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Fin decided to give this Criterium ago as it is not that far to travel.  The circuit was closed, in a safe area and on smooth tarmac.  The weather was a bit unkind with heavy rain.  Fin was in the U12 race and set off on a parade lap before a rolling start, which was very exciting.  When the whistle went they were off on to a serious race, with 3 children, Fin included immediately getting into a breakaway group.  They worked well for several laps, when Fin went to the front and applied a little pressure, which dropped one of the riders but the other doggedly stuck in.  They were down to 2 but took turns setting the pace but as the laps rolled by they slowed slightly thinking of a big effort for the finish allowing the third rider to latch on.  It was down to the last lap and all 3 were together.  On the slight incline Fin again went to the front and put some effort in, dropping the third place rider.  With 100m to go the first 2 were together with Fin slightly in second and both in full sprint for the line.  The metres passed by and Fin shot passed the other rider to win by over a bike length.  We stayed to watch the other age groups which was great.  It was well worth the trip there and hopefully there will be more events like this.

This weekend saw another visit to Stirling University for Fin to take part in the junior duathlon.  His Mum decided to take part in the Sprint distant event after a long lay off from multisport events.   Fin went off first in a mass start of all the age groups, from tristarts to 15-16 age group.  On the first 1km run Fin went off with the leading pack and came in fourth to T1.  After a slow transition he was down to 6th.  When on his bike he put on a little spurt to put him in front with only a guy from the 13-14 age group able to keep pace.  They stayed together for 2 km, when Fin jumped away over the last km.  O

nto the final 1km run Fin ran hard to win overall out of all age groups by 19 seconds and in his age group by 27 seconds.

This success seemed to spur Mum, Karen on for her race, she was extremely nervous but settled into the first 5k run quickly and went into T1 in first lady position.  On the 20k bike, she was overtaken by a  very strong cyclist but managed to hold onto 2nd into T2 (with a very dodgy dismount) but 1min 30 down.  Over the last 5k Karen gained ground on the leader and the Robertson support crew knew it would be close but just too much.  Karen finished 2nd overall by just 3 seconds but had the consolation of winning the vet40 age group. 

This was another excellent event ran by Stirling Trialthlon club and we would recommend their series of events to other club members.

Fin Robertson travelled to Scotland to take part in the largest junior triathlon in the country, based at Stirling University. This was the Scottish Schools Championship so a large and strong field were assembled. The tristar 2 field probably being the largest. Fin swam well and exited the water in a good position, when he mounted the bike he had some work to do but he set about the task coming into transition in third place, alongside a Stirling tri lad in 4th. Onto the run course Fin and this boy overtook the second placed competitor and began swapping second and third place continually until the second lap when Fin began to pull away. On the final lap, Fin was caught by a lad who was having a stormer of a run, with Fin out sprinting him to the line crossing in second however, on count back getting third. This was definitely worth the journey and next years event will be held on closed roads in the campus grounds to give them the feel of tarmac. This event runs alongside and adults Sprint and novice event. Frazer Cartmell taking the honours in the Sprint.