Bailey's Bayside duathlon double

The Victory athlete completed the sprint distance course in a time of 1hr 05min 53sec to finish ahead of Rob Arkell who was second and Neil Collins, of Portsmouth Triathletes, who took third spot.

Helen Nicholls took the title for first female (1.14.28) and it was her second Bayside victory after she was also the champion in 2015 but missed the race last year.

Second was Susie MacGregor, of Vegan Runners Triathlon, and third was Bayside Tri’s Rebecca Seal.

Bailey enjoys the run, cycle, run events and he was happy with his performance in the Stokes Bay race hosted by Bayside Triathlon Club.

He said: ‘It’s good fun and it was a good atmosphere.

‘I like the event and hopefully will be able to go back next year and defend the title to make it a hat-trick.

‘This was my first race back after going to Switzerland and competing for the fourth time in the long-distance Powerman Duathlon.

‘It was a lot different racing over the shorter distance. A very quick pace, short and sharp.’

The super sprint race was won by Bayside Tri’s Chris Buxton (40.10) with Gary Baynes second and Tom Swift third.

In the ladies’ race Lowenna Hawkey was first (44.31) with Katherine West second and Dawn Haynes Sewell in third position.

The battle for first place in the sprint did not fully ignite in the way it could have done because talented Ironman racer Rob Arkell took a wrong turn on the bike and ended up doing a shorter course, meaning he could not race directly with his rival.

Bailey added: ‘I finished the first run in first place, I was in the lead on the bike and nobody overtook me at any point during the race.

‘It was unfortunate Rob took the wrong turn at the roundabout.

‘If he had caught me up on the bike I would have been able to respond.

‘He finished in front of me but we both knew something wasn’t right because he hadn’t overtaken me.

‘It was a shame, it would have been nice to have raced Rob properly.’

Arkell was frustrated the wrong turn denied him a shot at the title.

He said: ‘I was just behind Dan after run one, then was flying on the bike but kept getting stopped by red lights.

‘I went slightly wrong with my race head on after getting slowed down at another lights and turned one roundabout too early.

‘It was very annoying as the way I was going it would have made for a much better race.’

Event organiser Lee Rhodes is going to look at possible changes to the course for the 2018 edition.

He said: ‘We will take lessons from it and look at having a bit more signage.

‘We will review the cycle route and take on board any comments. We want it to be safe and fair for everyone.

‘Overall we had lots of great feedback. We had 175 people complete the event and it was raced in the spirit it was intended for.’