Dorrian Duathlon Win at Pembroke
Last Sunday saw the fourth and final duathlon of the De Putron Fund Management Winter Duathlon Series. Starting from Pembroke, the race was the longest of the series involving two 3 mile runs along the coastal paths and a 20 mile bike leg down the West coast and back again into a stiff headwind.
34 athletes lined up to start, with division one leader Ben Creasey looking forward to being challenged by Mat Dorrian, Alan Rowe and Nathan Gosling, none of whom had competed in the earlier races of the series. From the start, this quartet formed a breakaway group all completing the first run a minute clear of the rest of the field. However, the pace proved a little too fast for Creasey in the bike leg, leaving Dorrian coming into the T2 very closely followed by Rowe and Gosling in third.
Now it was Gosling's turn to be dropped whilst Dorrian and Rowe battled it out in the final run. An exciting sprint to the finish line saw Rowe lose out to Dorrian by a very narrow margin of just two seconds with a winning time of 1 hour 26:37.
Dorrian – clearly very happy with his win over the experienced Rowe – said of his victory, “that was a tough race made harder by the conditions but also the competition. The first run was steady but with a group of Alan, Ben, Nathan and myself all coming out of transition together the bike was always going to be competitive.
“The out leg was a bit cat-and-mouse but the return leg was a pure slog. I decided to keep my head down and try and open a gap into the wind. My heart sank when coming into transition as Alan was right on my heels. The second run was when the legs started to wobble a bit!
“Having Alan on your tail is no fun and I knew how strong he would be in the final mile. I was at the limit and not sure how I managed to keep him from coming through. It was fantastic to get the opportunity to race hard to the finish line though.”
Having not raced a multi-sport event for 18 months due to a knee injury, Rowe should take comfort in a podium finish. He said of his battle with Dorian, “I’d been having thoughts of attacking on the way back up the coast, but it just was not possible – once we were past Vazon I was in the red just trying to follow Mat’s pace.
“Mat opened up a little gap on the first lap of the run going up to the tower at the far end of the run and I thought that was it, but with the tailwind I got back to him on the way back. During the second lap I didn’t really have anything in my legs but I tried a surge with about 800m which Mat readily covered and he deservingly took the win”.
In the women’s race, Nikki Neal was first home in a time of 1 hour 41:06, with rapidly-improving Viki Marr in second.
The Guernsey Triathlon Club would like to thank their sponsors De Putron Fund Management for their continued generosity in sponsoring the series, and now look forward to building on this success with the forthcoming triathlon season. Next race is the Novice Triathlon on Sunday, 13th May
3 mile run, 20 mile bike, 3 mile run;
Juniors 12-14 yrs - 1 mile run (off road, shortened adult route), 3 mile bike (open road circuit), 1/2 mile run (off road)
Every participant in the junior race (age 12 to 14) will receive a Mallard Cinema voucher.
Sign on begins at 7:15am until 7:45am, Race starts at 8:00am sharp.
Click to see RUN ROUTE MAP 2 laps
Click to see CYCLE ROUTE MAP
