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{"ID":167,"SpaceID":3,"PageID":72,"HasCommentsThread":false,"SeoTags":{"OpenGraphTags":[{"ID":"og:title","Name":"Rapid Racing in Rumia Pt1 - European Sprint Duathlon Championships"},{"ID":"og:type","Name":"website"},{"ID":"og:url","Name":"https://www.petersfieldtriathlonclub.co.uk/Cms/Spaces/CN/Rapid+Racing+in+Rumia+Pt1++European+Sprint+Duathlon+Championships"}],"NonOpenGraphTags":[]},"Path":"Rapid+Racing+in+Rumia+Pt1++European+Sprint+Duathlon+Championships","Title":"Rapid Racing in Rumia Pt1 - European Sprint Duathlon Championships","Author":{"ID":72,"Name":"Joshua Lahiri","CompanyName":null,"HasEmail":true},"Version":1,"IsDraft":false,"IsOldVersion":false,"PublicationDate":"26/05/2025 09:27","VersionDescription":"v1 - Joshua Lahiri","HideHeader":false,"IsFullWidth":false,"ThemeCode":null,"BackgroundColour":"rgb(182, 47, 61)","JumpLinks":[],"Blocks":[{"Columns":[{"Width":8,"WidthClasses":"col-md-8 col-sm-12 col-xs-12","Elements":[{"ID":979,"Type":"HTML","Content":"\u003cp dir=\u0022ltr\u0022\u003e\u003cspan style=\u0022color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\u0022\u003eIt may only be May and the multisport season is just beginning again, with athletes awakening from their long winter slumber/training block! However it\u0027s been a big start to the season already with a number of members representing the club on the national and international stage! And we kick off the 2025 race reports with a bang and a huge 2 part report from the European Sprint Duathlon Championships, held in Rumia, Poland back in April. PTC were represented with pride by Amanda Simpson, and author of part 1, Mark Poole on his GB AG team debut!\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\u0022ltr\u0022\u003e\u003cspan style=\u0022color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\u0022\u003eHaving managed to scrape a qualifying spot at Castle Combe in 2024, I had the novel experience of heading off to Rumia, Poland for the 2025 European Sprint Duathlon Championships - a 5km run, followed by a draft-legal 20km bike and finished off with another 2.5km run.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\u0022ltr\u0022\u003e\u003cspan style=\u0022color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\u0022\u003eThe build-up was less than ideal. Having not been injured in years, which I attribute to moving to cushioned, but zero-drop Altra shoes, I managed to tweak my calf about 5 weeks before the race during an interval session. On paying a visit to a Liz Avery physio appointment, she gave me the good news that I would probably be ok for the event, but tempered with the bad news that I probably wouldn’t be running prior. And so it turned out to be!\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\u0022ltr\u0022\u003e\u003cspan style=\u0022color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\u0022\u003eThis had the silver lining that I arrived in Poland with little expectation aside from the hope of getting around in one piece. Arriving at the airport, you could tell who was off to do the same thing as they would be decked head-to-toe in GBR attire. In fact, it turns out that the European Championships is heavily dominated by the Brits, probably around 75% of those competing.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\u0022ltr\u0022\u003e\u003cspan style=\u0022color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\u0022\u003eArriving in Poland early Thursday for a Saturday race, I had plenty of time to build the bike, register and do a bike route recce with some of the GBR squad. It was flat, but windy and exposed, with some dead turns and very busy with traffic. Thankfully the roads would be closed on race day.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\u0022ltr\u0022\u003e\u003cspan style=\u0022color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\u0022\u003eWaking up at the customary early hour of 5am on race day, I looked out the window to find blue skies and sunshine but with a light frost on top of the cars. It was freezing cold, not my natural habitat! An early breakfast (one advantage of staying in the designated team hotel is we had the numbers to convince the hotel to open breakfast early) and it was time for the short ride to the race start. A quick inspection by race officials (they checked you had the correct national kit and your race numbers were visible on your legs) and I racked the bike, set-up the transition gear and headed for the nearby sports hall to keep warm, thankful that I didn’t have to swim and get wet!