Adventure Tri Victories For Allen And Whitcombe

Monday, 4th October 2004

Richard Allen and Andrea Whitcombe claimed victory in the Loch Tay Adventure Tri on Saturday. Set against a backdrop of Pertshire's biggest Loch the final event of a three race series was an exciting contest with home supporters having a victory to celebrate.

The weather was as changeable as the lead in the early stages of the men's race; Richard Stannard was first out of the water but the margin of victory was only one second over English team-mate Harry Wiltshire.

The water was proving an obstacle in itself with waves, wind and rain all taking their toll on the athletes. In the women's race Andrea Whitcombe and Karen Sindall coped best with the conditions with Andrea just holding off the challenge of the Welsh representative to claim the lead.

The mountain bike course was a mile or so away from the Loch. The weather once again had made the conditions tricky with water running off the hillside and making the course a mudbath in places. It certainly made for exciting racing. Fraser Cartmell, a mountain bike specialist, led from gun to tape. Stannard was in contention for the first 4km but two punctures put paid to his challenge on Drummond Hill and ultimately the overall title. Richard Allen finished second in this discipline leaving Scotland in first and second going into the final discipline.

The women also had to endure torrid conditions on the bike section made worse by the fact that the men had churned up the course on the more technical downhill forest sections. Fiona Lothian clained the stage victory by an impressive margin from Nicola Duggan. Catriona Morrison finished third. Mountain bike novice lost ground to all the other main contenders on this leg.

The 10km run course was set in the grounds of the beautiful Taymouth Castle. Both Richard Allen and Andrea Whitcombe ensured that they did enough to lift the trophies at the end of the day although Richard Stannard was the eventual winner of the trail run. Allen took nearly 4 minutes out of Cartmell to secure victory while Whitcombe took 2 minutes out of Morrison to win the overall event by a mere 22 seconds.

In the Home International team race Scotland took the honours followed by England, N.Ireland and finally Wales.

The three race Adventure Tri Series is due to be televised on Channel 4 later this month. Full details will be announced in due course.