August 26, 2010
last year when i qualified for the world championships my attention turned immediately to the difficulty of the course in edinburgh, scotland. i'd read and heard reports about how tough the cycling portion of the race will be, and when i saw the elevation profiles those rumors were confirmed. that race will be 5 laps around holyrood park, and each of those laps includes two tough ascents and one ridiculously tough ascent up arthur's seat, a mount everest-style hill/mountain/death climb in the middle of the city. the descent of these climbs are steep and technical, so i've decided to take my road bike because it's much better suited to such a course. if the course were not so hilly there would be no debate... i'd take my P3 in a heart beat. so before i head over to scotland i wanted to finish at least one race on my road bike with its race set up, and orillia has some tough hills and technical turns so i figured it would be the ideal candidate.
last year when i qualified for the world championships my attention turned immediately to the difficulty of the course in edinburgh, scotland. i'd read and heard reports about how tough the cycling portion of the race will be, and when i saw the elevation profiles those rumors were confirmed. that race will be 5 laps around holyrood park, and each of those laps includes two tough ascents and one ridiculously tough ascent up arthur's seat, a mount everest-style hill/mountain/death climb in the middle of the city. the descent of these climbs are steep and technical, so i've decided to take my road bike because it's much better suited to such a course. if the course were not so hilly there would be no debate... i'd take my P3 in a heart beat. so before i head over to scotland i wanted to finish at least one race on my road bike with its race set up, and orillia has some tough hills and technical turns so i figured it would be the ideal candidate.
i still haven't defeated this nasty cold that's been plaguing me for several weeks, and aside from a heavy and tired first few hundred metres, the first run was painless. it was nothing more than a short 2k sprint so i didn't see the point in exhausting myself and i entered t1 in fourth spot. the bike course started with a steep climb out of town and by the time i'd made it to the country roads i'd moved into first. the athlete that finished his first run just behind me was riding a P3 and he'd remained behind me on the climbs, but when we hit the flat, open roads he moved ahead of me and slowly started pulling away. as the race wore on another lead duathlete caught up with me and we stayed with each other for several kilometres. i had no trouble dropping him on climbs and even got by him when powering down a few descents, but once he'd slingshot past me and got ahead he was gone. at that point we hit a headwind on the long flat section of the course that would take us back into town, and in this wind i didn't stand a chance on my road bike. i tried staying as low as i could on my drop bars, but even my best aero position wasn't nearly as refined or efficient as the TTers.
once off the bike i saw only one bike already racked, so something had happened to the guy directly ahead of me. i made my way out onto the run course and started chasing down 1st place. i had no clue how far behind i was but soon spotted him ahead and i caught him at the 3.5k turnaround. at the 6k marker i turned around to see if he'd stayed with me and if he was going to pull out a surge to the finish. my last two races have been close losses so i didn't want to lose a third race in a row by a narrow margin. there was an athlete behind me but i couldn't tell if it was him making a move or if it was a triathlete i'd passed a minute ago. i don't race with my glasses so sometimes details like that are a little fuzzy. which can actually be pretty funny. like on this day for example as i was chasing down the leader i saw someone ahead in a red jersey and i was like, "is that him?", but it turned out to be some chick in a hot pink tank top. no, that is not him. that is a chick in a hot pink tank top. anyways, i took one last look behind me and didn't see him as i made my way towards the last few hundred metres and came across the line first.
i really needed this win and i was psyched to take the race with a come from behind victory. doing the race on a road bike slowed me down and kept me out of the top cycling spot, but all i wanted from this race was to see how the bike would hold up in a race. it felt solid and i felt strong out there in a field of TT bikes. i'm glad to have had this last little confidence booster before heading to the worlds. i needed it. i've had such a shitty year and have overcooked myself. compulsive overtraining finally caught up with me a couple of weeks ago and am only just now starting to feel better because of some downtime. with just over a week to go until the big race i'm treating myself to some rest, and so far it appears to be paying off. fingers crossed i feel even better on race day.
