Today is exactly one year since Nicola got hit by a car cycling over Walton Bridge to meet the Viceroys for the first time. That was a pretty low point, she’d broken her teeth, her bike was a write-off and the driver couldn’t be traced.

She never wanted to be a triathlete, she joined Viceroys because a friend told her that triathletes would be friendlier to ride with than a pure cycling club! But whilst I was waiting for her injuries to heal and to buy a new bike, she thought she may as well learn to swim. Mark still laughs about her first session at Shepperton lake, when she barely got her face wet!

But today, says Nicola (our club secretary), “Thanks to fantastic coaching from Mark and great support from all the Viceroys, I did my third triathlon today. And the swim is my favourite discipline!”

A few weeks ago Graham Alsop made it in to cycling weekly in his Viceroys kit as he climbed to the top of Box Hill and now Carla Gilbey has been found fronting a flyer for an upcoming event!

Proud to wear pink? Congratulations to Rory on reaching the highest levels of triathlon, with confirmatation of his overall placing for the 2012 Ironman 70.3 season – 2nd in GB and 15th in Europe.

In Rory’s words: ‘Amazing support throughout the year from friends and family that made me secure a place at the World Championships in Las Vegas. Relentless focus and training structure from close friend and coach Mark Yeoman got me to the start lines. Looking forward to seeing what we can achieve over this season and beyond.’

After Alan Clarke achieved a PB at the weekly Chertsey time-trial (25:07), Mark Yeoman (not to be beaten) trialled it to give his legs a blast before his first Olympic distance race of the season. Putting the pressure on by missing his start time (the clock was already running by about 45 seconds) somewhat flustered him over the first half of the course, but he still finished an astonishing 3rd overall in  24.45. Free Thursday time trial sessions for all Viceroys – if you can handle the nasty last stinging hill at Longcross!

UPDATE: The following week, Mark achieved 2nd place in 24:18

Thorpe 1 was a real success for Viceroys – particulary Alan Harris and Mark Yeoman, who both won their age groups. Mark came second overall and Alan came sixth overall. Great performances also came from Kate Wallace, Peter Bell, Colin Hinsley and Trevor Hartley

After coming home forth Vet at Thames Turbo 1, Clarkie bettered this achievement again… twice! On Friday 17th he competed in the Jones Lang LaSalle Property sprint triathlon, coming 1st out of 108 in the 45-49 group and 9th out of 889 men. Second in his swim wave and then managed to average 40.3 kph on his bike – an impressive first for him at the sprint distance.

Two days later, Alan raced down at Chichester in a Standard distance race and won the 45-49 group and come second in the Vet category and came away with a trophy.

Erica is 14 years old and a youth triathlete member. At Eton SS 19/05/13 she was 9th overall in women under 40 and was first out of the swim by 45 seconds! She actually had the 2nd fastest swim overall out of everyone!! Mark has been training her for 9 months now and todays race showed that the hard work is paying off.

Blenheim National Youth race is next – good luck Erica.

Huge congratulations to our very own chairman and club coach, who has passed his BTF level 2 coaching. He has been asked to mentor new and up and coming coaches and advance to level 3 so that they can utilise him at elite level.

After having run up and down the tow path past The Weir (Walton), we thought it was time to stop off for a quick drink after running on THURSDAY 30TH MAY. Bring a friend, come for a drink or dinner too – runners will be there from 8pm.