of that sport/discipline, why bother? And, top of my list of personal anger here - Tennis! Brilliant sport, played all over the world by incredible athletes. Anyone who watched the Nadal-Federer thriller at Wimbledon can&#039;t really doubt that. But an Olympic sport? I think not. I doubt there was a single tennis player in Beijing who would rather win Olympic gold than any of the tennis majors (Australian / French / Wimbledon / US). Andy Murray&#039;s frankly pathetic attempt: &amp;quot;I didn&#039;t prepare as well as I should have done. It was unprofessional and something I need to learn from&amp;quot; just about sums it up. 
Scrap it now, and bring in an equally tough, but far more worthy, racquet sport - Squash.
Oh, and apparently the International Golf Federation are campaigning for the sport&#039;s inclusion from 2016. That&#039;s got to be a joke! Tennis and Golf don&#039;t need the Olympics, and the Olympics certainly doesn&#039;t need them.
BMX made its debut this time, and much like Boardercross in the 2006 winter games, I feel was an exciting, modern and worthy edition. Same goes for open water swimming - a true test of the Olympic spirit, fought for by athletes who only stand to gain the honour of an Olympic medal. 
Team of the Games?
I think most would agree this would have to be British Cycling. Ably backed-up by rowing and sailing, the team went into the Games with huge expectations, following fantastic results in the 2007 (Palma, Majorca) and the 2008 (Manchester) World Champs. To an extent, World Champs headlines overstate potential success, since the Olympic programme on the track is limited to just 10 events (of which the ladies only get three...). Despite that, they came away with SEVEN gold, and a total of TWELVE medals; only failing to register a medal in two events (Madison / Ladies Points). And yet, they made it look easy. I can&#039;t think of a single moment when Chris Hoy looked in danger of being beaten in the Sprint or Keirin. Bradley Wiggins won the Pursuit while riding comfortably, to save himself for the Team Pursuit - where they subsequently smashed the world record. Steven Burke was allegedly given 24 hours notice he was going to even ride in the Individual Pursuit - and took bronze. As for &#039;Queen Victoria&#039;...different league.
I simply don&#039;t believe that it&#039;s all down to money. And it&#039;s certainly not facilities - there are just two 250m competition standard indoor velodromes in the UK...
And it&#039;s not just track. Nicole Cooke won the road race, and who would have predicted that ex- (age-group) triathlete Emma Pooley would be an Olympic medallist before these Games in the Time Trial? Somebody or, rather, some team, is doing something right. And now David Brailsford is initiating a  GB project to take on the Tour de France. His aim? &amp;quot;To win the Tour de France with a clean British rider in the medium-term&quot;. The medium term? &amp;quot;Five to ten years&amp;quot;. Best not laugh, given his track record and multi-millions from Sky TV to help make it happen. 
As he said himself, the staff of British Cycling are now going to be in huge demand around the world: &amp;quot;to keep those guys, from a management point of view, will be a very, very interesting challenge.&amp;quot; 
Athlete of the Games? 

How do you not choose Michael Phelps? Eight Golds, seven world records and a career total now standing at 14 gold and 2 bronze. Well, because you pick Usain Bolt! 
In 1996 I was in Spain on holiday, and I heard on the TV news that Michael Johnson had won the 200m in a world record time of 19.32 seconds. Being something of an anorak on such matters, I assumed this must have been a mistake by the news reader, and waited an hour for the next bulletin - this was long before instant access replays and broadband were the norm. Flipping heck - it was right! In my eyes, Michael Johnson is easily in the top-10 greatest athletes of all time, and his 200m record run in Atlanta one of the single greatest performances ever. That Bolt could win - and it took 100% effort relative to his 100m stroll (!) - and break such a respected record, is a sensational effort. While improved suits and pools have made swimming world records the norm, they aren&#039;t an everyday occurrence in track and field. And Bolt broke three...
Still, at least Johnson still holds the title as the best TV sports analyst at the Games. To the BBC - pay that man whatever he wants! He calls it as it is, succinctly, articulately and honestly. And it&#039;s difficult to argue with a man with his sporting CV. 
And triathlon...? 
Everyone has an opinion, so here&#039;s mine...but let&#039;s start with a few facts:

