North Coast 2005 Winter Duathlon Series Race 4
Sunday 21st August

Who said its cold in August? Anyone that raced at Honeybush Drive on Sunday will tell you otherwise – it was one of those clear crisp days that are just perfect for racing. Another keen field of North Coasters fronted for the traditional “Enduro” format Duathlon. The connotation of the word Enduro is “more pain”- and while this might be intimidating for some, it is thrilling for others as they perceive it to be a more grueling or challenging event. The interesting point to come out of the results is that some of the better athletes actually posted better times over the distance (exactly the same distance as the normal Duathlon) in spite of the 4 transitions against the 2 of a traditional Duathlon. This was probably in this case due to the punishing pace set by the top 4 competitors.

Although we didn’t see some of classic sprint finishes we’ve become so accustomed to, we did see a titanic tussle for the first 3 places. Spectacular racing by Leigh Willison, Ben Edwards-Rapley and Chris Letts kept the supporters on their toes, as they continuously vied for the lead. With 400m meters to go it was still anyone’s race as these guys really started to hurt each other. To Leigh’s credit he surged up the hill to Eddystone Ave and gained just enough advantage to hold off a very courageous Ben and a fighting Chris Letts. The Duathlon king Paul Covich couldn’t quite match these guys but hung on grimly to be only 20 odd seconds behind. And as for the rest of the field, well they were literally burnt off and only started coming in some minutes after.

For spectator value alone all North Coasters should be coming down to watch these events. For guys like Leigh, Ben, Chris and Paul, their awesome performances deserve to be witnessed by more members – the way they put it all on the line in this race was inspirational. Where were our other 200 members?

Great to see some of our sponsors out there cheering away, and in Wade Kelly’s (TMM) case, competing. Wayne McIntosh from Bikeforce Woodvale and Geoff Maher from Feature Frames of Joondalup joined in with the other enthusiastic supporters. Thanks guys.

One more race to go on Sept 11th, so let’s see a heap of interest from all members. There will be plenty of spot prizes including 10 long sleeve series T-shirts to be given away. Race entry is only $8.00, and there will be a $1.00 sausage sizzle breakfast, so come along and enjoy the party.

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