A clear, bright morning greeted
competitors for the 2007 Accelerace
Extreme Triathlon as they arrived on
Teignmouth seafront. Of the 40-odd
signed up, 28 brave souls arrived on the
morning to take part – and spirits were
largely high, buoyed predominantly by
the lovely weather, and the pancake-flat
sea. People seemed to be trying for the
most part not to think about the
distance and amount of hill-climbing to
come during the day.
Swim
The swim was quick and conditions were
perfect, with warm water and little
swell, and Nick Holmes led the field
into T1, with Charlie McNeill, hot on
his heels. Scott Thompson made T1 in
third place, but it was Laurence Pidcock
who showed his intentions early by
taking a paltry 34 seconds in T1, and,
despite finishing the swim in 6th,
a minute after the leaders, headed out
onto the bike course in first place, a
position he held onto till T2.
1. Nick Holmes 17:40
2. Charlie McNeill 17:55
3. Scott Thompson 18:10
Bike
The bike course was at its imposing best
on race day, with
Dartmoor looking glorious
bathed in sunshine. The competitors
tackled 6,830ft of climbing, and a
further 6,610ft of descent over the 54
mile course, with a new course record
set by Jason Darke of 3hrs and 3
minutes, enough to take him from 14th
out of the water to 2nd
overall into T2. Pidcock hung on in
front, with a similarly storming bike
time of 3:04, and hit the run with a 5
minute lead over Darke and a 7 minute
lead over Matt Cartailler in 3rd,
who, with a great bike time of 3:07, was
unlucky to suffer from mechanical issues
and not improve his position still
further.
1. Laurence Pidcock 3:04 (3:24)
2. Jason Darke 3:03 (3.29)
3. Matt Cartailler 3:07 (3:31)
4. Nick Holmes 3:10
Run
With only 7 minutes separating the top 3
out of T2, and less than 10 minutes
separating the top 4, the runners had a
competitive challenge on their hands
quite apart from the 14 miles of brutal
on and off-road running to contend with.
In the end, Pidcock held on
magnificently from Cartailler, to win by
less than a minute, Cartailler having
clawed back over 6 minutes over the run,
to put in a brilliant time of 2:04.
Jason Darke was extremely unfortunate in
getting lost on a variety of occasions,
and despite honourably withdrawing
himself from the race on these grounds,
still returned via a slightly
alternative route in a time of 2:12.
Pidcock won in 5:34:13, with Cartailler
2nd in 5:35:02, and Nick
Holmes 3rd in 5:53:19.
1. Laurence Pidcock 2:10 (5:34:10)
2. Matt Cartailler 2:04 (5:35:00)
3. Nick Holmes 2:22 (5:53)
In the women’s competition, Helen
Whitley won before the starting whistle,
since she was the only female competitor
to arrive on the morning. Especially
admirable, since she’d only signed up at
6pm the previous evening! Helen put in a
storming performance, to complete the
race in 8:43:07, after falling foul of
some thoughtful sign-movers in Hembury
Woods on the run course, which left her
lost in the woods fro over an hour – and
adding over 4 miles to her run distance.
Given this, and the fact that when two
of the event organisers eventually found
her she was still able to outrun them to
the finish, Helen probably deserves the
biggest congratulations of all the days
competitors.
Helen Whitley
Swim 26:00
Bike 4:00
Run: 4:11 (18.5 mile run)
Overall 8:43
The remainder of the field was
incredibly competitive, with tough
battles fought across the course, and
some brilliant individual performances.
Finish line quotes of “Well, it lived up
to its name”, and “Tougher than any
IronMan I’ve done” were memorable, and
the collective sense of achievement was
palpable. Hopefully this won’t wear off!
Special mention must go to David Hardy,
who, having blown his front tyre before
leaving Teignmouth and borrowed a spare
wheel from one of the organisers, then
was unfortunate to have the rear wheel
blow on one of the steep downhill
sections near Moretonhampstead. After
slinging his bike behind a hedge, he got
a lift with a marshal to where his wife
was waiting in the car, and returned to
the bike to pick it up. There, he found
a local man who happened to live round
the corner, and who, upon asking what
had happened, suggested lending Hardy a
bike to finish the event on. David
finished in a total of 8:05:23, having
done the bike in 4:33:31, and was
accompanied across the finish line by
his dog, who similarly became
Accelerace’s first canine event
finisher.
