Top skiiers racing Bananaman

Leading British downhiller Ed Drake and BBC Ski Sunday presenter and former Olympian Graham Bell are joining Team Natives to compete in the BananaMan Triathlon on 12 July.



Natives is entering three teams into the Bananaman, in what promises to be a tense snowsports showdown. Graham Bell and Ed Drake will be teaming up with Natives' MD Iain Martin in a head-to-head winner-takes-all against GB team member and 2008 British Junior Champion Jayme Baggio, who will be racing with Marc and Paul Telling from Ambition Racing, the ski race training specialists. Completing the trio of teams is the Natives ladies team, looking to improve on its third place from last year.



Taking place during prime summer training time, the triathlon should provide a good indicator of fitness levels of the GB pros, ahead of this upcoming Winter Olympic season. Check back to Natives.co.uk after the event for news on how the teams got on.



The triathlon, taking place at Dorney Lake, Windsor (the venue for rowing in the 2012 Olympics), is made up of an 800m open water swim, a 30km closed bike circuit and a 7.5km run loop on the flat. It’s a fast event, with winning teams completing the course in under 1hr 40mins.



The BananaMan Triathlon is a unique race in that it can be completed as a team time trial, a team relay event or an individual event. It’s organised by Human Race (www.humanrace.co.uk), who specialise in staging multisport events.