Any mist had lifted and conditions were mild for the five 7oaks tri teams who made the annual pilgrimage to Southwater country park. With 120 teams of 3 entered, registration and racking was busy but 120 yellow swimming caps made it in to the small lake for an 8:05 start. Much to Steve's delight, they announced in the race briefing that the McDonald's traffic lights would be 'bagged' for the event. Our friendly BTF Technical Officials, Dick and Clare Donovan were overseeing the event.

7oaks tri smashed it with 5 in the top 10.

Neil Harris won overall with Martin Brown and Chris Hansen in 3rd and 4th.

Jane Wiley was first woman. We're checking but it must have been very close to the women's course record.

As it turned out, we had four 7oaks tri men to represent the club for the 4th round of the South East club competition at Leybourne. The conditions were dry and warm but windy up on the exposed part of the cycle course across a new river Medway bridge (Peter's bridge). Olly, Ben and Rob returned from holidays the day before the event and Olly's carb loading with pork knuckles and German beer obviously worked as he set off with a fast swim! Even Ben's impressive 19 minute run wasn't quite enough to catch Olly before the line.

Polhill 17/8 Results
 This was an extra TT as a previous race had to be cancelled. Susan Freeburn was the fastest woman overall. Andrew Evans was 3rd, the fastest 7OaksTri rider a little ahead of Stephen Searby 6th, who thankfully avoided throwing himself at the scenery.
 GS Avanti had a good turn out and will have narrowed 7OaksTri's lead in the inter club competition. It looks very likely that all will be decided in the Brands Hatch Team Time Trial on 16/9.

Very windy and very difficult to tell which direction it was coming from as it seemed to constantly change - some very nervous descents on the steep bit coming back!

Great turn-out from 7oaks tri - well done to everyone!

Having been given the opportunity to commentate at the 7Oaks Tri in April 2013 this led to a number of opportunities at a range of races to become a race commentator / announcer (or #mikeonthemic for the social media types among you).  I’ve loved the chance to be at events both large and small and usually based at the finish line where you witness the excitement and emotion that I have known myself over the years.

Are on Members Only Facebook page.

From now on, please look there for your weekly swim sets. I won't be posting here as well.

The Dartford bridge triathlon on Sunday 18th June was the venue for 7oaks tri club's standard distance race. It was a very competitive field from many clubs including Crystal palace and Greenwich tritons also staging club races. A few nearly missed their start times due to a congested registration but made it to the warm (but stinky) lake! The air was unusually still for the exposed closed road cycle course and there were plenty of opportunities to cheer fellow club members on during the 7 lap course.

Results are on club Cycling FaceBook page.

The early morning drizzle cleared to make way for a beautiful sunny day causing a few sun burns although it was fairly breezy with a strong headwind to battle into on the return leg of the bike section.

Cath Linney won the women's race by only 8 minutes this time, finishing 6th overall.

Chris Palmer won the senior age group finishing 4th overall but missing out on 3rd by 2 seconds.

Andy Evans won the MV40 age group finishing 7th overall.

Full results here: http://www.stuweb.co.uk/race/1ln