‘I’ve always had a soft spot for the most famous race in the land – Windsor Triathlon. It was the first race I ever did. I was fortunate enough in 2013 to win the Olympic distance race and the following year to win the sprint, so I left it for a while. Hard acts to follow.

So heading back I was super nervous. Racing at 6.04am isn’t pleasant, especially when you get up at 3.40am. I was off in wave 2 with James ‘can I borrow another bike’ Turner. Wave 1 saw Carl Fisher race in the over 45s and finally wave 3 with the sub 37s (yeah, funny age group waves at Windsor). I had a good swim but soon had to navigate through wave 1. Mid 9mins and it was time to make the 400m run into T1. I ran hard to take back places and make sure Turner could draft off me. I soon exited T1 for another long 400m run to the mount line – my feet are still sore.

The rain was now coming down now but I was determined to press the bike to catch up as many places as possible. I made my customary ‘boom’ noise as I passed Carl but what I wasn’t expecting was to catch the first bike soon after about 7km into the ride before Maidenhead. Having a lead motor bike is great but the game changes from chasing to settling into strong pace to avoid smashing the legs. I set the 2nd fastest bike split (by seconds) and come into T2 not knowing what lead I might have over the next guy.

The run course at Windsor is nasty as you hit the steep McSteep  hill up to the castle soon after leaving T2. As I ran down I was expecting to see a runner but no, okay I thought. As I got to the far dead turn I thought that I’d surely see the next runner but no? Err okay I thought. As I approached the overlap section from transition to lap turn I saw the next guy. Wow I thought, I might have a really good chance of winning this. In the second lap I could hide in the other runners heading out on their first lap. I then saw James in a small group during lap two – something to chase. I think Iwas close to catching the 3rd placed guy at the end of my final lap. Now I wasn’t running fast but quick enough and I crossed the line having to wait and see if wave 3 had any fast runners. As the clock ticked I realised that I’d won it again and by over 2mins to boot. James had an awesome race finishing 5th overall (fastest vet with 3^rd fastest bike split) and Carl had a top performance too.’

As raced and reported by Mark Yeoman