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Barcelona Part 1

It was all going swimmingly… We had been planning for our trip to the Barcelona Triathlon for months.

We had our bikes boxed and bags packed the day before. The taxi man arrived on time. We were first in the queue for our flight at Gatwick. Pret a Manger was serving toasted ham an cheese croissants. Angry Birds was on my Ipod.

With some haribo from duty free (thanks Sam)…What could possibly go wrong?

We landed. With a little concern we witnessed the lovely baggage chaps lobbing our bike boxes off of the plane. We waited nervously for our luggage to come through, But when it did it looked fine. We met our taxi driver an headed to our apartment.

The apartment was directly opposite the transition area so we had a great view of the whole event. I assembled Sams bike first an it was running fine. Mine next, opened the box and something looked odd. I got the bike out, put it upside down and inspected it. There was a huge crack on the frame at the bottom bracket. Another big crack on the seat stay just below the rear brake. My bike had obviously been crushed and was a complete right off. Brilliant.

Ouchhhh!
I got straight on the phone to the insurance company and called Jason at Wiggle, our Athlete Manager. I was immensely frustrated. All that training and preparation, all that planning and expense, and not forgetting no beer for 2months! All for nothing! I was a very Angry Bird! Grrrrrr Rant over.

On Friday afternoon we visited registration and spoke to the really helpful race organisers from IMG who came up with a plan. My brother, who was in the 1st wave would complete his race and then lend me his bike with just enough time for me to rack up for the sprint race at 12.30. So at least I could race! Not quite the Olympic distance I’d trained for but better than nothing!

Part 2 to follow with pics videos and results next week.