In three Olympics (six races), Team GB has never truly threatened to win a medal. Our best effort was sixth from Michelle Dillon in 2004, and while Alistair Brownlee produced a thrilling race this time around, he faded in the closing stages to 12th. 
Of the 17 starters (three per gender, per race - excluding the ladies in Beijing where we only fielded two), at least three have been ill (Don and Avil (08), Johns (00)), one injured (Dibens (04)) and one not fit enough come race day (Swallow 04).
Over the same period, in a comparable sport that&#039;s perhaps even less predictable - you don&#039;t even ride your own horse - Team GB have gained four medals in modern pentathlon. 


But, there is an awful lot right with the sport:

Long term, blue-chip support from the likes of Corus and Mazda. 
More TV coverage, more athletes and events (at all levels), than ever before.
Consistent success and talent on the world stage, particularly at junior levels - everyone on the 2008 Olympic team was a World Championship winner in draft-legal triathlon at junior, under-23 or senior level since 2006. Just this year Kirsty McWilliam won the junior world&#039;s, while Alistair&#039;s younger brother Jonathan also medalled. Some of the talent currently in the 14/15 age-range is, I believe, exceptional too.

So, do we throw our hands up and demand that &amp;quot;heads must roll&amp;quot;? That would be the easy answer! Triathlon is perhaps unusual in that there were probably 20-30 athletes in each event who, on a good day, were genuinely in with a shout of a medal. Of course, the other issue is that there is only one shot at it. No coming back for the relay. No bombing-out in the team sprint, but come back tomorrow for the keirin. No chance to have a poor race one, but pick up points later in the regatta... 
Still, the sport - and particularly the funding - will be judged on medals. And the bottom line is that triathlon had an agreed (and we felt fair), target of one medal. That leaves triathlon very much in the &#039;disappointing, must do better&#039; category along with the likes of judo and shooting. If not already, the spotlight and questions will be focussed on Loughborough, especially given that 2012 is in London. That&#039;s highlighted further through the successes of cycling, rowing, sailing... where multiple medals are on offer. 
It was only earlier on this year that Zara Hyde-Peters became the new Chief Executive Officer of British Triathlon. Now is the time for her to take stock of the set-up for the next four-year cycle. It&#039;s also a time I feel for Sir Clive Woodward, the Director of Elite Performance of the British Olympic Association to step forward. There is, to my mind, no doubt that the ability (talent) of athletes is there - it&#039;s been consistently shown. If his perceived skills are to be believed - helping guide a talent rich, but currently under-performing Olympic sport to success - then triathlon surely needs a helping hand? 
Perhaps the current organisation and approach is working - Alistair Brownlee certainly described the Beijing perparation as &amp;quot;amazing how well we all prepared and how well we were looked after&amp;quot; - but the sport, as would happen in any other business, must critically assess where it is and what it has achieved (or not). We can&#039;t demand an Olympic medal - France and Spain, amongst others, must be wondering at their lack of success too - but we can expect consistent and critical review of how we try to achieve it. 
And that can&#039;t solely be done by the people currently in power. Who better than Sir Clive to chair such an independent review? ]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Looking for inspiration?]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_3335.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[From time-to-time we all need a good kick up the rear, a bit of motivation or something to inspire us. You know the score; racing slower  than you expect, training becoming a drag and perhaps the urge to do anything  about it at rock bottom. Nothing is really wrong as such, but you just hit a &amp;lsquo;down&amp;rsquo; and need a chink of light to show you the way.

As athletes, the performances of others is often the source and as a sports-mad guy, I often get a real buzz that way. For example, I&amp;rsquo;ve never been in a rowing boat in my life, but I was shouting and screaming with millions of others when Steve Redgrave crossed the line (with a little help from Cracknell, Foster and Pinsent!), for Olympic gold number five. I never  realised how emotional it made me feel until several years later and it was replayed on the TV. Gary Herbert&amp;rsquo;s commentary &amp;ldquo;the Italian&amp;rsquo;s are coming!!&amp;rdquo;, as  it looked so close at the finish, set the hair on my neck on end. As they crossed the line I was in tears &amp;hellip; and this was years later and I knew the  result!!

