Today the Six Men of Steel take on the Monster Mojo, a half iron distance triathlon in Peterborough. It’s their warm-up event for the main Challenge in Roth in seven weeks’ time. Ric, self-asserted ‘Wise old Sage, or maybe Boring old Fart’, volunteered a few words of inspiration and some comments on form -

“Right, Gents, there’s been lots of talk… And time for training... Now’s the time for deeds. Tomorrow, we shall fight them on the…” to a chorus of yawns and one head thumping on the table as a young un falls asleep, presumably after a heavy Friday night.

But who will win Mojo, and thereby set the expectations for Roth? Here are Ric’s predictions -

Ric will definitely not win because he is still run injured and thus won’t finish, but if he is 10mins+ ahead at end of bike he will be extrapolating a virtual win!
The course is as good as it gets for Si, with a bike course 4 miles short (51 not 56 miles), and he’s borrowing a fast old Cervelo from Ric
Jack is swimming very well, and if he can hang onto Si’s feet and get a 5 mins advantage on George and Mark coming out of the water, who knows? It’s also a flat-ish bike course, so there’s minimal heavyweight disadvantage for Jack
George is always unpredictable, but still co-favourite if he doesn’t have to stop for a #2 half way through the run (he has form!)
Mark stays clear of the banter, but trains hard and is the best all-rounder

Well, that makes five. Who’s missing, we wonder? Ah, the mysterious Wave… Evidently he’s as much of an enigma to Ric as to the rest of us, so ephemeral that he might not exist after all… Until a crackle of static builds up in the ether and, like a missile bursting through the universe’s very fabric, a response roars into our email boxes. Wave is a real person, it turns out.

Wave: Errrr… presumably your failure to mention me is because you are worried….? There is no such thing as a virtual win, it’s called a DNF. I will definitely win the old farts’ category on Sunday.

Ric quickly corrects:

Wave won’t be far behind on the swim, and the least likely to blow up on the run, and he will win Old Farts category with Ric as a DNF

We’ll report back as soon as the Six Men have recovered enough to write up their experiences…