Triers making headway in gruelling events at the weekend

The slippery conditions meant riders had to take caution on the bike. Despite this Ruffell achieved a commendable 20th place out of 63 in the standard duathlon – a 10km run, 44km bike, 5km run event – and first in his 55-59 age group in a time of 02:40:59.

Supporting the local triathlon community, four other members from the Tring-based Shires club marshalled at the event, the second in a series of three.

Meanwhile, other Shires members were putting their off-road bikes to the test at the Wildwood XC event.

Verna Burgess and Sarah Watson completed a 43km route of mud and trails through the Chiltern Hills while Mark Spanswick rode 60km and Rob Pinfield and Chris Grimmette negotiated the 80km distance. Pinfield and Spanswick achieved silver finishing times while the rest of the Shires team achieved bronze times.