This race wasn’t
on my calendar a few months back, but after posting a pleasing result in Port
Macquarie in October I immediately consulted the 70.3 calendar and eagerly
planned some more races. After outlaying a small fortune on Triathlon Australia
and WTC pro licenses I was armed and ready and set about entering upcoming
races. My bubble of eagerness was somewhat burst when I was told I couldn’t race
Shepparton and Canberra 70.3’s due to the races being at capacity. Canberra had
16 pro men on the start list, 3 of them I knew 100% did not intend to race. I
was baffled and told by the race organiser that they would not be accepting
replacements for withdrawn athletes. I had to look internationally for my next
race, and Auckland Asia-Pacific Championships was offering delicious USD 75,000
and some major 70.3 and 5i50 points. I wanted to grab myself some of that pie.
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I was pretty
relaxed before the race. With a cracker start list toted as “the best startlist
outside of Vegas”, I wasn’t too sure how I’d fare. When the cannon sounded,
myself, along with several other athletes almost lost their fingers due to over
enthusiastic surf patrol in rubber duckies getting up in our grill trying to
push us back.
The Evidence
This perhaps
turned out to be an advantage for myself as they turned and sped away I was
sucked out and suddenly had a body length on the field. At the first turn 300m away I was joined by a
contingent of good swimmers. I settled in for the rest of the swim and emerged
in around 5th place.
Onto the bike
I was content to let some of the more experienced athletes take control as I sat
in. The New Zealand 7m drafting zone was not well received by many critics. Adding
insult to injury, this zone was measured front wheel to front wheel, further
reducing the distance between riders to approximately 5 meters. This made it
harder for strong riders to establish significant advantages, and also provided
added difficulty for those chasing. Our bunch resembled something out of a Tour
de France team TT as our group swelled to about 12 riders which included the
main players. However, this didn’t equate to an easy ride as speeds exceeding
50km/h were reached on the out and back section. Added cycling complexity could
be found with light drizzle slicking the roads, along with a very technical
section that had to be negotiated 3 times. The ride started to heat up with
about 20km to go as Joe Gambles and Paul Ambrose were laying down some serious
pace. Our pack started to splinter and the technical official started handing
out penalties like they were hot off the press.
I came into
T2 with the main pack but there was a couple of athletes a minute or two up the
road. I was pretty rattled but I knew with a good run I could post a red hot
result. My gut felt pretty ordinary during the first part of the run, and I didn’t
have my usual running legs. I spewed up a mix of coke, Gatorade and gels (which
I’m ashamed to admit actually tasted pretty good)at about 7km. Sam Betten and
Fraser Cartmell caught me at this point and we were running in 6th,
7th and 8th. The last of the money spots.
I was weary
of some fleet footed athletes coming from behind and I lifted the pace and
dropped the other two guys after about 9km. I ran in 6th position up
until about 2km to go and I was well and truly searching for the tape. Betten
came back past me but I had nothing in the tank. I stumbled to the finish line
in 7th, managing to just hold out the angry gnome Tim Reed who had a superb run
despite some earlier misadventures.
Not my best but all i could find on the interweb :(
I was happy
to post this solid result against a stellar field and managed to snag myself
some valuable points and a little bit of the prize purse to cover my trip and then
some. Thanks to everyone who sent me messages, it means a lot and I really
enjoy reading them. I’d like to thank Glen Duggan from VoloSport for his
continued hard work and support of my progression as a pro athlete, Paul Dukes
from Duke's Real Estate for giving me a helping hand with nutrition, Sterling
Ashbee for letting me borrow his equipment, Scody Apparel for the last minute
race kit and Rodney Forrest for his belief in my ability. Without these guys it
would have been alot harder for me to get up there on the weekend.
Big ups to my
mum who won here age group and has booked her ticket to the big island in Kona
for the ironman world championships later this year.
Next up is
Geelong long course in 2 weeks time. Thanks for reading.
Sam
