What May we've had!

A sunny welcome back to Votwo to Jon Rainford!


We have a BIG winner!!

Frosty (Sean Frost) won the Tour of Wessex and did so in a course record time despite some horrid weather! A total of 329 miles needed to be pedalled in 3 stages over 3 days. Frosty completed it (solo!) in 16 hours and 44 minutes. Ironman Wales here you come! 

Andy and Dave Blow recently went off to sunny Spain for the
Eurochallenge 25km ocean surf ski race. In a hot international field Andy managed to get into the top 60 overall and top 30 in Senior mens singles category and on the day Dave made it home in the top 100 despite being very ill the night before! The video of the race gives a great idea of what surf ski racing is all about and results can be seen here.




Andy giving a bit of skin to the race - augghh!! We forgive him for not having had a shower for some time!
          Dave (left with paddle) and Andy (right with cap)


Frosty and Eliot Challifour raced round 1 of the Xtri Series, Mud & Mayhem. Frosty finished 6th and with the top 6 seperated by a minute and half it was close racing! Eliot finished 9th and is looking forward to the re-match at the South Cerney tri in a few weeks time.... Results can be found here. Eliot (picture right) also recently finished 54th out of a 1000 competitors in the Yorkshire 3 peaks fell race. This is one of the UK's classic fell races with 3 x 700m climbs and 24 miles of racing. Not for the feint hearted!

           Frosty (left with side number) and Eliot right (number 52!)



 


Adam Holland hasn't sat still.
He competed in the royal Berkshire Marathon, a track marathon of 105 laps and finished 2nd in 2:38:31.

Two weeks later Adam achieved, despite a cold, 4 medals at the Devon County Champs Track & Field:
Gold Triple Jump 12.11m, Gold 3000m 9:40:03, Silver 5000m 16:26:03 and Silver 3000m Steeplechase 10:46:05.

A week later Adam ran a road PB in 2:45:03 in the Edinburgh marathon, his 109th one. He finished 31st out of 9727 runners. 

And... he did some more running.  What's next Adam?? 

Votwo supported USN at the Body Power show. Frosty and Ben Mason felt a little 'undergunned' but had a great time!
















Finally, spotted in Nepal...

It's only April but things are very sunny... many first and second places this month.

Welcome to the team!
First of all a very warm welcome to 4 new Votwo members James Crask, Nigel and Alison Vuagniaux and Stephen Homewood (welcome back Stephen after a few years away from votwo!). We hope that you will wear the Votwo colours with pride.
Nigel and Alison turned 50 last year and as a challenge they decided to enter Ironman Austria. They both raced extremely well and as a result qualified for the 2011 ITU Long Distance Champs in Las Vegas this year. More challenges to come!
Go new Votwo team members!


Ladies first!

Anja Heijnen had her best race so far at the European Duathlon championships in Limerick, Ireland. She won her age group by 3.5 minutes beating both the golden girls of the 2008 and 2010 World championships Doerte Siebke from Germany and Christine Howard.
She pedalled the fastest bike time of all female age groupers on the flat but technical course. "It's just a matter of following coach Andy Blow's magic programmes and Bob is your uncle."

                                                                                    
                                                                                           What's wrong with the flag?



Ute Baird ran the Trans Aubrac 105km, 3700m climbs in the Pyrenees. A very tough course over a lot of loose stones. It even included an ice cold river crossing.
Ute won with a huge 40 minute margin in 14 hours and 42 minutes. Her first (but probably not last) win!

The prize was a gigantic regional speciality cake and a large trophy.



 






Both Mel Varvel and Adam Holland came 2nd at Votwo's Jurassic Coast Challenge; 3 off road hilly marathons in 3 days on 2 feet. Mel reached the finish line in 13:41:28, 8 (EIGHT!) seconds behind winner Helen Bennett. Adam finished in 11:22:33.

