Recent race results, social news and dates

As promised, as part of a regular communication through the season, I’ll be picking out various club highlights, whether notable performances, forthcoming races or social news and key dates to be aware of. A very fine day of racing & activities to summarise below, so please read on.

You will have seen that we are trialling Spond as a new booking app for Monday’s Turbo sessions (please download it), allowing you to book on at the last minute, but until this goes live for other sessions, please can you sign on in advance via https://thamesturbo.co.uk/booking-management/. It becomes hugely disappointing & awkward for coach and athlete, should anyone have to be turned away.

Performances & races

Right, lots of fabulous achievements to celebrate, but only one place to start.

Huge congratulations to Ian Shaw who’s booked his place at Kona next year to join James Drake. Ian finished a superb 5th at Ironman Maryland backing up a superb sub-5 hour bike with a 3:40 marathon in 25 degree heat. He may have finished higher up, had the swim not been curtailed to 900m – with the Kona place in the bag, I’m not sure he’ll be that bothered,

Another swim was fully cancelled for the Weymouth 8 amidst grim weather conditions. James Drake⁩ finished 7th amongst some incredibly strong Weymouth fields. Steve Hughes suffered a puncture on the bike deflating his charge. James finished in 4:16, Steve in 4:22, Luigi 4:49, Lewis, 4:49, Sarah Moore 5:32 with ex-Turbos Amy Burton 5:13 & Jess Hillard 5:21. Only Corin was a non-finisher on the run, but had been poorly in the run-up. I believe only Steve & Mark’s North Norfolk triathlon didn’t fall foul of weather nor cancelled swims.

Last weekend saw plenty more long distance Turbo action, back in scorching conditions. Tim Cox finished a superb 14th in the European Long Distance Championships (Challenge Almere) in a fine time of 10:45. Hoping no lasting sunburn from the zip malfunction.

Possibly more impressive / insane was Angelo’s Thames Path Challenge – Angelo appears to have smiled the duration of his 100km on one of the hottest days of the year. A big shout out to Ian, Mark and Szymon for heading to join him at various points, epitomising the Turbo spirit. Also Alan Doolan and Matt Denham completed a 15km swim of 4 parts in the Isles of Scilly.

On a more serious note, huge congratulations to Mark, Nick, Glen, Jon, Phil, Matt, Malcolm, Richie, Chris and Sarah for donning their super hero costumes and consuming as much wine as they were allowed as they crawled around the Denbies vineyards for the Bacchus Half Marathon. We’ll be calling on you all to recreate this fancy dress spirit for the Halloween Relays on 1st Nov (see below).

Also lots of junior action to celebrate from the finale of the British Super Series at Mallory Park. Sadly it was just one run too many for Charlie Brook, finishing 33rd on the day & 13th in the overall standings. Whether it’s enough to get into the NextGen program – fingers crossed.

Henry Mythen finished 9th in the Tri Star 2 A final, with brother Tom a fabulous 6th in the Tri Star 3 A final. Rachel Riedlinger was 23rd, having made it through to her Tri Star 3 A final, where former Turbo, Kitty Scott, finished 2nd, whilst Camilla Baluch was 18th in the B final.

Huge congratulations to all.

Now competitive eyes turn to the World Championships in Pontevedra next weekend, with Lauren Steadman in the PTS5 on Saturday & David Barker in the Aquabike on Sunday.

All race results that I know of have been added to the https://thamesturbo.co.uk/club-champs/ and with the standings reflecting these. But as always, please let me know of events you’ve signed up to (thamesturboresults@gmail.com) so I can look for results and put you in touch with others.

Also as always, please can you share your photos from events or socials so we can post to social media to showcase the club to anyone looking in?

Social news & dates

Pontevedra, Barcelona and Cascais aside, most have drawn to the end of the competitive season, so now’s the time we can have more social fun as a club, without the pressure of the next race.

After training this week (21st), we have our Thirsty Third Thursday drinks in the Beech House (our usual area has been reserved) – hoping to see you there to celebrate Ian’s Kona spot and to wish Chris Middleton well on his move to Vancouver.

Weather permitting, we might have one last Friday night ride, but please get involved with the Sunday rides. We’ve had multiple groups out in recent weeks, which means everyone gets a decent ride – and hopefully all meeting for coffee and cake.

A reminder of the key social dates for your calendar.

Wednesday 1st November - a Halloween themed FUN 3-person relay courtesy of Copeland/Drake productions –at St. Mary’s track on, followed by drinks in the Alexander Pope. Full details and invitation to follow very shortly, but if the quality of the flier is anything to go by, it’s going to be good. You’ve got a further 6 weeks’ notice to make yourselves available for this one evening.

Monday 13th November - AGM on at the Anglers Pub, 19:30 – this an important meeting to ensure we have officers in place to ensure the club’s smooth running & a summary of the club’s activity over the past year. Please make an effort to attend.

Saturday 18th November – Parkrun tourism to Dulwich – a fabulous course for PB opportunities. Hopefully this will kick start more frequent Turbo runs (a handicap Tamsin Trail loop has been mooted) and regular Parkrun tourism. But please get involved with our regular socials like the thirsty third Thursday at the Beech House or coffee after Bushy Parkrun on the first Saturday of the month.

Saturday 9th December – the double header of the annual mob match vs Ful-on-Tri and Xmas party (the Adelaide as last year).

And also I’d encourage you all to suggest other activities you’d like to do as a group.

Whatsapp Groups Reminder

If not already, please get involved with our club WhatsApp groups:

“TTTC Social & General Chat” with “TTTC Everything Bike”, There is also now a specific women’s only group – for which you’ll need to ask another member for an invite. Also Strava invites & routes are downloadable from our Strava club page.

Lots of opportunities to get involved on the social side outside of just the training sessions.