The 2nd Tortola Sports Club Triathlon got off to an exciting start in Road Town this Saturday. After a brief refreshing rain spell, twenty five enthusiastic swimmers dived into the early morning water down at Baughers Bay.
Surprise last minute entry Mathieu Santer took an early lead around the triangular 750 meter course. Temporarily out of professional retirement, Santer set a blistering pace, with Anthony “the Chorpedo” Spencer shocked and desperately trying to stay in Santer’s wake.
Closely hanging on the Chorpedo’s fins came another surprise entry from Elliot “Hectic” Steer, swimming for the all South African Team, the Beacon Saffers.
As the competitors came round the final mark Santer held the lead, while Robert Powers, who had a good early start, misjudged the course and added an extra length.
Santer took first place in the swim in just over eleven and half minutes, with Spencer 2nd and Steer 3rd.
Team bikers then eagerly tagged their weary and dripping team swimmers and jumped on their bikes to battle the 20km road race. First time solo entrants wiped the sea water from their dazed eyes, slipped on their trainers and they were off on their bikes too.
Ben Butler first on the bike for the BCQS Fishes, was quickly caught by Spencer, competing solo. As the bikers raced through town and up to Pockwood pond, Phillippe Leroy put in a raging performance to make up for lost time for team Killers.
The spectators excitedly cheered as bikers came hurtling in to the Tortola Sports Club. Spencer still held number one spot in the solo competition, but the team competition had hotted up with Leroy winning the bike in just over 31 minutes. Mark Smith came second in the bike for team VISAR, closely followed by Gareth Thomas, BAE All Stars, 3rd.
Tom Means was first out of the blocks for team VISAR but was quickly caught by Simone Ward-Dabreo, running for team Still Tri-ing. Dale “Jonno” Elliot came storming out of the club, eager to make up the position Hectic had established earlier on in the race.
Dabreo held her lead and led team Still Tri-ing to an overall team victory (Andrew Steel, Swim; Neil Thomas, Bike), with a solid all round performance. Jonno won the run, to bring his team Beacon Saffers into second place (Elliot Steer, Swim; Jean-Paul Gomes, Bike)
With an excellent bike by Leroy and a second place run by Mark Downing, team Killers took 3rd place overall (Curtis Davis, Swim)
In the male solo entries, Spencer maintained his lead through out with a record time of just over 1 hour and 7 minutes. Russell Willings took an encouraging 2nd with Powers losing time on his run to take 3rd.
Jessica Broderick, the only solo female entrant, put in an impressive consistent time of 1 hour 26 minutes, to finish 5th overall in the solo entries.
Race organizer Simon Cook thanked all the competitors and especially all the marshals for “making it a good fun event” . Cook went on to say “It was a great turn out and we hope to see even more first timers next year”.
The next “Off-road” Triathlon takes place on the 7th of May. Contact Simon Cook at [email protected] for more details.