Sunday morning and the rain had died off, but the wind was strong with gusts of 70kph! I opted with a deep dish rear wheel with a shallow profile front wheel off my training bike in the hope I wouldn't get buffeted too much. The lake temperature was 10.9C. In previous races I have really struggled in the cold, so I was a little concerned how it would affect my race. In an effort to combat the cold I opted for a compression T shirt under my wetsuit and copious amounts of warm up oil all over!
The swim itself was bloody cold and I came out of the water 2 minutes down on what I expected. I chucked a windproof jacket on in transition to beat the chill and out of transition. The mount line was pretty congested so I hopped onto the pavement, ran an extra 100m, jumped on and got going to the Llanberis Pass. The Pass went in a blur, the cold was affecting me slightly, with my top heart rate down by around 10bpm from usual. The tail wind from Pen Y Gwryd to Capel made for quick riding, before swinging into a harsh cross\head wind in The Ogwen Valley. It was savage! Down onto the small chain ring and tucked as aero as possible. Halfway down the valley I saw Rhian, leading the womens race, and local talent Arthur Connell. I knew I was at the business end of the race and needed to get time on the quicker runners. From Tregarth to Llanberis it was a block headwind! As we hit Pentir my mate Big Al "Hincapie" Roberts, riding for a relay team, came past me and offered a few well needed words of encouragement. It was just what I needed and gave me a boost for the final leg. We both got into transition at the same time, Al's race over and me out onto the run. What a run. Pain. Hills. Pain. As I headed onto the run a relay runner bounded past me then another local talent, Gareth Jones of Revolution Cycles Bangor, passed me. I kept my own pace as he initially pulled away, than as my legs came back to me, I was back on his shoulder. We ran side by side for the next 5km, pushing each other on, trying to close down a runner in the distance. We pulled the lad back on a particularly nasty ascent, I was suffering. Then I sensed Gareth slipping back, and it was me and the lad we'd chased down. With 1.5km to go there was a steep descent, I was cramping horribly in my quads, and trying not to let on. We hit the flat with 750m to go and the guy opened up a 200m lead in an instant, I had no answer to that!
I finished 7th overall which was fantastic, I am genuinely very very chuffed. Rhian was fastest woman, delivering an absolutely brilliant performance! Big Al Hincapie's team placed 2nd in the team comp' which was a great result.
A great race and a great atmosphere, hats off to Tim and the team for delivering a first class event that even the weather couldn't put a dampener on!
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
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