ITU London WCS

I have just arrived back in Spain after spending almost a week in London racing the London Leg of the WCS. It was a special event for me being my first WCS race, but for a lot of other athletes this was the race of the year, many of athletes dreams would be either shattered or fulfilled after this race with Olympic qualification up for grabs. Before this race I was ranked 71st in the World on ITU points and in this race I was ranked 65th meaning that out of the top 71 ranked athletes only 6 were not racing. Having such a low ranking meant I would be the 2nd last athlete called to the pontoon. My starting position wasnt ideal, going off in the middle of the field has the potential of putting yourself in the thick of things and getting caught up in the 'biff' of the swim. Its a bit strange the swim in a triathlon - you could be swimming better than you ever have but if just one person pulls your leg at the start or swims on your back it could be your race over in the first 50metres - to avoid this I knew I had to swim extremely hard for the first 200metres, which I did. After the pace settled a bit I was given the option to join packs forming either side of me. To the right was a pack of swimmers who were slightly in front of those to the left, but the left had all the big names, plus the direct route to the first buoy, so I chose the left. I knew that I was in the middle/ front end of the field but exactly where was and normally is extremely hard to tell during a race. I exited the swim in a good enough position to make the front group onto the ride. The first lap (8km) on the bike was extremely hard with the likes of the Brownlee brothers pushing the pace. All I could do was look at the wheel in front of me and not let it go. After the first lap the group slowed and what could have been a relatively small group of 20 athletes riding together it swelled to pretty much all 70 athletes. At this time I knew that if I had any chance of running at my best I would need to stay near the front end of the field staying out of trouble and minimising the amount of efforts I had to do. At the 15km mark, the race favourite and local athlete Alistair Brownlee rode off the front. I was in a good position to attempt to go with him, but with this race having so much importance I thought that there was no chance they would let someone like Ali get away...But they did. Then the rain started! The importance to stay at the front increased dramatically once the roads were wet. I feel that I was able to execute this well. By staying at the front meant I stayed away from the crashes that happened once the roads got wet. To be honest I was pretty amazed by some athletes level of basic bike handling skills in the wet (or lack of) simple things such as cornering with the weight on the outside foot, breaking in a straight line and avoiding paint on wet roads is something I learnt when I was 15 but it seemed that athletes that have been racing professionally for 10 years struggled with this. The ride was relatively easy but there was times where I had to put in some strong 30 second efforts to keep up with the surges. I was able to execute a good transition by exciting t2 in 8th position and putting myself in the game I really wanted to have a strong back end to the run so I thought if I was to do this then I would have to be a bit conservative at the start to ensure I could do this. In reality I was probably still going harder then I normally would, it was just that the rest of the athletes were

going out even harder. The pace settled a little and I was able to sit on the back of a Russian athlete for the next 7km. I never felt as good as I have felt in previous races but I think I was able to hold good form for the most part of the race. In what was apparently an accurate 10km run I ran a high 31 mins which is probably only 15 30seconds off where I am at the moment. 15 30 seconds would have given me a result near 30th position instead of 45th. When I finished Jamie ask me If I was happy with my performance and my first reaction was not really running with 44 guys ahead of you doesnt feel that good, I could have been running 30minutes for the 10km but I still wouldnt feel like I had a good race if I was in 45th place. As I thought about it more I started to find so many positive about the race which changed my mood. I was able to have a good swim from what seemingly was a bad starting spot, I was able to outride many of my competitors whom have been in this game for far longer than I have and I was able to run into T2 in a position that would allow me to win in the future. For my first WCS I take this as a massive positive moving forward. Yes I think my swim and ride are good enough at the moment to win and I think in the coming years my run will too be good enough to win one of these races. For me next I go Lausanne to compete in the Sprint World Champs held in two weeks time. Again I will be looking to improve on London which I think is something I can do. Thankyou Aaron.

Exit from T2...Just behind the lead guys..