Pam Blow and Helen Hall joined on the hilliest day, day 3 and, although finishing last but before dark, we are proud! There are rumours about their next challenge.... a triathlon! We will follow them closely!

Adam also made a guest appearance with Mike Bushell on BBC TV! Click here to see that again....

                                                                                           Adam having fun

              Mel's toe nails after 3 marathons

Nicki Aitken is running faster and faster.
She won the ladies at the F3 Dorney 10km in 38:16 (a PB by over 40 seconds!) and was only 16 seconds behind the lead man - he won't escape next year!
Nicki came 5th at the popular Maidenhead 10mile in 63:15, also a PB (2 minutes!). This gets her a top 30 UK placing.




The men!








Eliot Challifour went to Spain to race the Somozas Extreme adventure race. His team finished 2nd Elite class out of 65 teams - that is extreme! And especially impressive as the airline lost their bikes, shoes and other kit on the way so they had to race on borrowed kit......








Almost finally, Frosty (Sean Frost) raced round 1 of the Circus of Dirt cross country race. He came 2nd. Great result especially considering it included a trip over the handle bars in front of the marshall point.

Finally, we are finishing on a little low... Daniel Corner made a little splat on tarmac whilst doing the Milton Keynes Sportive. A friend decided to crash on a manhole cover. Daniel had nowhere to go but full bore into his ribs. He flew over the top and that resulted in a broken collar bone with shard of bone in his shoulder. An operation is needed. We wish him a super speedy recovery.

A quick update on what various members of the votwo/USN race team have been getting up to in the last few weeks.......

 






First up; Andy, Eliot, Frosty and Steveo got a sudden rush of motivation on receiving their brand new race team kit and met up in Bath to do the famous '5 hills' bike ride. Click here to see the route.  Rumor has it that Frosty handed it to the rest of the lads on every hill with Andy lagging off the back, obviously saving energy for later in the season! A few more images of the lads looking very smart in the new kit can be seen here.











Adam runs more than most people drive.
On 23 January 2011 Adam took part in the Shell Four Villages Half Marathon, also called the Helsby Half and smashed his half marathon PB by finishing the hilly course in 1:14:45 (photo).
The Tavistock Times reported that in the weekend of 19 February he chose to do a marathon, a hockey match, a 10 mile race and a 7 a-side football match! By the way he lost the football match.
In March Adam went to Lanzarote for a week to....yep run! He ran about 120 miles with Liz Yelling (Olympic marathon runner and Commonwealth Bronze medallist) and Richard Whitehead (GB Paralympian, 200m World Champion and Marathon World Record holder).










Frosty experienced that starting cider hydrated after a late night birthday party was the right preparation for the Soggy Bottom XC Race as he came away with the win!









Macca got off to a start this year with a cheeky little mixed pairs action with Clair in the Peaks at an Open5 Adventure race. They managed 2nd at the 2hr running and 3 hr biking event, clearing all the controls on the bike course and getting back with just 8 seconds to spare. The picture shows Macca taking a short cut which, luckily for him, did go unnoticed!




Steveo's legs are showing good signs for the season to come as he came 2nd at the New Forest Heartbreak half marathon. His Ironman loooong endurance legs couldn't outsprint winner Nick Buis who beat Steveo by 7 seconds!
Neil Lewis came in 10th overall and 3rd Vet. Great start!














Eliot went for his first fast and furious multi-sport race for quite some time, the Asics Ice Man (10km run, 18km mtb, 5km run).
He finished 7th after trottering around the second run with very heavy legs. Nice return to fast racing, which has blown out the cob webs ready for some speed training to get fully firing for his next race!




Last best............ The Ladies!!



Anja went to Worksop for the British Age Group Duathlon Championships. She finished 8th overall and 2nd in her age group. The Golden girl from the World Championships beat her by less than 30 seconds. Clumsy transition as usual!











