YOUNG'S Michael Stallard described the windy and rainswept conditions which greeted competitors for Sunday's Temora Duathlon as the most brutal he's raced in after a superb bike leg set up his win.
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With low water levels in Lake Centenary forcing organisers to scrap the traditional triathlon race, Stallard took advantage to go two better than his third place last year.
He finished the 2.5km run-20km cycle-2.5km bike in 52:15, nearly three minutes ahead of Scott Donaldson (55:09) who was runner-up for the second straight year.
"It (no swim leg) worked in my favour. I'm a bit more of a cyclist and runner and with the conditions being so windy it helped," Stallard, who races with Cowra Triathlon Club, said.
"It was pretty tough. We had a crosswind going out and a headwind/crosswind coming back, you're almost sideways on the bike and you could even feel the wind on the run.
"The conditions were pretty brutal, I haven't raced in anything like it before."
Stallard began the bike leg in about fifth place, but put a gap on his competitors before finishing the job on the run home.
Canberra's Jeremy Kimpton was third, with last week's Ganmain Triathlon victor Liam Wilcox fourth.
"I rode to the front and tried to put as much of a gap into them as possible, because I'd heard the bloke who won at Ganmain was quite quick and I didn't want to give him a chance to run me down," Stallard said.
In the women's race Claudia Taylor (1:06.58) backed up her win at Ganmain by edging out Chloe Hamblin (1:08.00) for the second straight week, with Sarah Finlay completing the podium.
Despite the cancellation of the swim leg and the poor weather, organisers were rapt with the response from competitors with almost 100 completing the main race and over 120 competing in total.
The Riverina Tri Series continues with The Rock Triathlon on Sunday, February 23.
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