National Champs

So I’m just back from the first stage of the Ras de Cymru and thought I’d try and get a full report up on-line before I head off for a massage and a nap!

As usual for the UK sunday was an early start (0630  swim start) but after my experience in Spain I have decided that I prefer getting up a 0430 to waiting around nervously all day.  Having raced of the the exact course just a few weeks ago it was fresh in my mind and I had a good idea of the splits I was aiming for.  With a much larger field (850) than last time the swim start was interesting as the lake is clearly not big enough for that many people. As a result I got a pretty bad start but wasn’t too worried and managed to swim up through the field without too many issues and by the second lap I had clear water ahead of me and a small group up ahead of me.  I recognised all the faces around me as the main competition so didn’t bother busting a gut to drag them up to the lead pack.

Coming out of T1 I was with the eventual winner in about third or fourth place a minute or so down on the leaders.  It wasn’t long before I had caught the fast swimmers but had let a bit of a gap grow between the winner Joe Skipper and myself.  I have been feeling good on the bike recently but did not feel good on Sunday.  I can’t put my finger on exactly why yet but try as I might the legs just weren’t cooperating.  This wasn’t helped by all the drafting going on, it isn’t unusual to see drafting on a lapped course with that many athletes racing but I was pretty disappointed to see it being done so blatantly and by the top guys too (who are usually a bit better disciplined).  I came off the bike in a reasonable time but some way off the pace I should have held for the national championship race.

The run was always going to be an unknown as I’ve been struggling with an ankle niggle over the last few weeks.  Luckily things went pretty smoothly and despite it being as painful as it always is running off the bike I managed a pretty acceptable 80 minute run.  I was in second until a bit of a bad patch on the third lap where I was caught by Hywel Davies.  things picked up after that and I was coming back at Hywel well but just ran out of time on the line!

Overall I’m really pleased with a national championship podium, particularly against a strong field.  Had I been ‘all there’ on the bike I would have like to be a step or two higher, it would also have been good to see a lot less drafting amongst the top racers but all said and done I will happily take the bronze medal!

I’m going to use the rest of this stage race as a BIG bike block in preparation for the ETU European Long Distance Championships in August.  Hopefully I’ll take my cycling legs along to that one!