Skipper is Keith Stephens duathlon star

Internationally competitive triathlete Joe Skipper was a local hero when he returned to his roots to win a short informal duathlon arranged by Velo Club Baracchi, Lowestoft’s cycling club.

The small low key event for members and friends of the club to honour the memory of the late Keith Stephens has taken place annually since 2002.  In that year Keith, a runner and cyclist who was VCB’s treasurer, died in an accident while riding for the club.

Skipper on the run – thumbs up!

Skipper set a new course record and was nearly six minutes clear at the finish, though last year’s winner Liam Gentry did his best to take him on and was a worthy second.

Billed as two 5km runs with a 25km cycle ride in between, the course is in fact rather shorter than that for the runs but nearly 30km for the cycling.

Carl Prewer

Mark Richards and Chris Scott failed to finish, caused in Richards’ case by a puncture on a wet and uneven road.

Gentry and Richards front this trio

It was, indeed, a wet morning after overnight rain, with puddles everywhere, but the worst of the weather held off during the event.

Carl Prewer was the second-best runner but Gentry was the quicker of the two on the bike and at the finish the times were Skipper 77:10, Gentry 83:02, Prewer 88:10, Paul Hayward 93:30 and Mark Womack 98:38.

Womack and Hayward

Gentry thanked Nick Esser for timekeeping and said, “Having local stars Joe Skipper and Carl Prewer racing today only adds to a great little event to remember!”

Skipper on a corner

Titch Richards

Gentry

Carl Prewer

Chris Scott

He also paid tribute to Keith Stephens as “one of our own” who had “died doing what we all love to do!”

Paul Hayward

Mark Womack

Titch the smiler – before the big let-down

Other club members out and about included John Thompson, who rode to near Framlingham to check out a possible slight amendment to the route for his ‘’Silly Suffolk” audax ride next year, which one of the riders this year had suggested.

He rode out via Hulver, Uggeshall, Halesworth, Walpole, and Peasenhall to Saxted Green.  Just before Framlingham, he turned along the lane he understood to be the one in question and managed to lose himself, arriving unexpectedly at Earl Soham.

He returned to Framlingham for some food and resolved the issue later by riding the proposed route change in reverse.

Thompson said it was “not too bad a day despite a heavy shower after just the first few miles just after Hulver.  The return however was quite tough into a rising headwind – 71 miles.”

• The VCB annual meeting will be on Monday November 14 at the Carlton pub in London Road South, Pakefield