The (C)razy (R)ace (I) (T)ried

The last wednesday night crit went off tonight at Newton Heights and it was one to remember.

Just the lone 4 NTC riders (Me, Stevo, Scotty, A-Mac) made the trek out to pummel ourselves in what would be a small but talented race.

Right off the gun Britton takes it at tempo up the second climb....what!? no free lap, i was counting on that so i could be say i hung in one more lap then i should have...gesh. 3rd lap Stevo attacks up the first hill..good acceleration...i manage to hang in. 5th lap A-Mac plays his cards on the second climb....strong attack and no one follows. As a result the next two times up the hill are hard trying to reel him in. By this time i was starting to feel it in a big way and i had not even taken a pull...so as fate has it i take a pull on the flat leading up to the first climb and try to set a moderate pace up it hoping everyone else would say ok maybe its time we had an easy lap....nope Kenyon attacks and i fade my way to the back of the pack to be spit off. Sorry stevo for inadvertenly blocking you on that one. The remainder of the ride was riden with the soul goal of not having to get off my bike on the first climb, mission accomplished. Stevo rode an impressive race and may well have been in the break had i not done the opposite of what a teammate should do. A-Mac rode with heart and stirred up the pot early on with his valiant break. Scotty pulled around the entire B pack in what was worthy of the red (most agressive) digits.

There was no way we were getting back home without some sugar on the way back. thank-you shell station!

Some pictures from the evening.

Hurts so Good

Returning from Europe i took some downtime to recover from the racing and travel in Whistler with a couple good friends. I was really tempted to hit the glacier for some skiing, but knew i would be in a sorry state if i did. This past winter, my first day back on the boards i went hard and skied the whole day only to wake up the next morning having to roll out of bed, literally cause my back had seized up.

So in whistler i had some good rest and resumed light training on the weekend. It felt fine and loose...but that was light training.

On tuesday this week i realized i had forgotten what real training felt like. Hard swim, hard run and it hurt so good. I was dropped hard by stevo and ap on the 2km intervals. I think i could hear the lactate sloshing around in my legs as i finished off the last one.

After the run i went down to ice in the ocean....turns out i had forgotten how that felt too. My legs ached from the water and i nearly tapped out.

It's ok though. Three weeks before the dance in Kelowna and its time to train hard up till then.

This morning i woke up pretty sore, but hopefully tomorrow i'll wake up a little less sore.

Wrap Up

Kitzbuhel

I hope i can come back here and race again, it is a beautifull spot for a race and the organizing comittee is on top of the ball here.

The race was close to being a good one. How close?...5s close. Swim not as good as previous races but came out at the back of the second main group. On to the bike formed a good working group with bucholz, seymour and few more euros. Was good work closing the gap to the main group thru 3 laps. Down 10s on the 4th lap. Take a pull in to a corner...attack by bucholz to leap the gap and i blow up....dropped...bye bye race..haunting really watching the race ride away from you.

Overall though i am very happy with the way this trip went, raced well, developed and got to train, site see and race in great places.

tomorrow things may be capped off with the bang. If it is sunny the race comittee is taking 3 of us paragliding off the kitz horn compliments on the house!!

The Dream

When i was young i dreamt of racing in a world cup at kitzbuhel. It was the mecca, the race that really mattered. Legs were broken, people died on this race, that made it the be all end all.

Skiing that is.....i never imagined id be here ready to toe the line for a WC triathlon.....triathlon what was that?

I am very excited to race here. The village is very welcoming and is a place id like to come in the winter for some runs and apres.

We are staying in a pension which serves a great breakfast. Then we are off to the pool to get in our laps and some recovery watersliding. Today though we went to the swim site. Rain and 21C it was cold and hard to stay warm.

Lunch is basically and 2nd breakfast as it is all the stuff i have smuggeled out from the morning....plus nutella nutella nutella.

Dinners i have been eating traditional, which is pork pork and more pork with spatzle, potatoes, saurkraut, cabbage.....hmmmm not the greatest for me and my track record of letting some good ones go.


Today we got a massage at the race hotel, 15€ for 1hr was great.

Tonight they had a team triathlon in the village centre, but it was very unique and i think a great way to promote the sport. This was the format:

3 people to a team

1 swimmer
1biker
1runner


The swimmer is set up in an endless pool, or swimming flume. The biker on a stationary bike and the runner on a treadmill.

Everyone starts at once. The runner and biker have to go as fast as they can and rack up as much distance as possible because the swimmer in the flume has the speed gradually increased until they drown, or go under becasue it is too fast. Once this happens the bike and run mileage as well as the swimmers are added up. The biggest total wins!!

All for now.

tizzy and kitz

wow,

i am really liking this trip.

hungary was rustic, hot, tough and another great experience. I think i may have been my best itu race top to bottom. Great swim start, fought hard to stay in theh group, bridge up on the bike and ran well in the heat. Taking turns at the front with colucci was just too much fun. On the run there was some heat to add to the heat. I rubbed shoulders with JJ from Cze and he retaliated with a shot to the kidneys and a shove to the back, which actually pushed me forward and got me fired up, thanks JJ.

I had an adventure getting out of hungary though. 5am monday i get to the train station and aparently there is a strike! What, well i start to make my way back to the hotel and then a young guy comes up to me and says

Hi i am borrand my mother works here at the station and told me you need to get to austria. well my dad and i are driving to budapest we can give you a ride there where you can take a bus.....

ok, sure i hop in the car with my bike box on my lap and go to budda. I metro through the entire city, catch a bus to gyor, catch a train to salzburg, get picked up and BAM i am in bitzbuhel not too much longer than i had initally planned. funny how things sometimes work themselves out.

Some more pictures here:



My massage therapist Yelga, she may look like a teddy bear but she was one tough momma.


Awards with the one and only



My turn to taste the podium

Hungary pre-race

34C here today, not what i had anticipated but there is no avoiding it as tomorrow the predicted high is again 34.

We had time to check out the swim course today which is in a very small pond. From the pontoon to the first bouy in 350 and i dont think they could squeeze out anymore.

The juniour euro cup was today and they did an interesting format:

2.5k Run
10k Bike
750m swim
10k Bike
2.5k Run

Weird order you say, but the reason for it was because the swim they had was in an even smaller lake which they set up lane ropes in! I would say each lane was 150m long or so. Watching them put their swim caps on while running from the bike to swim was interesting.

Some good food was eaten today, more pig knuckle, but last night i think i caught a mild stomach bug from something. Last night i woke up twice wanting to puke, but ended up just laying by the porcelain throne. Today has been a day with a stomach ache, so hopefully tonight it makes its exit.

This field at this race is 65 or so. The top 30 i recognize names but the remainder is unknown. A lot of those racers though i think are strong, just underranked becs of the competitive euro cup series here and difficulty in scoring consitent points. It will be a crabshoot i think.

swim
bike
run

Thats what i gotta do.

More HAM photos

After the Race


Thank god there were no trolls under this bridge


Lisa Mensink Running for the Olympics
A downpour came on during the womens run!


From my seat at Transition


Auf Wiederesen!