Roll call: David McNamee, Joe Skipper, David Dellow, Brad Williams, Lucy Gossage, Michelle Vesterby, Caroline Livesy, Alice Hector

The course: A lake swim in Pennington Flash, a two-loop bike course running from Pennington Flash through the Lancashire countryside with 5387 ft of elevation, a Tour de France-like spectator-lined climb up Sheep House Lane (sheep not included), finishing with a three-loop run that ends in Victoria Square.

This is a P-2000 event with a $75,000 prize purse.

The Women

Spectators.

Swim

The day opened cold and rainy with temps at 13 degrees C as the pro field entered the water. After lap 1 of the swim, Michelle Vesterby led the pro women’s race; she held onto the lead, coming out of the swim in 54:57, 5 seconds ahead of Keiko Tanaka. However, 2 age group women – Lucy Charles and Kate Comber – jumped out of the water just ahead of Vesterby, posting fast swim splits to move up from the age group waves.

Bike

Vesterby may have been first out onto the bike, but Keiko Tanaka had other ideas – after surging to pass, Tanaka put over a minute on Vesterby and Lucy Gossage by the 24k mark. She may have made her move too soon, as Gossage passed her back and had opened up a gap by 52km, which she continued to widen. At 77km, Lucy Gossage maintained a +4:26 lead over Tanaka, with Vesterby +5:18 in 3^rd. Hanging on in 4^th place was British Age Grouper Kate Comber.

As the rain let up, the women started to make big shifts in position – at 99km, Gossage held onto a 10 minute lead, followed by Caroline Livesy, Kate Comber (AG), Eleanor Haresign, Rachel Hallam (AG), and Alice Hector. Tanaka had dropped all the way to 7^th, over 22 minutes off the lead, while Vesterby had run into technical issues on the bike, leaving her some time to make up. Gossage came into T2 with a nearly 16 minute lead, followed by Livesy, Haresign and Comber.

Run

10km into the run, Gossage continued to dominate, extending her lead to 18 minutes over Livesy. Vesterby was slowly fighting her way back from her bike delays, sitting in 7^th place, before dropping out of the race, stating afterwards that she’d been pointed in the wrong direction. Gossage dominated the day, winning by an impressive 33 minutes. Interestingly, the women’s podium included age grouper Kate Comber in 3^rd place – will we see her pick up a pro card soon?

The Men

Swim

Dennis Chevrot led the men in the water, setting the pace for a group of four including Fraser Cartmell, David Dellow, and David McNamee. After the second lap, McNamee led Chevrot out of the water by a 5 second margin, with Cartmell and Dellow following them into T1 within 30 seconds.

Top 3 men. Photo credit @Helenfmurray

Bike

After 24km, Fraser Cartmell attacked, putting 200m on Chevrot and David McNamee. After 69km, McNamee had taken over the lead by a narrow margin, just 14 seconds ahead of Cartmell, followed by a four and a half minute gap to Chevrot, Joe Skipper, and Victor Del Corral. The men stayed in position at 152km, with McNamee now just 2 seconds off of Cartmell and nearly a 6 minute gap behind the two. In the last 20km of the bike, Cartmell finally opened up a gap on McNamee, coming into T2 with a split of 4:58:39 and a 3:20 lead.

Run

Out on the run, McNamee began to reel in Cartmell, moving up to just over a minute behind the lead after the 10k mark, with Skipper and Del Corral following. By 16k, McNamee made the pass, with Cartmell continuing to follow on his heels.

The top 5 men powered towards the finish in steady order: McNamee finished in 8:46:37 to take the win, while Cartmell cruised through in 2^nd 5 minutes later. Skipper, Del Corral, Chevrot, and Brad Williams followed in 3^rd through 6^th place.

Soundbite! Brad Williams dishes on race conditions, age grouper interference, and how his swim-bike-run went down. Take a listen!