ETU Kitzbühel Triathlon European Championships 2014
ETU Kitzbuhel Triathlon European Championships 2014
After 5 weeks or racing myself into shape, the big race of the year so far was finally on me - The European Age Group champs. This is my first chance to taste what Age Grouping was all about and I was excited and keen to get out there and smash it up.
Mrs P and I arrived in Munich on Friday. After a long walk and an even longer coach journey we arrived at our hotel in Kitzbuhel in the afternoon with it absolutely hammering down with rain. Nice. The hotel - Q Maria Theresa - was lovely and the room nice and spacious which was unexpected. You could easily swing a couple of cats around if you really wanted.
The sprint race had already happened and young Tom had won his age group with a cracking bike. Ed had had a tough time by the looks of it and what really stood out was how slow the bike times were for a sprint. 12.2 miles with barely anyone cracking 20 mph avge. Wow that course must be insane, good job I live in the mountains of Cambridgeshire ah ah #ouch
Picked my bike up from the main team Hotel but decided against a course reccy in the rain as I hate getting my bike dirty. Settled for a walk about town and a nice dinner overlooking the medal ceremony for the sprint races. Caught up with Toms parents and dog who was going absolutely mental! Must have been cheering Tom haha
Early to bed then up double early to reccy the bike course. Passed the venue and have to say it looked mahoosive. Much bigger than triathlons I am used to. The paratri event is not far from starting so need to get a scoot on. Catch up with a british guy called Rory (Bryan) and a German fella who says he knows the way. He doesn't! First imppressions are 2 big climbs and FAST descents on single track roads. My brakes are smoking already.
Back to the hotel for breakfast. Funny moment as we see a young kid who looks like a dopey version of Alistair Brownlee tucking into bacon and eggs. Rest of the day is spent doing the formalities - registration, team briefing, team photos and racking bike. Watch the Elite mens race which is on a super fast lap course around the town and lake. WTF can't we race on that course please !!! Ali Brownlee smashes everyone.
Find a nice quiet restaurant for dinner and have a nice Calzone. Return to the hotel to find Alistair Brownlee walking around with a massive trophy looking for his room keys. Oops guess that dopey version was morning Brownlee!
Early to bed and get a cracking nights sleep.
Race Day
Up, bowl of Weetabix in the room (Hotel restaurant not open), pack all the kit and catch the shuttle bus to venue. Into transition at 6.20 and it's closing at 7. First wave is 7.30 and mine is 8.50. Long wait.Normally in transition I have my kit laid out on my towel. In my box I have loads of 'backup' shit kind of like a safety net. I know I have everything there should I need it. Here I was only allowed shoes (bike & run) out and everything else in the box which meant 4 x gels, water bottle, glasses, helmet & run Garmin.
I was worried that I was missing something. Something big. I didn't pay attention to the small & important things I should have done, namely making sure my gearing was set & making sure my run shoes were open and loose. After an age staring at my kit I walked the transition in and out marks and headed out.
Caught up with Ange for a coffee and a bananna and chilled watching the first 40 mins of wave starters. Got suited up at 8.20 and into the pens at 8.30.
The start is amazing. A bright blue pontoon with just your age group on it. I looked up and down at the 75 odd other starters wondering where I will finish. Whose going to have a shocker in the hills? Whose going to bottle it on the run? These guys are all quality, there are no easy places on offer. Everyone here has qualified and shelled out fortunes of money just to line up.
Age grouping is different things to many people. Some people have great pride in representing queen and country. They are part of team GB. Some people view it cynically as a way for elitist people to wear a GB suit. Who can pay the money to enter and fly out and stay somewhere miles away gets the place. I've done my bit for Q&C in another life at a different sport. This for me is a way to test myself out on another level. I qualified Roll Down 20. I am by far the lowest ranked person in this race and I'm hungry. How many can I get? It feels good to be the underdog.
Were called into the water, it's 30 seconds and were off. I'm calm and all I am thinking about is my stroke. First buoy I have some sighting issues but I'm in good shape. I'm not last.
Turn and I have what Adam @ Greenlight has told me to always look for. Good feet to follow! I get a ride for the 400m to the next buoy and the 50m turn back. Dream start, I go solo picking a great line to the last buoy. Final turn and I feel good and more importantly I feel like I've been swimming 5 mins. Out the ramp and check the clock which has started races bang on time. 24.48 - buzzing. PB swim (official 24.56) and I make the long run to T1.
