European Age Group Triathlon Championships

Holten Holland.

4^th July 2009

Baking hot day made for some interesting racing. The weatherwas 33 degrees which made the water temp for the morning 22 degrees meaning nowetsuits allowed. Bad sign for me as I am a poor swimmer anyway.

The day started with me arriving in Holten village for9:30am. And setting up T2, while there I meet up with Alan Coplandtogether we rode the short 7 km or so to T1 and the swim start.

We arrived there early so we had a chance to watch the Para-triand may I say how amazing they were!!! Team Copland and Team MacRae  soon meet up with us after getting theshuttle service from Holten to the swim start. Time passed quickly and it wassoon time to rack my bike in T1. While I was racking my bike I was asked by theITU website to say a few words for their video.

1pm soon came and it was time to race. In the water and waitingfor the gun, once off I tried to go hard and stay with a group it was soon 750meters gone and out of the water we went and through T1 to dive back into thewater for the  other 750 meters. I cameout of the water with a disappointing 25 minutes. Really need to learn how to swim.

Onto the bike and this is where my races start. I started topass and soon felt good, until they started to go back past me. Things were notgoing right legs didn’t seem to want to know and the weather was far too warm,into Holten village and on the 2 lap circuit. We got to the first climb and -Bang I was away, leaving the group behind and starting to get into the speed Iknew I could do. After that I was passing people all the time. Soon Arrivedinto T2 where I racked my bike and left for the run.

Bike time 1 hour 1 minute 28 seconds (2^nd fastestbike time for my age group)

On to the run, legs were amazing now just the sun to contendwith! Managed to go off strong on the first lap and I was soon in the top 10.On the second lap again I kept on passing people which give me some greatconfidence and I was soon up to 7 and 2^nd for GB. I could hear shoutingfor the side of the road that a British lad was about 1 minute up on me. Afteranother strong lap I was able to pass him moving into 5^th positionand been 1^st Brit for my age group. I finished the race in 2 hours 5minutes in 5^th position and 1^st back from GB.  Feeling knackered but really pleased! 

RunTime of 38 minutes so the run was longer than 10km. (Fastest Running time formy age group)

The crowds were amazing and it has been one of the bestraces that I have ever completed.

Thanks for the support from Team Copland, Team West, TeamTweddle and Team MacRae