Lewis overcomes ‘blip’ and returns to podium

Battling disappointment from the previous week’s off-colour racing return in Llanelli, the Island Games champion finished a pleasing second at Windsor’s non-drafting Dorney Triathlon.

Only his training partner Sam Wade, a specialist in such non-draft events, surpassed him on the day.

Racing took place over roughly the Olympic distance – 1.5km swim, 40km bike and 10km run – and on a pan-flat course.

It also used a time-trial start with competitors split by 10sec. intervals and Lewis started third, meaning that it took all of about 100m for him to enter the lead.

He made nearly a minute on Wade through the swim and was in fact the fastest competitor in the water.

It was simply a battle to hold off Wade from there. Ultimately he gapped everyone on the bike but the eventual winner, who managed to reel him in another 21sec.

Wade’s excellent run allowed him to take critical time and win in a total 1hr 41min. 30sec.

Lewis clocked 1-42-35, leaving a hefty 8min. gap on Zak Lee-Green in third.

This marked a welcome step-up from the previous week’s elite-level outing, where little seemed to go right and he finished off the pace in 36th.

That was, in his credit, his first triathlon in 20 months.

‘It was a big knock last week. A lot of it is just to do with it being your first race and having not been through those motions before,’ he said.

‘My solution was just to get back on my horse, get back to it straight away and get used to racing a little bit more.

‘To be able to stitch something together the following weekend has brought me out of that hole.

‘It’s like “you’re not rubbish, it’s OK, it was just a blip and you will be better next time”.’

And there are plenty more opportunities in coming weeks for Lewis, continuing most likely with the Bristol Sprint Triathlon on 6 June.