NORWAY must be beginning to feel like home from home to West Pennine Road Club’s John Hey who, on Saturday, finished 76th in his sixth Norseman Xtreme Triathlon.

A swim, a bike race and a full marathon run is daunting enough over relatively benign country but throw in the chilly waters of a Norwegian fjord and mountainous roads to boot, then the race develops a whole new dimension.

South of Bergen, the Hardangerfjord was the venue for the 3.8km swim where Hey finished with a time of 1 hour 22 minutes and 9 seconds, 8-29 slower than last year.

Out of the water it was then on with the cycling shoes at Eidfjord for the 180km race over a tough, far-from-flat course where the Pennine man finished with a time of 6-58-58 compared to 6-39-34. Already it was beginning to show that conditions were a little tougher than 12 months ago.

The final discipline, the full marathon – 42.2 kilometres – started at fjord level at Austbygde and finished on a dirt track at Gaustatoppen, 1,850 metres higher. On its own the run would be a formidable task, but on top of the swim and cycling sections the prospect, to the inexperienced, must seem impossible.

But with five years’ experience behind him Hey knew he would finish, and finish he did with a time of 6-10-52. Last year the veteran posted a time of 5-29-12 for the run, a super result that boosted his overall placing to 47th with a total time of 14 hours 28 minutes and 5 seconds. This year his total, for 76th spot over 226 km, was 14-52-20, an admirable result by any standard.

Slower conditions were reflected in the overall winning time of Norwegian Tom Remman whose 11 hours 19 minutes and 48 seconds was 11 minutes and 38 seconds slower than last year’s winning time.

Slowed for a completely different reason, West Pennine’s Mark Hulme’s attempt at a personal best for a 50-mile time-trial was thwarted by a slow moving heavy load on the A50 road near Etwall.

Convinced he was ‘on a good’un’, Hulme was on the second and final leg of the Burton and District CA ‘50’ on Saturday afternoon when, with just six miles to the finish, he caught up to the lumbering load. It was impossible to pass with any degree of safety resulting in the Pennine veteran failing to take full advantage of a brisk tailwind finish on a day that brought PBs to a fair percentage of the field.

For Hulme it was a time of 1-55-18 on the result board. Plenty of riders would be pleased enough with that. Pushing a characteristically enormously big gear Farnborough and Camberley CC’s Nik Bowdler cashed in on the conditions with his winning time of 1-40-08.

West Pennine newcomer, Barry Preston continued his embryonic time-trialing career with a time of 26-31 in Saturday’s Pendle Forest ‘10’ on the Levens course in south Cumbria.

The winner, from the Team Manx Telecom outfit, was James Smettom with a time 0f 20-51.

After his excellent Tour de Province de Namur result last week Daniel Shand was back in the Ardennes over the weekend for 14th place in a hilly race that saw him initially winning the king of the hills prize only to see it later being withdrawn and awarded to, probably, a local lad!

Meanwhile, Shand senior, Kev, continued his perilous adventures in his series of veteran races in the Flanders area. Daniel has had his share of upendings on those somewhat less than smooth roads but can no way match his dad who in a week raced five times, crashed out three times, got lapped once – no disgrace there – and finished (undisclosed result) once.

Local bike shop proprietors were rubbing their hands, wondering how they could prolong the Pennine man’s stay. Race first-aid teams were less pleased – this Englishman was becoming expensive.

Back in Blighty, Shand’s West Pennine club-mates are looking forward to the president’s annual run and bean-feast. This year’s run on Wednesday 19 August finishes mid-afternoon at the club headquarters, the Spring Inn on Broad Lane, Rochdale.