Graham Chapman competed cycled this weekend in the British Heart Foundation South Downs Way  and tells us: ‘ a day challenge which was 100 miles off road with 4000 metres of climbing over the course. A very tough yet enjoyable day if anyone wants to do it. Some of the descents were epic. The shallow ones were the best where you could pick up speed (blew the front tyre doing 35 mph down one such trail but managed to stop normally without landing on my head), had to spend a lot of time on the brakes on the steep ones avoiding large rocks and cow s**t (it’s slippery when fresh and rock hard when baked in the sun). It took 13 hours with a pub stop.’

Mark Yeoman, Simon Colvan,  Andy Tugwell and Joel Stainton all headed to Dorney – the first 2 for an Olympic race, the latter 2 for a Sprint Tri. Viceroy highlights were Andy’s 3rd (AG) place, Joel’s 4th (Sprint), Chairman Yeo’s 2nd (Olympic) and Simon’s first sub 2.30 Olympic .

Chaiman Yeo (as always) had the most to prove, but had a tough pre race taper, as he had a full Saturday morning of coaching followed by swimming with 70.3 pro James Third. Lack of food, sleep & energy meant that he wasn’t looking forward to the race. After numerous pit stops he put on his wetsuit and struggled through the swim exiting in a close third. However, he I exited T1 in 2nd place by 2km he was in first.

Simon meanwhile adopted a couple of Coach’s techniques in the swim to post a 26-min swim followed by a commendable time of 1:16 on the bike. Continue reading →