Race Number

Well, the time had come, time to defend my title as European Triathlon Champion in the Sprint 40-44 year age-group and time to race. To be honest it was unlikely that I would defend it, but I was going to have fun trying and it’s always good to race on the international scene.

Preparation

My preparation for this hadn’t been great.

Long term

Over the long term I simply hadn’t been as focussed as I had last year. In 2013 the European Championship and performing well in them had been my main priority. Everything had been geared to being at my peak for that one race and it paid off. I had an excellent race, performed as well as I could possibly have hoped and came away with the gold medal. In 2014 though there had been plenty of other priorities in my life. Family, work, life in general and other projects such as cycling from John O’Groats to Land’s End, beekeeping and our 10th wedding anniversary party all took time and effort away from training, along with the general focus in the race.

Medium term

Over the medium term things hadn’t been good either thanks to problems with sciatica. This meant that I hadn’t been running for about 8 weeks prior to the race and had been suffering during other training sessions too. It was never debilitating but there was always a slight pain and numbness and the niggling kind of pain that just gradually wears you down.

Short term

Over the short term there were a few positives. I had a nice new set of wheels and had set a couple of 10 mile Time Trial PB’s on them. However, the day before the race was a little hectic due to the short time between arriving in Kitzbuhel and the race itself. This wasn’t helped by the stress caused by dropping my valve extender inside my rim.

Race day

Race day was here now though so time to put all those things behind me and do what I could. I slept quite well, which is probably a bad sign as I obviously wasn’t psyched up for it. I got up at around 5am, looked out of the window and it was pouring with rain. The bike course was going to be tricky in the dry, it could be lethal in these conditions! It was the same for everyone though so there was no point worrying about it – It might be worth letting a little air out of my tyres though.

I had my usual pre-race breakfast and headed down to the Tennis Centre to catch the shuttle bus to the lake at 6:15am.

Breakfast

Once at Schrwarzsee I set up my transition area and had to make a final decision about whether or not to wear a wetsuit. My plan had been to go without. My thinking behind this was that in the swim there are usually 1 or 2 people ahead of me that I have no chance keeping up with and then I usually lead everyone else out of the water, often with 1 or two people sitting on my toes and getting a nice tow. I’m a little quicker in the water whilst wearing a wetsuit and I’m pretty quick at getting the suit off. In fact I’m probably quicker at removing a wetsuit then I am at putting a number belt on. So, time-wise, wearing a wetsuit is probably quicker.   However, here in Kitzbuhel the run from the water and into transition was quite long. Running without a wetsuit is quicker so on balance the time difference between wearing a wetsuit and not wearing one would be minimal.

Tactically though, if I was wearing a wetsuit then the people behind me on the swim would benefit from it too as I’m usually leading the group out of the water. If I went without a wetsuit I could draft behind some fast people who were wearing wetsuits, get the benefit of their tow and therefore hopefully finish the swim in a similar time to what I would with a wetsuit on. I’d then gain an advantage during the run into transition by not be encumbered by a wetsuit. That was the plan that I had made. Plans can change.

Things changed this morning as it was raining and quite chilly. I was still more than happy with the water temperature, but in a big race like this you have to line up in a pre-race area at least 30 mins before the start. This means that I’m usually ready in my race kit and waiting to go at last 45 minutes before the start of the race and if  I wasn’t wearing a wetsuit this would mean hanging around in just my skimpy tri-suit during which time I would just be getting cold. I made a last minute decision to wear my wetsuit and donned it just to keep warm in that hour before the start. Everyone else in my race was wearing a wetsuit too.

The Swim

Swim Start – Not my Wave

The swim in the warm waters of Lake Schwarzsee went well. As predicted there were 3 people up ahead of me that I simply couldn’t stay with and then I led a few other athletes around the lake. I did put on the odd spurt now and then just to drop people from my toes and exited the water in 4th place in a time of 11:03 which is about average for me. It was however exactly one minute slower than the leader out of the water, an Austrian called Dietmar Haibock.

T1

T1 was a fairly straight forward affair. Quite a long run from the water across a slippery, uneven surface so I pushed quite hard whilst staying cautious so as not to fall. I was soon heading out of T1 over the dismount line and onto the barrier-lined bike course where I got my feet into my shoes, got settled and headed out onto the ride. My transition time was actually the 3rd fastest at 2:47, just 3 seconds slower than the fastest.

