ITU London World Series
August 16th, 2009 by Gavin
It’s Sunday morning and I forgot all about my blisters until I jumped out of bed and on to a Lucozade bottle top. I was
21st yesterday in the London World Series and although not disappointed I have a lot of things to improve on.
Having been at altitude I wasn’t 100% sure how I would feel come race day. Some people race well within the first 3 days after coming down; some around 5 days and some need 2-3 weeks to feel good. I did not really feel any different than usual on race morning. As usual I was relaxed in the days before and even my 10 place penalty by the ITU didn’t phase me. I felt rested and was looking forward to racing.
The swim did not go well – I went wide around the first bouy and lost a lot of places having had a decent start – I just wasn’t aggressive enough over the first 300m. I felt as if I was swimming aerobically and was very comfortable – too comfortable as I came out over 1 min down !!!!! I will have to work out why and make sure that doesn’t happen again.
Once on the bike I again felt comfortable – after 2k I was Tim Don, Stu Hayes etc in a big group and I was always confident we would bring back the early leaders. I did some work, avoided 2 crashes and concentrated on keeping myself out of trouble. With the technical sections, ramps and then long straights it was always likely a big group would come together – the pack rolls along at between 45 and 55 kph so if your not ‘on’ at half way you wont get on and it would take 3- 4mins at 60kph + to break away significantly . . . .
On to the run and again I felt comfortable but then at the end of the second lap I developed a stitch and as the run was on a cambered road my feet began to blister badly – my pace dropped and so then did a top 15 finish. With 500m to go I was spent and then relieved not to lose any more places.
My second top 25 finish in the World Series in 2 starts this year – I have Yokohama next week. In terms of my altitude preparation I did feel aerobically stronger than I have been – I may have lost a little bit of strength in the pool, however I do feel I repsonded well and will look forward to the next Irish camp. Yokohama will be a test as my reading tells me you ‘slump’ after 5 days and don’t feel great between 5 and 12 days . . . everyone is different however so we will see how it goes.
The World Series had been billed as the future of triathlon but from what I have experienced so far I haven’t been overly impressed – why downgrade World Cups that have been establised for years in favour of big City races when the organisation is poor – I guess it will improve over time but as with Washington, London didn’t really know triathlon had come to town – there was no publicity in Hyde park which I found very surprising.
Wooden ramps and televison cables housed in triangular plastic running across the bike course / no official bike recce until 90mins before the womens race / a short bike course / a short out and back run course / no swimming allowed on the course until 7pm the night before / bike racks only on 1 side of transition (que all the crashes and injuries) / breakaway athletes not being told to dismount on the last lap . . . . . . the briefing however was very efficient and you should not be late under any circumstances because that’s where would get told about the short course, the lack of on course preparation, the dangers of having a one sided transiton, the ramps, the cables etc etc and you get a pair of Lottery funded flip flops and a surplus yellow marshal ’staff’ t-shirt’
It did look good on TV though so I guess who cares
2 Responses to “ITU London World Series”
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August 16th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
Hey just found your site. I am an aspiring triathlete, I live in Nice, will you ever upgrade to Iron Man?
August 16th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
oh and well done on the race:smile: