Early seasn Duathlons
With Rhian Roxborough racking up her first win of the season on Merseyside a couple of weeks ago and Rocky finishing 4th is business as usual for Tri-monkeys.
This weekend Dave Tunney finished 2nd at the NaasWheelWorx Du, near Dublin. In his words:
'There was some decent competition at the race and before hadnd I had reckoned that I would end up about 8th or 9th.
I did a decent warm up on my turbo and on the run and I felt ready for the race.
Recently I've not been able to run "fast" so I wasn't expecting great shakes on the runs, I expected to have an okay bike though. Within about 500m on the first run I realised that just because I wasn't able to run fast for myself didn't mean I was running slow compared to others. One guy got clear of the leading pack and I was in second/third for most of the run before slipping into 5th going into T1 as people sprinted for no sensible reason. An okay T1 but a bad entry into the shoes on the pedals, something to practice, and off onto the bike, now in 6th.
I kept on eye on the SRMs and aimed to maintain in or around FTP for the bike. Quickly into 5th place and I kept a nice constant pace. I really felt fantastic, I almost fell off my bike in shock I felt so good on the bike. I felt for the first time in my life like I was cycling properly, like I was time trialing. Actually I tell a lie, I felt it before, on the last FTP test. I felt great and 3rd and 4th place were coming back to me. I was in 2nd just after the turn around and I kept at FTP for the rest of the bike. The guy in third, Owen O'Dwyer of Belpark and Development squad, disappeared quickly and I hit T2 all on my own with no sign of the guy in first. A nice T2 and out on the run, I refused to lose it now as it was mine to lose. I did my best to try and catch the guy in first but didn't. I finished in 2nd, well clear of 3rd and almost 2 minutes faster than my PB on that course. Chuffed, absolutely chuffed.'
And then the MONKEY himself finished 2nd at the F3 duathlon at Dorney Lake. Having entered T1 a 50s down it took 3kms to hit the front of the race and power into T2 in 1st place. Holding the lead until 4km into the 2nd run, Rich couldn't hold on, but just like Dave Chuffed to finish 2nd.