\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\u0022ltr\u0022\u003e\u003cspan style=\u0022color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\u0022\u003eYou were supposed to line up at 8am for a 8:30am start, but it was clear no-one had any intention of lining up in the cold until the last moment. After a late and short warm-up, suddenly it was time to race. The countdown was a series of heartbeats over the speakers, a pause and then the gun. Suddenly we were off. The run was two laps of a 2.5km course up one side of a road and back and I at least made it to beyond the 2km point before the leading ladies came through, who started 2 minutes behind the old man wave!\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\u0022ltr\u0022\u003e\u003cspan style=\u0022color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\u0022\u003eThe calf seemed to be holding up and it was back into T1 and onto the bike. Having rode the course the previous day, I knew getting into a good bike group was key, given it was exposed and windy. Unfortunately, I managed the complete opposite and rode the whole thing solo! The key with draft legal events is to have a strong run so you are with a good group going into T1. However, my injury meant I was tailed off, so that never happened. As it was an out and back course with two dead turns, I spent the ride looking over wistfully at the large peloton that had formed at the front of the race. There were a few guys not far behind me and I was hoping they would catch me, but the only group that did was a bunch of women and you are not allowed to draft a different gender, so I had to let them go. You lose a lot of time compared to being in a group of riders.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\u0022ltr\u0022\u003e\u003cspan style=\u0022color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\u0022\u003eBack to T2 and onto the final run and I was thankful there was only 2.5km to the finish, having some relief as I crossed the line that I wasn’t a DNF. I managed to overtake a Polish guy (apologies to the host country) on the final run which lifted me to the heady heights of 18th out of 20 in my age group - turns out you can’t turn up to a European Championship with a lack of run training and expect to do well! Although looking at the race times, I doubt I would have cracked the top 10 even in top form.\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\u0022ltr\u0022\u003e\u003cspan style=\u0022color: rgb(255, 255, 255);\u0022\u003eOverall, it was a great (if expensive) experience to pull on the GBR tri suit and race for your country. The GBR squad was circa 200 people, so the camaraderie and support was very good, with a dedicated Facebook group and Zoom calls leading up to the event, organised bike recce rides and a full team briefing in the team hotel the night before the race. With the standard distance being the following day, it turns out several had doubled up and were doing both races - getting value for money!\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","ContentConfig":{"Caption":null,"Icon":null,"IconColour":null,"CaptionColour":null,"UnderlineColour":null,"TextColour":null,"FontSize":null,"LineHeight":null,"RequiresLoggedInUser":false,"BottomMargin":0,"PaddingLeft":"0px","PaddingTop":"0px","PaddingRight":"0px","PaddingBottom":"0px","PhoneVisible":true,"TabletVisible":true,"DesktopVisible":true,"CssClass":null,"PageLinkName":null,"PageLinkCaption":null},"ComponentCode":null,"ComponentError":null,"BottomMargin":"0px","PaddingLeft":"0px","PaddingTop":"0px","PaddingRight":"0px","PaddingBottom":"0px","CssClass":null,"ResponsiveClasses":"","PageLinkName":null,"PageLinkCaption":null,"Background":{"Colour":null,"ImageURL":null,"Filter":null,"IsParallax":false,"Image":"","Tint":""},"ImageConfig":{"ImageURL":null,"ObjectFit":"contain","ImageHeight":null,"FrameStyle":null,"BorderRadius":null,"Caption":{"IsActive":false,"Text":null,"SubText":null,"Font":{"Size":null,"Colour":null},"SubFont":{"Size":null,"Colour":null},"Alignment":null,"Position":null,"Margin":null,"BackgroundColour":null,"Blur":false,"Hover":false},"AltText":null,"LinkURL":null,"BottomMargin":0,"PaddingLeft":"10px","PaddingTop":"10px","PaddingRight":"10px","PaddingBottom":"10px","PhoneVisible":true,"TabletVisible":true,"DesktopVisible":true,"CssClass":null,"PageLinkName":null,"PageLinkCaption":null},"IgnoreCache":false}]},{"Width":4,"WidthClasses":"col-md-4 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