World Triathlon: How Tom Bishop and Sian Rainsley are driving each other on to success

Never more was this manifested than on those cold winter mornings in Bramhope, when if one woke and couldn’t be bothered to get out of bed that day, the other would be on hand to shake them from their slumber and get them on the bike.

The thought of letting the other get an advantage of a few extra hours training proved both motivational and unbearable.

It is a working dynamic that partners Tom Bishop and Sian Rainsley have in common with the great Yorkshire brothers, whose light continues to shine brightly on the British triathlon scene.

Bishop, 30, and Rainsley, 25, are from the Midlands, but Leeds has been their home since they came here to study at university and continue their route towards careers as professional athletes at the Leeds Triathlon Centre.

Life partners, training partners, if one wakes up in a morning and wants to pull the duvet back over the head, the other is there to offer advice.

“We all have those days where you struggle to get out of bed,” admits Bishop, who on Saturday continues a proud record of appearing in every World Triathlon Championship Series event to be staged in Leeds since 2016.

“But we know each other well enough now to recognise that actually, just stay in bed, you probably deserve a bit of a rest.”

“It really showed in Covid with no training groups allowed,” continues Rainsley, 13th on her debut in the Leeds race last year.

“We were lucky to have each other, whereas other people were isolated. We did get some abuse but we could just say we’re a household so we’re not breaking any rules. We were quite fortunate in that respect.”

The two train with the British Triathlon squad based in Leeds, often on the Meanwood Valley Trail or up into the Dales.

Jonny Brownlee might be with them one day, Georgia Taylor-Brown the next. Or they might train together, just as the Brownlees could so often be seen doing over the past 15 years.

“When we ride together it’s a recovery effort,” says Bishop. “Our slow paces are pretty similar. If Sian has a session to do sometimes I can pace her because I can ride a bit harder.

“We’ve had the odd little tiff,” Rainsley counters, “where I’ve accused him of riding too hard – he calls me his anchor.”

They also know each other’s limitations; when to push, when to ease off.

It’s why with a decimated race calendar and Bishop’s Olympic qualification hopes at an end, they decided to give themselves a break last year, a chance to take stock.

“We went on a European tour, just climbing up mountains on our bikes,” explains Rainsley. “We thought we’d never get the opportunity to do it again, to train and travel.

“We took the tent and went around France and Germany and Italy for six weeks.”

With sport and life pretty much back to normal now, the couple are fully committed to fulfilling their triathlon ambitions.

Rainsley, at 25 and with a British women’s triathlon squad headlined by Olympic gold medallists in Taylor-Brown and Jess Learmonth, is prioritising Los Angeles 2028 as her long-term Olympic goal.

For Bishop, five years her senior and having been around the international triathlon scene for a decade, the need to peak is more pressing.

“I’ve not had it smooth,” he admits of a career that has seen him twice be a reserve for the Olympics.

“I’ve gone up in my trajectory and then faltered a few years. You reach your best and try to stay there, making minimal improvements on top of that is very, very hard, so I’m just trying to get back to my best, trying to get that little bit more out of myself.

“Last year was a struggle with Olympic qualification, the pressure and the stress of that didn’t really help my performance, so it wasn’t an amazing year.

“My best year was in 2017. I had a World Series medal, a couple of relay medals and I finished seventh in the world.

“With the training I’ve done over this past winter I feel like I’m getting back into that shape.

“I came off that year thinking I could do a bit more and hoping this year it’s potentially edging towards that.

“I don’t want to put pressure on myself by saying I’m getting back to my best, because sometimes you never do, but I’m pretty close to it. I’m more experienced now so it will be nice to see where I am at.

“The standard of the sport is always changing, even if I do reach my best from 2017 it might not yield the results I got back then.

“To be honest I’m just happy to be on the start line this weekend. It’s just a race I love. I’ve done every edition and it’ll be cool to race it again.”

Which brings us neatly to this weekend, the sixth time Leeds has staged a leg of the World Triathlon Championship series, a festival of the sport with the world’s best competing in the afternoon after recreational triathletes have contested all manner of races in the morning.

There is a slight change to the format this weekend in Roundhay Park. Instead of an Olympic distance race for the elite athletes on the Sunday afternoon, Bishop, Rainsley, Brownlee, Alex Yee et al will take on the world’s best over a sprint distance (750m swim, 20km bike and 5km run) on Saturday afternoon.

Sunday sees a team relay like the one showcased at the Tokyo Olympics for the first time last summer and at which Great Britain, with Jonny Brownlee on the second leg, won gold.

Both Bishop and Rainsley have won various international medals in relays but ironically have never competed together.

They won’t this Sunday, either, such is the strength of the British team.

“If they allowed us to put A, B and C teams in we’d all be competing for the medals,” says Rainsley of the British strength.

“Hopefully Tom and I will get to race together later this year.”

“It definitely helps,” Bishop adds of the British dominance. “It drives on the competition and makes us better athletes. I’d probably have made an Olympic team the last couple of cycles if Jonny and Alistair weren’t so dominant, and Sian maybe last year.

“But you can’t complain. We have such a good support system, the funding’s great. To be part of a world-class team you need plenty of world-class people around you so it just brings everyone on.”

And what better way to prove it than racing on home roads.

“Historically in Leeds I’ve always gone well,” says Bishop, who begins the men’s race at 2pm in Waterloo Lake with the women off at 3.45pm.

“I’ve come fifth and sixth when we raced in the city centre. It’s a course I’m confident with.

“The crowd and the support really does push you on.”