WHILE the Tour de France has understandably taken pole position in the media stakes, almost slipping under the radar has been another great sporting classic involving cycling, namely the World Duathlon Championships in Spain where Malhamdale’s Eddie Newbould produced a very worthy international debut for Great Britain.

All fought out on the road amid heat wave conditions, the event embraced a ten kilometres foot race followed by a 40 kilometres cycle race and a concluding five kilometres foot race to the finish.

Twenty fourth place in the 20 – 24 age group championship in the event at Pontevedra in the Galician region near the Portuguese border, might not sound overly impressive.

However, the Otterburn duathlete's close proximity to the podium finishers, and also the fact that he beat some of the cream of four continents, displayed his efforts in a truer light.

For the 22-year-old Skipton Athletics Club member and former Ermysted’s scholar, it was a performance to be pleased with.

It was a reward for the hard work he put into winning selection following stringent trials at Stockton and Nottingham.

He has had to punch above his weight to get there and now he has another two years in the same age group so World title success is not out of reach.

One of his former Skipton colleagues has already won world honours. Coniston Cold's Harry Coates took the 20 – 24 age group title in the World Off-Road Triathlon Championships which were – coincidentally – also in Spain prior to him switching his sporting attentions to road running, Coates has won the Keswick Half-Marathon where he beat a field of more than 500.

Coates went on to finish eleventh from a field of almost ten thousand in the Edinburgh Half-Marathon where he recorded a particularly potent 1 hour 13 minutes 21 seconds.

Meanwhile, Harry’s cousin, Luke Maude – a former England AC Junior Fell champion and early this summer, winner of the under 25 award in the Three Peaks race – has since headed off for another working spell in Australia, on an 8,000-acre sheep farm.

On his previous excursion “Down Under” Maude’s sporting achievements included a top six finish in his age-group in the Sydney Marathon.