Ute Baird took part in the Tames Trot, a 50 mile race (running!) from Ifley to Henley on Thames. She finished 3rd in 7 hours and 48 minutes, less than 8 minutes from the winning time and 1 hour and 50 minutes faster than last year!










Nicky Aitken - running, showing her UKA London Marathon Team Gold Champion 2010 medal. She is hoping that coaching/cycing combo will see her smash her marathon PB (and others!) this year. We are watching this space!
The lady in green is Rosie Swale-Pope, adventurer who has run (yes run!) around the world.

Welcome to Votwo’s blog!

Here we go, a new web-site, a new blog! The blog is going to include our race team members' race reports and any other exciting news which may be of interest to you. We are going to try to keep things short, sharp and fun!

First of all a HUGE thank you to our sponsors for 2011.
We are very grateful to have USN (Ultimate Sports Nutrition), Muc-Off (enough said – super clean bikes!) and Fusion (cool quality gear!) on board. Without you we wouldn’t go as fast and strong, look as cool and cycle so effortlessly.

Next up…. The Race Team!

Steve Osborne – Triathlon.
10th pro Ironman France 2010, 8 Ironmans in total.
More Ironmans to come for Steve in 2011 and the 10th one is on the radar!

Eliot Challifour – Adventure Racing and Triathlon
77th Marathon Des Sables 2010, winner Spanish Adventure Race National Champoinships 2010, sub-9 hour Ironman 2002.
Eliot can just do anything although not always without clear signs as I seem to remember following him around in circles in the New Forest!

Ian Hobley – Triathlon and Time Trialling
9x Ironman, 25 mile time trial 55:13, 50 mile time trial 1:54:12.
Ironman Canada 2011 should make it 10!

Nigel Leighton – Running
21st London Marathon 2:18:21 2006.
We are burning giant candles so that injuries stay far away as Nigel is looking forward to a venture into his first ultra!

Daniel Corner – Adventure Racing and Triathlon.
Elite World Quadrathlon Champion 2009.
Daniel has planned to do Nokia Coast to Coast Adventure Race this year. It is going to be an interesting battle between Daniel, Tim and Andy!

Adam Holland – Running
Holder of 3 World Records; i) 10 marathons in 10 days in 30:20:54 2009, ii) youngest person to have done 100 marathons by the age of 23yrs-7months-5days 2010, iii) part of greatest distance run of 539.86 miles by a team of twelve in 48 hours on a treadmill.
Adam has also won various awards and has been featured by the BBC recently!

Tim McDowell – Adventure Racing and Triathlon
1st Nokia Coast to Coast Adventure Race 2010, 12th Elite European Cross Triathlon Championships 2010.
It is going to be a ‘looong’ year for Tim as he has planned to race this year the World Cross Triathlon Championships, Mallorca 70.3, solo 24hr MTB Race, UK Double Ironman and Germany Harz Pro 50hr Adventure Race. Ah, he is also going to try to defend his Nokia Coast to Coast title!

Andy Blow – Multi Sport and Surfski Racing
Xterra World Champion 20-24 2000, Ironman UK top 10 pro finishes 2005 and 2006.
Andy has planned not to damage his boat this year and to stay ‘dry’! We are having high expectations!

Sean Frost – Triathlon.
12th Elite Antwerp 70.3 2010, 25th Elite Ironman debut Florida 9:37 2010.
Sean’s goal for 2011 is to become a better swimmer so that his missus cannot beat him up in the pool anymore!

Anja Heijnen – Triathlon and Duathlon
Silver World Championships Duathlon 40-44 2010, 2nd female Abu Dhabi International Triathlon ‘short’ course 2010.
Anja maintains the blog and apologises in advance for getting things lost in translation now and then. She hopes to perform closer to a fish than a sea slug this year!

These are just a few bits and bobs about the team members. I probably could write a book but I also would like to keep you awake! We have more beautiful people racing for Votwo. I am sure you will hear from them over the next few months.

Enjoy!
Anja
Ps I am always happy to hear feedback, any kind!