Sometimes You're the Hammer, Sometimes You're the Nail

The GP Boys trying to show the PG athletes how it's done

The title of this post was supposed to be 4 for 4 being my 4th race of the year and 4th win but unfortunately sometimes things don't go quite according to plan. I was super excited to go to Prince George and race again there, I did the race in 2008 and I remember it being one of the TOUGHEST tri's I've ever done and it was the same this year. Bart agreed to come with me so we made it a short weekend road trip and represent Speed Revolution in PG. We left early Saturday morning and two hyper-hydrated athletes driving 6hrs made for a lot of bathroom stops. We got there and immediately went to the bike check where I pulled my bike out of Bart's truck filled up the tires and heard the dreaded pushhhhhhhhhhhh come from my rear wheel. Ugh, well at least we were at a bike shop where I could get it fixed. Went through the bike check and package pick up and headed out to check out the lake. We previewed the bike and run and Bart was a little deflated seeing how tough it looked, the bike is constantly climbing (or at least feels like it) and the run was a 500m flat, 2k uphill, 2k downhill, 500m flat, repeat. Well we weren't going to set any speed records on this course but it is going to sort out who has been training and who hasn't.

Bart getting ready to rock! Placed 8th in 2:44

The morning of the race was fantastic, very casual we got there at 7am (which is 8am our time) and the race didn't start until 9am. There was plently of room on the bike racks, there was an announcer for the entire race (amazing for a small race), there was electronic timing where your time showed up on a TV screen as soon as you crossed the mat, and the lake, volunteers, and other racers were great. It was my first and only open water swim this year so I was hoping to have a good one in the wetsuit. There was no one around me the entire swim and with only 30 people in the Olympic there wasn't anyone to draft off of. I just maintained my rythmn and tried to stay in a straight line and was absolutely amazed to hear the announcer say I was the first 'non-team' athlete out of the water. Wow nice, well that was my weakest discipline and I just swam a 21:34, I think the course must have been a little short because even with a wetsuit a 23:00 1500m is really good for me.

Now on to the ride where I could build my lead a little. The climb out of the lake was absolutely brutal, I was in 1st gear and griding away for 2kms my heart rate was in my throat and I was thinking this is not a good way to start but you really had no choice. Finally getting on to the main road (which I never saw a car on) we decended for about 5kms, turned around and went back up past the lake and continued climbing approximately another 13kms. I passed the team swimmer that was in front of me and noticed there were still 2 Duathletes I could try to close on. As I made the 180' turn to come back to the lake I heard it again, pushhhhhhhhhh, ugh no, not now!! I pulled out the change kit and changed it quickly there were about 3 guys that passed me but I was pretty confident I could catch them on the run. I replaced my change kit before the race an was trying a new CO2 adapter and unfortunately it didn't fit in the valve cut out and I ended up wasting the 2 cartridges I had. Well the win was over for me but a bike support guy came by and filled up my tire with a pump but immediately it blew again. At that point I noticed the bead of my tire was completely shredded to pieces and I could do nothing but get a ride back and call it a day.

That's some tough riding

31km/hr over 25k, wow that's a hard ride

It's not normal for me to see numbers this low but given the course and where I was placed I'm not too surprised. I was in the perfect position for a great run but never got the chance, oh well it's all apart of racing just learn from it and come back to hopefully go for the win at the final race of the season, Peace River Sprint August 24th.