Last Saturday evening I had another one of those &amp;ldquo;kick up  the arse&amp;rdquo; moments. I was doing some research (hopefully the boss is reading, and is impressed with my dedication&amp;hellip;) on the Open Water Swim World Champs held in Seville. The 10km event debuts as an Olympic sport this summer and there are plenty of triathlon connections. The report highlighted the success of two British athletes qualifying for Beijing (silver and eighth), and then almost casually mentioned that &amp;ldquo;South African amputee Natalie Du Toit also qualified for Beijing after finishing fourth&amp;rdquo;. HELLO!!

Remember her? Commonwealth Games 2002 in Manchester and she  made the final of the 800m &amp;hellip; after losing her leg in a motorcycle accident the year previously. And here we are again &amp;hellip; except this isn&amp;rsquo;t the Commonwealth  Games, it&amp;rsquo;s the World Championships. In an Olympic discipline, du Toit  finished, after just over two hours of swimming, less than one second from the  podium, and barely five seconds from gold. 

Impressed? You should be. Open water  swimming isn&amp;rsquo;t going to be an easy (in a medal sense) event. Both Grant Hackett  and David Davies, gold and bronze respectively in the 1500m in Athens, raced in  the men&amp;rsquo;s event, as all of the world&amp;rsquo;s top distance pool swimmers seek an  opportunity to medal. Oh, and the legend Hackett didn&amp;rsquo;t make Beijing&amp;hellip;

It&amp;rsquo;s not often I stop in my tracks, but reading that was incredible, and leaves Natalie with just one remaining ambition. Ironically for  triathlon readers, it&amp;rsquo;s to be able to run&amp;hellip;

I&amp;rsquo;ll leave you with a poem I found on Natalie&amp;rsquo;s website a coach had given her:
  
The tragedy of life  does not lie in not reaching your goals;
The tragedy of life lies in not having goals to reach for.
It is not a disgrace not to reach for the stars;
But it is a disgrace not to have stars to reach for.

Time for me to set a few goals of my own, I think &amp;hellip;
Livestrong,
John]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Aqua-gone?]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_2945.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[It&amp;rsquo;s not been a great time for the International Triathlon Union (ITU) of late. Originally scheduled to last until at least 2014, providing funding of at least $2 million a year, in January the ITU announced that its global partnership with natural gas business, BG Group, would end in December 2008. One result is a loss of the title sponsor for the World Cup Series and World Championship Events.

This was followed only days later by the announcement that the planned ITU World Cup Event in Hyde Park this year had been cancelled, due to problems in raising the necessary funding and sponsorship requirements to run the event. With 2008 being Olympic year, and Hyde Park being the venue of the 2012 Olympic triathlon event (and this year due to be the first of the test events at the venue), it isn&amp;rsquo;t great publicity. For the UK, this is further compounded by the absence of Salford from the World Cup calendar&amp;hellip;due, ironically, to scheduling issues caused by the Beijing Olympics!

While the rights, wrongs and implications of the above can (and have) been discussed elsewhere, one thing that grabbed my attention, was an apparently &amp;lsquo;regular&amp;rsquo; announcement from earlier this month &amp;ndash; the 2008 World Aquathlon Champs are to be held independently of the ITU World Triathlon in Mexico on June 28th. Last year the aquathlon championships were also held as a separate event (again in Mexico), when Hamburg were apparently unable to fit them into the schedule alongside the Standard and newly-introduced World Sprint Championships.

I&amp;rsquo;ve nothing against aquathlons, quite the opposite &amp;ndash; they are fun to race, need minimal equipment, are easy to organise and, as British Triathlon have shown, are an excellent talent spotting tool. But it&amp;rsquo;s rightful home, in my opinion, is alongside the &amp;lsquo;real&amp;rsquo; World Championships. As a championship, aquathlon has only ever really been a junior partner: the warm-up act if you like to the main event: the ITU Standard Distance Champs. Usually held a few days prior, and often used as a warm-up by age groupers. Holding a standalone World Aquathlon event, in my opinion, diminishes its standing and credibility further. If you were a female age grouper in 2007, you were almost guaranteed a &amp;lsquo;World&amp;rsquo; medal, simply by turning up and finishing. Honestly, only two ladies didn&amp;rsquo;t medal&amp;hellip;

So, I say to the ITU: either put it back where it belongs or bin it. There are quite enough championships around as it is.

