English
My aim for London Hyde Park triathlon was to make the bike as hard as possible and that’s what I did.
I had a good swim for me, got to the first swim buoy inside the top 10 which meant not many beats for me today thank goodness. After lots of tight turns I just managed to scrape into the lead pack on the bike & once on the bike I new I just had to wait for the right moment to attack.
My best bet to attack was when the chase pack caught us and this was after two laps. So as soon as the bunch caught I attacked and got a mini lead but I knew I needed some help from other riders and finally someone came to my rescue after around 5 minutes. We spent a couple of laps away but were caught again.
Once we were caught someone else went and I thought lets go again and this was the move I was waiting for. We were a three man breakaway and after two laps we were joined by a group of six, this was a dream for me as I knew I could get my breath back and wait for the run. We had a 50 sec buffer on the big runners which was a great head start for me but probably not going to be enough for a podium. However I never really thought of this and just tried to run as fast as I could to stay away.
My legs were really hurting but I found myself leading the race until the first lap on the run 3.3km. Then Alistair Brownlee, Gomez and Jonny Brownlee caught me. It was strange as once they went past me I was able to hold on to them for a bit and upped the pace. It wasn’t long before I couldn’t keep with them and was caught and passed by the Russians and a young Spanish athlete. I was still managing to maintain a good pace and with one lap to go I was holding 6th place. I thought I was going to finish 6th but with less than 200m to go I was caught by Brad K and Jerrod Shoemaker.
They were running super fast getting ready for the sprint and I could not react quick enough to hold them off. I came into the finishing shoot happy with 8th. I saw Alister and thought he was doing a victory lap but I suddenly realized he had hit the wall and was walking to the line with great difficulty due to dehydration. I passed him and ended up a very pleasing 8th. My next race is the London triathlon at the Docklands which is my favourite race of the year.
Hi Stuart.
Watched the race on TV and great to see you keep attacking like you did. At least you had the balls to get some time advantage before the run started.
One thing that does amaze me is the fact that you guys can ride together with or without tri bars in bunch conditions. Not allowed in British Cyling events, UCI events or other mass start event (except Sportives where anything goes nowadays).
To me thats just asking for trouble and one reason that chap in blue fell off. Head down and on tri bars, but when the change in direction from the guy infront the guy who crashed had to time to alter his course or get his hands up to his brakes.
Anyhow, great Swim/Ride/Run stuart and great to see a Wiggle athlete on TV. Missed Lidders the following week though – sorry Emma.