Mike Lynch and I ventured north to Knockhill on Saturday to take part in a duathlon, rescheduled from early December. Mike offered to drive and take the bikes, which was very kind of him, and we had a pleasant drive over the bridge looking forward to some excellent conditions. The skies were clear, some snow dusted the hills, no too cold though, generally bright and fresh morning. Amongst the genial chitchat, we discussed family, friends, finances, childhood, and shared some anecdotes about this and that. What Mike *didn’t* say was, “You’ll get ahead on the run, but once onto the bikes I’m going to absolutely destroy you! Do you hear me!? Eh?!? Absolutely dead in the water! Comprende? Capiche??”. He didn’t say it, he didn’t need to, we could both hear it loud and clear.
He was, of course, right. A battle last year on Stava about who was the better cyclist resulted in a resounding win for Mike. The course ahead of us was: run two laps of knockhill race track, then onto the bikes for 5 laps of a cyclocross course on the side of Knock Hill itself, then into the pits and back onto the track for a final run for a lap. I’d have the edge on the run sections, but not by much as Mike and I’s 5k PBs are not that far apart, then it’s all about mitigating my losses on the cycle. A warm up on the bike section indicated that his bike choice (a mountain bike) was better than mine (a cyclocross thing) for the course. I feared the worst.
Once the race day cars had cleared, we mounted out bikes in the pit, we had a quick briefing, and then took to track start line. A nice touch was that they used the car race starting lights to set us off, and off we went round the surprisingly hilly tarmac course. An Army Triathletes guy shot ahead of everyone, Mike too, and I sat amongst a wee cluster not far behind. The start is all downhill, and once we started on the uphills I moved up into third and held that position onto the second lap. Into the pits, and I had a good transition, especially as I decided to wear the same gutties for the entire race, so I just needed to slip on a cycle helmet and grab my bike. So, pretty quick. Mike had exactly the same setup, but for some reason it took him over a minute to get his cycle helmet on. In future he might want to write “front” and “back” on it, perhaps. 🙂
Onto the bikes and the Perth Cyclists guy I spent ages trying get ahead of just breezed past, and I assumed that others would quickly follow. It was just a matter of time until Mike was going to romp past. However, I think we both underestimated a fine detail about me: I’m an idiot. I desperately tried to get round the track by risking as much damage to my bike and myself as possible. Crunching gear changes, late braking, wild gear choice, dangerous overtaking, clipping barriers – the full range of cycling stupid. The bike was a screeching, squeaking, clunking mess by the time I got back to the pit. That said, something worked, as I only lost 5s to Mike on the 25min cycle, which I was over the moon about.
Into the final run and I started to breathe a bit easier. Ahead (far, far ahead) were the same three guys that held the lead from the start of the cycle. Too far ahead to even see on the course, so it was just a matter of getting to the end without dropping places. Mike was not far behind me, having scalped a few on the cycle, and passing a Corstorphine fella on the run to secure 5th place. Two top 5 places for Carnethy was an excellent result, and despite our rivalry I think we were both happy with the placings. Well, I was, at least, don’t know about the other guy. 🙂
An excellent wee day out. Well organised event, extremely cheery marshals, and a really good venue (I think at least). Chip timing was great, a range of nibbles at the end and a free beer. Perfect! I would heartily recommend the event, it’s quite low key, and I think the organisers just really want you to have fun – which is always a great sign.
Results here: http://www.chequeredflagevents.co.uk/series-results.html
Some photos here: Chequered Flag Duathlon | Photo Gallery check out the series photographs http://www.chequeredflagevents.co.uk/series-gallery.html
And here: https://www.facebook.com/berit.inkster/media_set?set=a.10155160574010524.1073741831.785210523&type=1
Jim Hardie