My own training has been mixed of late. After making some good progress during December and early January, including a fair number of running events, I managed to pull my calf at the Wendover 5-mile race. I had a slow, painful (and miserable&amp;hellip;) hobble to the finish. Apologies to club-mates Dave, Melissa and Oliver if I was a grumpy so-and-so after the race! The last month of running has been swapped for regular physio treatment - after putting in some consistent treadmill sessions it is frustrating being stopped in your tracks, and feeling like you have to start all over again.

That said, I&amp;rsquo;m still REALLY looking forward to the 2008 season! Strangely, having decided (well, Colette persuaded me) that trying to do an Ironman this year was just too soon on the recovery process from 2006, I&amp;rsquo;m really looking forward to competing with no pressure. Forgetting Ironman for this year is absolutely the right decision and a weight off my mind.

I know I&amp;rsquo;ll enjoy the club TTs, sprints and relays or anything else that sounds fun. With a bit of luck, I&amp;rsquo;ll also manage a half Ironman somewhere too. Variety is, of course, the spice of life and one of the main reasons I love this sport. Whatever your plans for the year are, enjoy!

Livestrong,John]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Three years in the making]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_2626.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Last Friday, 9th November 2007, was one of the best days of my triathlon &lsquo;career&rsquo;. It wasn&rsquo;t a race, and I didn&rsquo;t even go training.

By day, I work for Barclays Bank at Canary Wharf. Back in November 2004 I suggested that spinal injuries charity ASPIRE would be a worthy recipient of our charity efforts. My interest in this charity was via a friend of mine, Paula Craig (now MBE), who was greatly assisted by ASPIRE when she suffered a spinal injury and was paralysed in 2001 when knocked off of her bike, training for a triathlon.

Within my business area (Treasury), we had undertaken &lsquo;big&rsquo; charity events in 2003 and 2004, raising &pound;10k to &pound;12k, with gym based rowing and cycling challenges involving the whole of the Treasury team. I had no idea what we might do in 2005, but knew that I could easily &lsquo;sell&rsquo; the merits of ASPIRE as the beneficiary of our efforts. In early 2005, the rest of the Treasury Charity committee agreed with me.

In June 2005, we were very fortunate to have Jessica Penney from Aspire come in to Barclays and present to Treasury about Aspire, spinal injuries and the great work they do. This was followed by an amazing talk from Paula Craig herself &ndash; one of the most inspiring people I&rsquo;ve ever met. I don&rsquo;t think anyone who was there will forget it. So inspired was our Treasurer that on the spot he increased our target to &pound;20,000&hellip; The challenge was set!

Our objective was to raise enough funds to pay for the conversion of a house under the Aspire supported housing programme. Spinal injuries patients will often spend 6-18 months in hospital following injury, and when discharged are often unable to return to their own home and live independently. By offering an adapted house for up to 12 months, Aspire is able to remove this obstacle in a constructive way, while permanent accommodation is sought. This doesn&rsquo;t come cheap &ndash; it can cost &pound;20,000 plus to undertake such a conversion.

So, how were we going to raise the money? Well, we quickly came to the conclusion that a triathlon of some description was the way forward, but what and how? Myself and work colleague Jeremy sat down to try and come up with a plan, which we expected could take some time and a lot of head scratching. Just two minutes later, we&rsquo;d got it!

&lsquo;Treasury Ironman&rsquo; was launched &ndash; five teams, over five days to complete five &lsquo;ironman&rsquo; triathlons, consisting (virtually) of three of London&rsquo;s biggest sporting events:

ROW: the University Boat Race
CYCLE: London to Brighton... ...and back
RUN: the London Marathon


The event would be undertaken within the gym here at Canary Wharf and, after a lot of organising, nearly 100 members of Barclays Treasury took part, with some showing surprising degrees of competitiveness!!