Wetty off no problems. Absolutely no dizziness for a change. Dump it into box, helmet on, number belt on, shades on, grab gels. no need for water I've half a lake in my belly already!
SHOES - shoes on, not best choice I should have put them on the bike. What was I thinking.
Hit mount line, jump aboard and peddle thin air. The next 2 mins are a blur. My chain jumped (see error above) as somehow the small ring had been selected. I couldn't get it out. Can hear people telling me not to panic. No mechanics about & bike upside down. Shit this is not what I need. Eventually get chain back on and spin peddles. It's set. Blood and grease everywhere. Shit, what have I done.
I'm away, I can hear Ange shouting my name. Big rush of adrenalin and I'm in the game. I ride well for me on the first climb and descend pretty well. Coming into second climb chain ships selecting small ring. 30 sec stop to get it on and were away again. Decide to ride small ring all the way. Ups are fine, however I'm out of options coming down and can only coast. Also spinning about 110 rpm on the few flat parts of the course.
Ride pretty well for me and don't loose an awful lot of places to be fair. Just the fast guys from wave behind that come past and make it stick and always on descents.
Come into T2, realise I haven't taken my feet out. Unclip both shoes and run the slippery run back to rack. Eventually get shoes on after faffing loosening off laces, start Garmin and were running.
Onto the course always feels slow. Usually everyone is moving about the same pace out of T2 so you don't feel like you're going well. The course starts with a slight uphill trail. It's pretty shady and there's loads of GB support which is amazing. The course rolls around a few turns whilst heading up hill then takes a sharp left up a big hill to a turn point. Tom Steads ma and pa Dave & Julia are here absolutely screaming at me to pick up the pace! Then we're back down hill and it's quite a sharp drop which wakes the quads up. See Ange on a great part of the course which is a huge lift and give her big smiles and a wave, I'm feeling better now and my run legs seem to have come to the party for the first time this season.
Loads and loads of GB support out there on the course which really helps. Now it's really noticeable how large a team and support crew we've bought out here. Age grouping is not for everyone but all the GB livery and cheers show how much it means to people. Feeling proud just to be here. Garmin finally picks up a relevant signal at about 1km but it's way off on distance so I'm not really using it. The course is quite steep down with some sharp turns here until about 3k then the last 2k is more gentle downhill to flat. I pass one of the GB Dan's (Mason) who passed at the end of the bike. Last turn to end the first lap and I'm seeing sub 6 pace on the Garmin. Start taking some big groups of runners, at this pace I know noone is coming with which feels good.
Pass Jimmy Robinson from GB at the start of lap 2 and give him a shout. I know he's a really strong swimmer and biker so I'm starting to think I'm doing pretty well. On this lap I'm passing lots of people now who seem to be struggling. I think this is giving me the biggest boost of the race as I finally feel like I imagine the run to feel in tri. Onto the out and back hill I see quite a few yellow numbers from my AG. Hammer it from here to the finish pretty much with last mile at around 5.30 pace.
Finish time 2.26:07
26th place 40-44 AG
8th Brit
The Skinny
Swim - 24:56 - 1500 PB, really happy and felt good.T1 - 5:04 - bike mechanical, schoolboy error.
Bike - 1.17:04 - not great but climbed well. Odd choice of course
T2 - 2:51 - 30 secs too slow
Run - 36:15 - 2nd in AG passed 18 people on run from AG alone
26th AG, 8th Brit, 2 mins off 4th.
Obviously I can look at the chain slip on T1 and dropping on bike lap 1 and say that I should have been 2 1/2 mins quicker. At the end of the day that's racing and it's down to me to make sure it doesn't happen.
I need to keep working at the swim. I reckon 23.xx is enough to keep me in the mix at the events. Not a million miles off but lots of hard work to do still.
My bike has been dissapointing this year. I need to be a lot better than this. To be fair a technical course is never going to suit me, however I didn't really take my chances on the faster bits anyway.
The run was key for me. I moved up 18th places and 7 places in GB alone on this. The course suited faster runners as it was tough, but not tough enough to stop me running 6/mm. It affected the slower guys more, meaning I got the chance to offset the losses I made on the swim and bike.
I'm damn pleased with how I handled the event. It was an AMAZING experience and I am so happy I got the chance to do it. If I never get to do one of these again I'll always be glad I did this one.
Was great sharing this experience with Ange. Next time we'll bring the kids and make more of a holiday out of it.
Thanks to my beautiful wife Angela for supporting me in all this. It's possibly the most selfish sport on the planet and I appreciate everything you do to make it possible xxx
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