Stunning and savage Croyde Ocean Triathlon

The ninth “stunning and savage” Croyde Ocean Triathlon took place with 419 competitors battling it out on the beautiful North Devon coastline.

The Croyde Ocean Triathlon is recognised as one of the UK’s most challenging and scenic events. It was one of 220 Triathlon’s “Top 23 must-do” triathlon challenges for 2019, and shortlisted for best triathlon in the UK for 2020.

The course involves a 1.5km ocean swim at Putsborough Sands, followed by a 38km road bike course and a 12km off-road run over hilly coastal terrain, taking in the sights of the North Devon UNESCO Biosphere, North Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the newly designated North Devon World Surfing Reserve.

Unfortunately, due to the unfavorable sea conditions, the RNLI took the difficult decision to cancel the swim, so instead the athletes did a 2km beach run before taking on ‘The Hero of the Hill’ challenge up the steep ascent out of Putsborough Beach before hopping on their bikes.

This was the ninth year the event has taken place, and the first under the new ownership of local environmental charity Plastic Free North Devon.

Many of the competitors taking part today were raising sponsorship for Plastic Free North Devon, as well as local charities Children’s Hospice South West and Family Compass.

The overall winner in this year’s event was Hamish James who finished the course in 2h 09m 32s. The youngest competitor was 17 and the oldest was 70.

Race director Jo Hibberd said: “At 4am, I looked out at the Atlantic Ocean with a huge sense of pride and privilege at being at the helm of this event. The local support we receive is incredible, our community simply rocks! There is an enormous team effort that makes this special triathlon take place every year. A big thanks to the competitors for supporting us and the volunteers for starting at 5am this morning!”

Next year’s event will take place on July 14, 2024 and for the first time a “Still Stunning but Less Savage” Mini Tri is on offer, featuring a 1k swim, 22k bike ride and 5k run. Early bird tickets go on sale from July 22, 2023 at www.croydeocean.co.uk