Lee Cook defends Keith Stephens Memorial Duathlon title

The informal Keith Stephens Memorial Duathlon staged by Velo Club Baracchi on Sunday was won for the third year in succession by Lee Cook of Rock Estate.

Lee Cook has a natural running style

A good club member and treasurer of Velo Club Baracchi, Keith Stephens died in a cycling accident eleven years ago. He combined competitive cycling and running, so a memorial event open to all local cyclists and athletes is held at the end of each season.

This modest affair consists of a 25km ride sandwiched between two 5km runs and this year Rock Estate members provided most of the muscle.

Lee Cook and second-placed Liam Gentry had a hard battle, with Cook faster on foot but Gentry quicker on the bike. Both of them beat the previous record of 1-21:40 set by Gentry in 2011.

Liam Gentry staying cheerful on the run

This year Cook won in 1-19:57 and Gentry, who had lost about a minute on the first run and then on the bike pulled ahead by a couple of minutes before the last run, lost out again and was second in 1-20:34.

Gentry on the bike

Lee Cook approaches a junction

Mark Womack represented Velo Club Baracchi

Leigh Butcher was third in 1-27:07 and Chris Withey fourth in 1-28:33, while VCB’s own Mark Womack took fifth place in 1-35:21.

Chris Scott and Nick Esser both suffered punctures on the bike leg and did not finish.

Butcher, Withey and Scott

At the finish Gentry, a former VCB rider who is now a Rock Estate member and races for Strada Sport, said a few kind words in tribute to Keith Stephens.

Cook will be presented with the perpetual trophy at the VCB prize evening. This was a pleasing turn-out for an event that is only very quietly promoted, but even more entries next year would be welcomed.

Further photos are here Keith Stephens Memorial Duathlon 2014 – an album on Flickr

The club run on Sunday was first to Halesworth as is usual and then to Goodies just off the A140 south of Long Stratton.

During a long weekend in Hailsham, Sussex, John Thompson rode the Winchelsea 100km Audax preceded by a 103-km (just over 64 miles) ride on the Saturday.

His first ride, based on an audax route sheet the organiser had sent him (but not on that day an actual event), was a hilly route. Thomson has memories of Kidds Hill, which saw him as a possible mountain goat in his “my bottom gear of 34 x 34.” Places visited included Lewes, Wych Cross and Wivelsfield Green.

Thompson’s audax on Sunday was pretty flat for about the first 23.5 km following part of the Cooden Sea Cycle Route via Norman Bay to Bexhill and Hastings, where it was “all change” with a brute of a climb just getting out of the town to Winchelsea for the main control at 46km.

The return to Hailsham was 61km, with an info control at Blackboys, which he nostalgically remembers having visited as a 13-year-old cyclist with Lowestoft Wheelers, about 47 years ago. He took around 6 hours and had another ride in the area on Monday.