Dowsett joined fellow Hastings representatives Greg Brooks, Belinda Johnson and Ian Thomson who all finished in the middle of their respective fields during the final race of the 2018 season.

In a day of what could have been, Johnson suffered a flat tyre 30 kilometres into the cycle leg that saw her slip from second spot in her age group to 20^th position.

Johnson raced out of the blocks and was in the lead group out of the water before coach Ben Johnson said her luck changed.

“You can’t come back from a flat tyre; you can get angry about it, but you just have to suck it up and get on with it,” Johnson said.

Dowsett lended her Port Macquarie club mate a spare tyre on the way past before she finished the best out of the Hastings quartet in 19^th position out of 71.

Johnson finished in 36^th out of 67, while Brooks (49th) and Thomson (30th) had the added challenge of a strong southerly to contend with in the afternoon.

“The two old boys copped a flogging in the wind in the second half of their race,” Johnson said.

“They did really well because they copped the wind on half of the bike and the full run leg.”

Dowsett’s final result was the culmination of a training program that had been directed at strengthening her run and bike legs.

“Outcome wise, Zoe was probably the best result because she was first out of the water and executed her race plan,” Johnson said.

“We’ve been working hard at improving her run and bike legs and it worked.

“She had a really clean race without many dramas.”