Tuffman Human Race Off-road Duathlon rd 4. 5th

            We were greeted with seriously wintry conditions at the Tuffman this year and for me it drew to a close my Human Race series account for 2013. With a 2nd, 1st and 5th for the three rounds I did I'm really happy and this round, at the Pippingford Estate course in Sussex is always the course that least suits me, with the bike being too technical for me to really get into the groove on the bike. Despite that I had a good run and then  had a great battle with my old buddies Paul Davies and Jim McConnel on the bike with them kicking my backside in the technical and off camber sections and then me clawing them back and putting time in on the climbs. Still, heading out onto the final run Paul had to pull out with a really frustrating hamstring problem and I then caught Jim at half distance and concentrated on getting my head down to stay away from him up the final 1.8k climb but this Jimbo, he's a persistent so and so and he clawed me back with about 200m to go to the line. As anyone who's ever race me on the track would tell you I have absolutely no sprint finish at all and so Jim showed me a clean pair of heels as we came to the line. Little swine. Anyway, we took 4th and 5th and Steve Ferguson took a fantastic win and took us all by surprise at the same time with a great win. 

           That's the end of the Human Race series for me this year as when the final round, the excellent Trailman is on I'll be in sunny Lanzarote working on a training camp. if you can call it work.... Well done to the whole Human Race team for putting on a great series yet again. the racing, courses and organisation has, as always been impeccable. A special thanks also goes to Human Race's very own St Albanian, 'Grandad' who gave me grief about how much I was flapping around in transition in pretty much every round.