After a terrible start to my 2014 race season, I flew back
to the USA to regroup, refocus, and completely redo my entire race schedule. I
need ITU points to get starts at races, and I didn’t get any significant points
in my first four races which forced me to take a step back and race some lower
level events.
A week before this race I made the decision to move to
Clermont, Florida for five weeks and live with Jarrod Shoemaker and his wife
Alicia Kaye. The rationale behind this decision had quite a few different
factors - Jarrod and Alicia are fantastic people and have supported me from
literally day one of my professional career; Alicia and I (along with Helle
Frederiksen, who also lives in Clermont) have the same coach which means that
we are able to have quite a few quality sessions together; I have lived in
Clermont before so I am already accustomed to the training environment; travel
to my upcoming events and Europe is much easier; and Clermont can offer some
very quality hot training which is perfect preparation for my next two
important races – the first being ITU Barbados.
The Race:
The swim was a one lap ocean swim with a solid current and some chop. It was a beach entry, which is my favorite, and it helped spread the field out right away. Around the first buoy I saw there was one guy on my feet and another just behind. I kept the pace nice and smooth in hopes of saving energy and getting a third man into a breakaway situation.
The swim was a one lap ocean swim with a solid current and some chop. It was a beach entry, which is my favorite, and it helped spread the field out right away. Around the first buoy I saw there was one guy on my feet and another just behind. I kept the pace nice and smooth in hopes of saving energy and getting a third man into a breakaway situation.
I exited the water with about a two second lead over a guy
from Venezuela, and about 10 seconds to Jarrod. I cruised through transition,
got my feet in my shoes, drank some fluid, and got my glasses on while waiting
for the two men behind to ride up. After 2k both men had bridged up and I
yelled to them “alright, let’s go!” I put my head down and started to ride
hard. The VEN guy pulled through but there was no one on his wheel. I didn’t
look back I figured Jarrod was just sitting in a couple turns to recover after
having to ride up to me. The second time through the rotation… still no Jarrod.
I looked back and saw that he was sitting up waiting for the chase group. I
rode next to the VEN guy and said “ride, or wait?” after a bit of thought he
said “ride!” so I said “Alright, let’s do it!” We continued to work together
really well taking about 20-30 second pulls in the windy conditions and I
thought to myself “wow, this guy can ride pretty well, we might have a shot at
staying away!” After the first lap (of five) we had a seven second gap, after
the second lap we had 12 seconds, after third lap we had about 20 seconds (and
this was me riding within myself, not destroying my legs. I was riding hard enough
to try and stay away, but keeping in mind my power and making sure I was going
to be able to run solid off the bike). Starting the third lap Senior VEN had
used up all his cookies apparently and slowed down drastically. I encouraged
him “You can do it, we can stay away! Keep pushing, we can do it!” but he was
done. At the turn around 3.5 laps in our gap had gone from 20 seconds down to 6
in just 2k, I looked to my breakaway buddy and said “good work!” we shook hands
then sat up and waited for the chase group which was 15 strong. From then on
the focus was on careful positioning and doing my best to not crash in the gnarly
cross winds as well as conserving energy for the fast 5k run.
I attacked the group 400m out of T2 and had a nice small gap
to cruise through transition and be able to build into the run instead of
having to play catch up the first K. I ended up getting caught by a group of
four including Alex Hinton and 2012 Olympian Manny Huerta. After one lap of the
two lap course, Hinton, Huerta and I had dropped the other two and it was now a
race for the three spots on the podium. Knowing how good of runners the two
others were, I did not want to leave this race to a sprint. I figured my best
bet was to crack them mentally in the hot conditions, so I attacked just before
the turn around about 1.5k from the finish. I got a gap on both of them and
kept pushing. I knew that I needed to keep the gap to them because of the wind
and I didn’t want them to get into my draft. After 600m I had dropped Huerta,
but Hinton had bridged up and was sitting on my shoulder no problem. I backed
off just a bit so I would have something left at the end, but when Hinton made
his move around me with 400m to go I had absolutely nothing. I tried to go with
him but my legs were lead and my lungs were burning. Hinton ended up beating me
by about 12 seconds, and those 12 seconds he put on me were just in the last
300m! It was extremely painful, but it felt really good to have crossed the
line having given EVERYTHING I had.
I’m extremely happy to be back on track with my racing, and
to have seen some good numbers on the bike and in the run. Next up is ITU
Dallas PATCO Continental Championships on May 31st.
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