The Tramore Metalman Triathlon took place last weekend in the wet and wild costal resort of Tramore Co. Waterford.
 
The event was organised by Spokes Cycles in Waterford City, www.spokes.ie.  The main man behind the event was Liam Lowe, old skool DH riders will remember Liam as the organiser of some of the early DH races in Waterford.
 
All proceeds werte going to charity and they had a huge turnout despite the bad weather, over 400 competitors!
 
Greg O’ Keeffe, Dave McManus and Rory O’ Keeffe from 021racing took up the challenge!
 
No one knew what they had left themselves in for, except Greg who was confident he was going to hammer everyone!  Greg and Rory went off in the first wave of competitors, while Dave had to hang back in the old mans wave!  The swell was huge and made the swim very difficult as well as dangerous!  Rory was first out and after a quick run down the promenade while trying to strip off his wetsuit finally got on his antique of a road bike and clipped in!  It didn’t take Greg long to catch Rory, it must have been due to his aerodynamic legs that he has been shaving!  The two boys hammered around the 20km circuit in the slippy conditions.  Rory just pipped Greg back to the transition area, but Greg changed quicker and was in a top 6 position going into the run.  Unfortunately for Greg his cruciate ligaments in his knees are well past their best before date and he dropped back on the last 5km of the race into 85th position.  Rory kept it going, finishing in 10th overall with a time of 1 hr 03min, just 6 minutes off the winner.
 
Dave McManus completed the race in a very creditable time of 1 Hr 20min and didn’t require any medical attention at the finish!
 
It was a great challenge and  everyone said they were going to compete in few more triathlons in the future.  We just need to get some lycra 021racing kit!