Importantly though, the fund raising efforts made were staggering. We honestly wondered how on earth we could possibly get close to &pound;20,000. Thanks to everyone&rsquo;s efforts, on 19th October 2005 (which purely coincidently was my birthday&hellip;), at our post-event party I was able to present Aspire with a cheque for &pound;25,000 (which later rose to approx &pound;27,200). An amazing effort by everyone, and something I&rsquo;m very proud of, as should everyone be who took part. Our efforts were recognised by the bank with a Barclays Chairman&rsquo;s Award.

Fast forward another two years, and after a huge amount of planning, negotiating, research and work by Aspire, Estuary Housing Association and many others, those efforts have now been rewarded. The house was opened by Brian Carlin (Chief Executive of Aspire &ndash; himself an active triathlete), Paul Durkin (Chief Executive of Estuary Housing Association) and James Duddridge (MP for Rochford &amp;amp; Southend East) along with invited guests on Friday 9th November. This was the ninth Aspire House to open.

The houses&rsquo; first tenant, Steve, is already in place and has been in the house for a month. Steve is 37 and suffered a motorcycle accident earlier this year. He gave me a tour of the house, and it&rsquo;s very impressive with kitchen, bathroom, garden, access, etc all adapted as required for the needs of a wheelchair user. He is in the process of looking for permanent accommodation and is exceptionally pleased with the house and hugely grateful &ndash; without it he would now be in a care home and unable to live independently. Many more people like Steve will benefit from this house in the years to come.








So, it really was &lsquo;three years in the making&rsquo; but the benefits will be recognised for much longer.  If you are looking for a worthy charity cause, I can highly recommend working with ASPIRE.]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Small steps]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_2228.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Looking around the Tri247.com team, I realised that everyone appears to be &amp;lsquo;tri-ing&amp;rsquo; around the World, except me! Our editor was out in Lanzarote (don&amp;rsquo;t mention the journey&hellip;!) with the head of the house (Iron Jen), Richard &amp;lsquo;Stan&amp;rsquo; has been, well, all over the place while still managing to win Windsor, and Paul Shanley is now an Ironman. And Mr Trew? Well, he&amp;rsquo;s currently living it up in Bermuda!! Nice work if you can get it.

As Colette mentioned in her recent update, our nearest thing to a training camp involved a gorgeous Caribbean island, a beach, and an all-inclusive package. Happy Days.

I feel like I&amp;rsquo;m missing out, as in years past I&amp;rsquo;ve competed in Austria, Switzerland, Denmark, Germany, South Africa, USA, Malta, Italy and Finland amongst others. No &amp;ldquo;big event&amp;rdquo; this year to look forward to and focus on. This is proving to be a recovery season for me &ndash; it&amp;rsquo;s been difficult to get back to fitness after last year&amp;rsquo;s cancer &amp;lsquo;interruption&amp;rsquo;, and the weight I gained during that period is proving tough to shift. I seem to be doing the reverse to Lance in this aspect!

That said, I have managed to do a couple of &amp;lsquo;events&amp;rsquo;. The Milton Keynes Open Water swim was fun &ndash; the Big Cow team really seem to have the balance of quality/commercial event and fun/relaxed atmosphere spot on. It took me 2 attempts to finish a 10-mile time trial, after my new bike punctured 2 miles into the first one. Attempt 2 was pleasing though: I managed to dip under 26 minutes in what was my first bike race of any description since Roth 2005. This was way ahead of my expectations, and I thought 23 mph+ was pretty good considering this time last year I was in the middle of chemotherapy. Hopefully, there will be more to come in the weeks ahead.

Last night was &amp;lsquo;step 2&amp;rsquo; of the return, a multi-sport race. It was just a small event: a club Aquathlon at Eton College. Now, I&amp;rsquo;ve never been much of a swimmer, but failing to overtake anyone on the run either was a change I could do with out! It&amp;rsquo;s difficult to accept running at over 7:30 per mile when you&amp;rsquo;ve done half marathon&amp;rsquo;s at sub-6 minute pace before, but as I keep reminding myself, you can only do what you can do at the time. Hopefully my running legs are there, deep down somewhere, though it may take another year to find them. I went for a run this morning &ndash; didn&amp;rsquo;t find them today either!

