World U23 Triathlon Champion ships Lausanne, Switzerland – 03/9/2006

GOAL : Top 20

My preparation in the weeks leading up to the race wasn’t the best, I had a massive two week block in which I got tired towards the start of week 2 and had to back off otherwise I would have got ill. Also on the Friday before the race I broke my wetsuit and had to get a new one shipped out to Lausanne for me! But when it came to the time to fly out to Switzerland I felt strong, rested and raring to go.

The atmosphere in Lausanne was awesome, so many like-minded triathletes all there to race in the most important race on the planet, a large percentage of them British as well! But with the race just a few days away I spend most of my time in my Hotel room or sitting in one of the Café’s next to the course!

By race day I was raring to go, so much bottled up energy that I felt I was about to explode, so by the time I got to my place in the middle of the Pontoon I couldn’t wait to get started. The horn went, I got a great start until I was dragged into the scrum by someone, and I had to find my way to clear water where I was able to swim comfortably to the front and lead around the first buoys. On the way back I was waiting for someone to pass me so I’d have some feet to swim on but nobody came past, so I lead to the end of the first lap and lead the dive back in for the second lap. On the way to the buoys on this lap Ivan Vasiliev (RUS) came along side me to share the lead and it stayed this way until the end. I took the honours of first out of the water, had a perfect transition, my brand new BlueSeventy wetsuit coming off no problem. I was first out onto the bike, and lead up the first hill but on the second hill I had nothing to respond when my team mate Will Clarke rode off the front taking Vasiliev with him. My pack of 8 was subsequently caught leaving a huge group of around 30 athletes, which is how it stayed for the remainder of the ride, with the pace being pushed on the hills but remaining fairly pedestrian on the flats.

A temporary lapse of concentration left me towards to back of the pack coming into T2, so I found myself catching people in the first couple of kilometres even though I paced myself quite a lot and didn’t go out as hard as I would usually. As I progressed through the run I found myself feeling stronger and stronger- I was running in about 20th place with Polish competitor Martin Florek on my shoulder and feeling fairly strong. Coming into the last lap I really picked up the pace, encouraged by the thousands of spectators lining the course. There were so many people on the run course I couldn’t tell whether I was overtaking or lapping people so I just kept running as hard as I could. The last Kilometre was probably my strongest, I must have passed at least 5 people coming down the coast road towards the finish, and even though Florek managed to out sprint me for 12th, I finished in a solid 13th place.

At first I was pretty gutted with the way the race went - I really do believe if I would have been able to ride with Will I could have finished a lot higher up – but that’s racing – sometimes things don’t go according to plan. Still, my goal coming into the race was top 20, which I comfortably managed, and I can take a very strong running performance away from the race. Running is still my major focus for improvement, so to run as strongly as I did in Lausanne is very promising for my future.

I now have 2 weeks in which to prepare myself for my final race of the year in Poland, then I will take some down time before starting my base training for 2007 season.

Thanks to Brian from BlueSev enty for sorting me out a wetsuit out for the race – Hope my leading out the swim made it worth your while and thanks for your continued support!

Dann