Aaron Royle and Emma Moffatt win the Gulf Western Oil Nepean Triathlon 2013

Aaron Royle has won the 2013 Gulf Western Oil Nepean Triathlon having to put in a chase out of T2 with Tom Davison and Sam Appleton getting a slight jump on him after the three stayed together for the 30kms bike leg. Sam Appleton finished second and Brad Kahlefledt took out third. Davison walked away with the $1000 bike bonus.

In the women’s race Emma Moffatt dug deep on the run to make up a small deficit out of T2 to get past Ashleigh Gentle and take out the race. Natalie van Coevorden finished third overall with Charlotte McShane finishing in 4th.

In the men’s race it was Shane Barrie who lead out the swim and pocketed the $1000 swim bonus but was caught by about the 2km mark on the bike by Royle, Tom Davison and Sam Appleton. Barrie couldn’t get in to a rhythm until out on the road and rode with the chase pack. He is lacking a bit of top end speed on the run at the moment and finished in the top ten.

The chase pack on the bike left T1 about 30seconds down on the leaders and it was expected that they would be able to bridge the gap but after the first 15km they had lost ground and by 20kms they had lost more. Tim Reed did a lot of the driving but was getting frustrated with some close riding. He started to slow and surge to try and shake the pack and as a result they ended up losing time to the leaders.

While this was happening in the chase pack the lead group was lifted by having Kiwi Tom Davison leading the charge. Davison is one of the strongest triathlon cyclists and notably posted the fastest bike time at Hy-Vee this year.

In the chase pack was Brad Kahlefeldt who proved to classy on the run for Cameron Good and Ryan Bailie as he pulled away to take third overall. With these three out of T2 was Tim Reed who had spent a lot of his energy

Cameron Good and Ryan Bailie ended up in a sprint finish for fourth spot with Good taking the honours.

David Mainwaring had a great run today and looked good straight out of T2. After getting leg cramps last weekend at Port Macquarie he was keen to make up for a less than satisfactory race. Today Mainwaring road well with Peter Kerr to make up some ground and by the time he was well in to his run he was looking a lot better than he was the previous week.

On the bike the three leaders road an average of 47km according to Davison’s computer with Royle and Appleton struggling to keep up. Davison is a very strong rider and has produced some big results this year in the US on the bike. Royle backed off in the latter stages of the bike to settle his legs down and make sure that he had the run to take the race.

Ashleigh Gentle had a great race for second and enjoyed being able to get on to a time trial bike. It has been a tough year for Ashleigh with plantar fascia issues delaying the start of the season. After a big ITU season all of the athletes are tired and with a couple of big races like Nepean and Noosa next week it is putting the pressure on them. Gentle’s running is not quite where it should be due to her seasons injuries but will be in better shape for next weekend in Noosa.

Emma Moffatt said she loved the pressure of the guys chasing for the handicap honours but when she got off the bike and she knew they had over 5mins lead Emma now had to just focus on beating Ashleigh Gentle.

Next up for Emma is Noosa in a week where she will also be one of the favourites to take out the title.

Charlotte McShane ran hard to try and catch Natalie van Coevorden but in the end Natalie’s run was too strong.