No major plans for the rest of the year &ndash; I&amp;rsquo;ll hopefully do the National Relays with the club in August, which should be fun. I last did these in the early 90&amp;rsquo;s when I was student at Loughborough. We have about seven teams entered and so we should have a great weekend. After that, I may even consider doing a whole triathlon (without breaks&hellip;) before the season finishes. It will certainly be a short one though! Again, that will be another step to tick off on the recovery trail.

One thing you can be sure of though is that I&amp;rsquo;ll be out and about at the races &ndash; I may not be competing myself, but I&amp;rsquo;ll have my stopwatch and notepad to hand, to keep on top of the news. Don&amp;rsquo;t be surprised if I come and have a chat to you either &ndash; I don&amp;rsquo;t bite (!). We are keen to hear from the Age Group ranks, and keep people up to speed with the news and views from this great sport. Oh, and if it appears I seem to know more about your old race results than you do, I&amp;rsquo;m not a stalker &ndash; I&amp;rsquo;m just a &amp;ldquo;statto&amp;rdquo;!]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[The bright side of life?]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_1591.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[Blog 2 and I don&rsquo;t know what to write... Not strictly true, it&rsquo;s just &lsquo;how&rsquo; to write it that&rsquo;s difficult.

By now, many of you will have read of the untimely and sudden death of 29-year old triathlete Dave Aitchison, a member of Ful-On Tri Club. I didn&rsquo;t know Dave. I&rsquo;m certainly not fast enough to have ever considered myself a competitor of his. Yet for the past week I don&rsquo;t think a day has passed without me thinking of him, and all of those that loved him.


Maybe it&rsquo;s because he was young; and I&rsquo;ve still got a few more years till I hit &lsquo;Vet&rsquo; status myself
Maybe it&rsquo;s because his downfall was a heart condition; and I&rsquo;ve got my own ongoing problems on that front 
Maybe it&rsquo;s because he&rsquo;s a triathlete from London, like me


But it&rsquo;s not really any of those. What has struck me the most, are the words written by everyone on the condolences page of Ful-On&rsquo;s website, and the words spoken by CB (Dave&rsquo;s girlfriend) in the Evening Standard. What comes across, through all the sadness, shock, heartache and pain is... ...joy and happiness.

What seems clear to me, is that not only are people speaking highly of the fun times, laughs and experiences they shared, now that he&rsquo;s gone -- they also shared and appreciated all of that while he was here. I think that&rsquo;s the most striking legacy he can leave.

There&rsquo;s a message in there for all of us &ndash;- which can be difficult when you&rsquo;re running (or cycling, or swimming...) around trying to deal with life&rsquo;s ups and downs / mortgage payments / latest injury / stress at work / inability to run off the bike / packed trains: 


Take a few moments to realise what you have now
Share your feelings, appreciation and love with the people you care about. Now.
See problems as opportunities for solutions
They are not hills; they are opportunities to gain leg strength...
Whatever &lsquo;cards&rsquo; you&rsquo;ve been dealt in life, play them as well as you can


I can&rsquo;t claim to be a role model on any of the above, (in some areas I fail miserably), but sometimes something, or somebody comes along to remind you of what is REALLY important in life.

So, to CB, Dave&rsquo;s family and friends, Ful-On Tri Club &ndash;- thank you for the dignity and courage you have shown all of us over the past few days, you are an inspiration.

And Dave -&ndash; Rest in Peace (but only between training sessions).

