Almost the smallest male triathlete on the planet, Paul’s power to weight ratio matches that of a flea allowing him to leap tall buildings in a single bound and ride up hills like they aren’t there. Improved biking in the last 12 months along with a rumored step up to long distance racing on the cards means Paul is one to watch for 2011.

Paul Horsfall is a (questionably) Elite Triathlete who up until now has mostly raced at Standard Distance Draft Legal events in the UK. After qualifying for the GB Age Group team in 2007 in  his first year in the sport,  Paul has constantly pushed the boundaries of his triathlon career from South West Champion in 2008 to nudging into the elite area of the sport in 2010. “My heart has always been in the draft legal format, ever since I watched Tim Don racing in Hamburg I have wanted to do this, now im racing the likes of Tim and the British Elite men I am living the dream, I mean yes they smash me to pieces, but to step up to the mark and race your heroes is such a buzz for me”.

Paul’s career highlights include a 4th place at Liverpool last year and a 2nd Place at the inaugural Bristol Draft Legal triathlon where he beat many of his local rivals in this format. This season working away has taken its toll on his racing but a 2nd place at Bradford upon Avon triathlon in a closely fought race against local pro Tom Room was a good start to the season, since then an illness caused a DNF at Blenheim Elite but Paul is hopeful that he will be fit again for London Elite at the end of July. “This season was all about establishing myself in the elite field and getting used to my new job, anything else is a bonus for me”.

Known as the “Big Ring King”, Bike Science – Planet X Hardman, Hywel Davies made his name in gym based fitness decathlons, indoor rowing and adventure racing. After doing the Southern Traverse 5 day adventure race in New Zealand in 1999 as well as winning National Fitness titles in the same year, Hywel discovered his missing link was Ironman Triathlon. He did his first in 2000 in Almere, Holland in a time of 10.28 after a 1.18 swim filled with panic attacks and holding on to the rescue boat.

2 more visits to Almere, including a revist after a career threatening leg break in 2002, got the time down to 9.18 and then Ironman UK from 2005 to 2007 put Hywel in the ranks of one of the top Age Group long distance triathletes. Hywel raced in Hawaii in 2006 but suffered from lack of acclimatisation and a jellyfish sting but still battled onto a 9.45 finish.

Hywel won the UK Double Ironman in 2008 in 21 hours and 30 minutes and went on to set an Iron distance PB in Roth with 8.44, in 2009. Hywel has won race at every distance from sprint to Double Iron including rowathlons, duathlons, 3 iron distance wins and 7 middle distance win.

He has promised that in 2011, he will improve his swimming to get out with a group of pros rather than the driftwood.

Meet Dan, Team Bike Science – Planet X’s resident uber swimmer. He’s getting faster on the bike and run every year too. Despite an addiction to cookies and cold beer he’s gunning for a scorching fast time at Ironman Austria in two weekends time.

Here’s Dan’s own take on his tri career to date…

“My route into triathlon was through a swimming background having spent 15 years as a child swimming, both in Bristol and in Cardiff whilst in University. I spent 3 years training under Dave Haller who is one of the best swim coaches in the UK having coached; David Davies, Mark Foster, Duncan Goodhew, Adrian Moorhouse and David Wilkie – not a bad resume! I still use many of the training principles today from my 3 years with him as I always have been and always will be self coached. My best event used to be the 200m Breastroke where my pb used to be 2.25 and my 100m pb 1.07 (These days I struggle to do that frontcrawl which is worrying!)

Having quit swimming in 2003 I had a couple of years in the wilderness, with drinking, partying and playing football my main priorities. As a dare on new years eve in 2005 I entered the London Triathlon and have never looked back. My running was pretty shocking at the start being a typical “fish out of water”, but after teaming up with local run coach Steve Hollier my run splits these days aren’t quite so shocking and my half marathon pb is now down to 1.18 which means I can at least stay with most on the run.

In 2008 I raced for the GB age group team but became disillusioned by it all after racing a Duathlon in Vancouver because the swim was cancelled, pretty frustrating when you are in the shape of your life. After this setback and a pretty low key season in 2009 (didn’t quite break 2 hours for an Olympic but got very close on a number of occasions) I thought I would move up to long distance in 2010.

The main focus this season is IM Austria where I hope to break the pb I set last season in my first Iron Distance race, The Outlaw – I crossing the line in 9.43. This winter has gone well, with a bike science team training camp in France, some injury setbacks (medial plica) but I am in pretty good shape and should be on for a good time if I nail my race plan and don’t get sidetracked! A top 3 for my age would be nice but looking at previous results most of the guys in the 25-29 age are pretty much full time and I would need to cross the line in about 8.45 so that’s out of the question. I won’t be taking a Hawaii slot either if I did get one, I will leave that for another day as I want to tick some other boxes first before I go and race that.

Longer term plans are not set having recently found out I am going to be dad for the first time in spring 2012. Next season will more than likely be some smaller races in the UK, potentially Wimbleball or another 70.3 race along with some local races around Bristol.”