Ian Leach a man with a reason to celebrate, on Saturday he won the first ever UK Cross Triathlon Championships.......
In a race full of ups and downs, or maybe I should be saying highs and lows, the big surprise of the day came when Ian Leach took the title of UK cross Triathlon Champion from pre race favorite Sam Gardner.
The course was in many ways shaped to come down to a running race, with a flat water swim in the cold, St Marys Lock followed by a 2 lap and somewhat shorter than expected bike course, most of the key players would be within shouting distance of one another when it came to the testing fell/mountain run and that's where the race would really happen. As predicted all the key players minus myself came off the bike within 5minutes of each other. Sam set out first with a small margin over swimmer turned runner turned biker turned off road triathlete Ian. Graham Wadsworth was in 3rd, Holmes in 4th and Jim McConnel in 5th. Ian caught a tiring Gardner during the first part of the 3km climb and never looked back, crossing the line with 2mins in hand over the UK's most famous and highest World ranked Xterra/cross triathlete. Wadsworth came in less than 2min later to take 3rd....
Once again yours truly, didn't have a great day, with a flooded wetsuit I bearly made the top10 out of the water, on to the bike and things started to look up by the top of the main climb id been joined by Sam Gardner and I set about pushing for a lead. Taking a chance at the water crossing to get the fastest line into the next section, I hit a submerged rock and was brought down, resulting in a chipped elbow and bruised thigh, shock and pain ended my race there and then and a ride down to transition in the Mt rescue landrover ensured I was first for an early bath. Its a disappointing thing to happen at a race id been really looking forward to, but I am feeling alot better now and ready to begin my final preparation for the German round of the European tour next weekend.