LiveStrong]]></description></item><item><title><![CDATA[Alcohol, the new wonder fuel]]></title><link><![CDATA[http://www.tri247.com/article_1536.html]]></link><description><![CDATA[A new year, a fresh start, resolutions and all that... It would be fair to say that 2006 wasn&amp;rsquo;t the best year, but things happen, and &amp;ldquo;what
doesn&amp;rsquo;t kill you, only makes you stronger&amp;rdquo; apparently.
Hydration strategy 
Colette decided (but only after we&amp;rsquo;d had a great NYE Party), to cut out the wine, at least for a while, and kick 2007 off in a healthy manner. For me, just finishing one race would be one more than 2006. As I don&amp;rsquo;t remember making any such rash commitments towards alcohol (non)consumption, a friend&amp;rsquo;s birthday party would be a first attempt at role reversal&amp;hellip;
Given it was a Saturday night; we decided we wouldn&amp;rsquo;t be too late home &amp;ndash; still wanted to make the early Sunday cycle. The usual start to the evening with Colette driving us there (it&amp;rsquo;s usually me that drives back) and while I enjoyed a glass or two of champagne with birthday girl Helen, Colette looked wildly happy (probably&amp;hellip;) at the diet coke she had.
Off into town and Tapas was the food of choice. When in Spain (well, Weybridge)
do as the Spanish do, and polish off the first carpaccio with a glass or two
of Sangria. Lovely! Colette sipped away at a mineral water. Helen didn&amp;rsquo;t
waste her time saying how great it was being seated between the only two &amp;ldquo;teetotallers&amp;rdquo; in the house (even though Colette is a fraud really!).
&amp;ldquo;Red or White&amp;rdquo; was the next fluid replacement option (still thinking
about hydrating for the morning ride, of course). Well, white wine looks (a bit&amp;hellip;)
like water, so white it was. And a glass or two gracefully helped along the prawns,
lamb, chicken and salad that seemed to keep appearing before us. Colette had
hit the bottle by now &amp;ndash; apple juice, obviously. 
Time for a quick coffee back at the Helen&amp;rsquo;s house, and all being well
we&amp;rsquo;d be back home around midnight, fully prepared for a nice Sunday ride.
Coffee it was, initially at least, before even more bubbly. And suddenly someone
had moved the clocks forward to 2:30 am and I seem to remember dancing, very
badly. Oh Dear! Looked like Colette would be on her own for the morning ride.
Radical cure 
Somehow, after barely four hours sleep, I was getting ready to meet for the
Sunday ride, with my Sangria/Champagne/Wine hydration strategy still making
itself known inside my head, while Colette was&amp;hellip;&amp;hellip;ill in bed!
No worries, I could manage a steady 30 miles or so. Money in the pocket, a
mid-ride coffee would surely provide any boost required.
35 miles in and it was clear that today was definitely a &amp;ldquo;non-stopper&amp;rdquo; (oh dear, no caffeine&amp;hellip;) and, what&amp;rsquo;s more, we were miles from home. And going up a lot of rather steep hills. Plus, I was about to bonk with a hangover &amp;ndash; never good for performance. Emergency chocolate needed! Thankfully a shop appeared, and I was stopping and didn&amp;rsquo;t care if anyone else was. Two Mars bars consumed in a PB time. Good job too, as we ended up at close to 55 miles for the ride.
So what did we learn? For me, well, I&amp;rsquo;m clearly a lightweight and should
stick to the soft drinks. Oh, and I can&amp;rsquo;t dance. For Colette, all
that well intentioned water didn&amp;rsquo;t seem to have the galvanising effect
that many a glass of wine has had in the past, as she didn&amp;rsquo;t even make
it out of bed. 
Next time I&amp;rsquo;ll drive, and normal service will be resumed.
Livestrong!
John and Colette are age groupers who race for Hillingdon Triathletes, but
that&amp;rsquo;s only the obvious part of their story. John has been involved in
triathlon since 1990, and is a 4-time Ironman finisher, with a PB of 10:39. He
is also involved in the organisation and volunteer side of the sport; a former
Chairman of East London Triathletes, currently Secretary and Webmaster for Hillingdon Triathletes, and a regular time-keeper and general &amp;ldquo;statto&amp;rdquo; at many events during the year. In 2006 his triathlon progress was &amp;ldquo;interrupted&amp;rdquo; following a diagnosis of cancer which is now in remission following 6-months of chemotherapy. He is now back in training for 2007.
]]></description></item></channel></rss>
