West Suffolk Wheelers had three triathletes registered in the 2011 Dambuster at Rutland Water.  This British Triathlon Championship race was a feature race in the triathlon calendar this year being both a World and European Championship qualifier and attracted the best triathletes in the country outside the elite stage.  

Conrad Burgess and Adrian Barbrooke were competing in the 35-39 age group category, Barbrooke’s 2^nd consecutive year at this event, and Paul Horsley in the 50-54 age group category.  The waters for the swim were fairly calm, although around 400 metres out it got a little choppy.  Once competitors turned the first buoy the calmer waters were soon found again and 1500 metres after the start the competitors dragged themselves out of the water and in to transition to switch to the bike.  The first few kilometres of the bike leg saw competitors struggling in to a viscous headwind and just as they thought they’d turned a corner out of the direct wind they were faced with the infamous “Rutland Ripple”, three particularly steep hills in close succession.  However, once the course flattened out the pace picked up and normal service was resumed.  Until, that is, the final few kilometres where competitors turned back into the headwind for the race to transition to complete the 42 kilometre bike course.  The 10k run was a mixture of terrain taking competitors up on to the Rutland Dam where they completed 4 laps of the length of the dam battling a strong cross wind coming off the water before heading for the finishing line.  Barbrooke finished 125^th, 28^th in age group and crossed the line in 2:17:57, 4 minutes 26 seconds faster than last year.  Horsley finished 341^st also 28^th in age group in 2:33:25 and Burgess finished in 659^th in 3:01:49, 107^th in age group.  A fantastic effort from all the West Suffolk Wheelers triathletes considering the strength of competition within a field that started with 958 competitors.

Attachments:

dambustertriathlon2011results.pdf

[ ]

197 Kb