Heading into T1

The Bike

I think I lost concentration during the bike ride and just didn’t push hard enough. I took the hills in my stride, took it fairly carefully on the slippery, wet descents but never really got into a rhythm and never really got out of my comfort zone. I was overtaken by a train of riders at one point and lost quite a few places here. The descents did claim a few casualties though so taking it easy and not coming off was probably the sensible thing to do. However, if taking it easy on the descents I really should have hammered it on the climbs. I didn’t and paid the price with a fairly slow bike time of 38:24, quite a bit slower than the fastest bike split of 34:45, but still OK.

T2

T2 was OK, expect I nearly went the wrong way out onto the run. I was soon re-directed by a marshall though and headed off around the lake.

The Run

The run course was just beautiful. Real ‘Sound of Music’ style scenery that followed an undulating course around Lake Schwarzsee.

Part of the Run Course

It was still raining and fairly cool so I didn’t take any water from the drinks stations and simply ran at a  fairly steady pace. The final kilometre was on tarmac and was fairly flat so it wasn’t until here that I picked up the pace. As with the bike I didn’t really go hard or out of my comfort zone at any point, which isn’t really the idea in an important race and I crossed the line feeling fresh and a little annoyed at not having tried harder. I just wasn’t in the right frame of mind on the day. My run time was OK at 18:41, again quite a bit slower than the crazy fast time of 16:43 by Nick Shasha, but still up there towards the top of the field.

Results

Anna knew the results and times before we did and soon sent them through by text. I had finished 11th in a time of 1:12:47.

This was a little disappointing considering the fact that I had won it last year, but in hindsight that is about where I should be. Last year was an exceptional race, I was on top form and executed things perfectly on the day. Perfect preparation, perfect execution and a little luck resulted in a Gold Medal. Today things were different, average preparation, average execution and a top quality field of competitors put me down to 11th place. Today’s race was simply ‘OK’. Nothing special, but no major catastrophes either, and the results reflect that.

When you look at my other results from big races (World Champs, Auckland 11th,  World Champs, London 9th, British Champs 8th) 11th in Kitzbuhel is probably about right. I think on a normal day I should be aiming for somewhere around top 10.  That’s not going to stop me from trying for a perfect race again sometime soon of course.

Click here for the  full results.

Aftermath

Hotel Pool

After the race I packed up and rode back to the hotel where I simply relaxed. Its not something I do very often, but I had a soak in the hotel pool, sat in the sauna, chilled in the wellness centre, sat in the sauna again, had a shower and then just lounged on a lounger for about half an hour. It’s rare for me to sit still for so long, but whilst doing so I had an idea and hatched a cunning plan… That zen-like state of mind I was in need of in order to extract the valve extender from my rim had come to me and I knew exactly how to do it.

I sourced a drinks straw from the hotel, along with a long pokey stick. I cut the straw in half lengthways with a pair of scissors and inserted it through the valve hole in the rim and out the other side. I then carefully tuned the wheel so that the valve extender slid around inside of it until it hit the straw. It then fell onto and balanced on the straw in such a way that I could simply push it out using the pokey stick. Ha, a problem that had me stressed yesterday and had flummoxed what are supposed to be professional bike mechanics had been solved in 2 minutes thanks to a drinks straw, a stick and a pair of scissors. The post-race relaxed state of mind had helped and I have to admit that extracting the valve extender from the rim was more satisfying than the race itself.

Valve Extender

Post-Race Menu

It was then time for another delicious dinner in the hotel. All in all not a bad days racing and a chance to reset my expectations from such events. 11th in Europe is pretty good all things considered, and I was 3rd Brit too so have gained a pre-qualification spot for the 2015 European Championships in Geneva. Any disappointment at losing my title is only slight. I hadn’t expected to retain it, the competition here was top-notch and it really is about taking part. Being able to race at such events is brilliant and it gives me the excuse to travel to places I might not otherwise go. Racing in the Austrian Alps is an experience I won’t forget and that is what it is all about. Good racing in exciting places with a great group of people.

Tags: European ChampionshipsEuropean ChampsKitzbuhelRacesTriathlon