Season Opener - Melilla ETU Cup

After trying, and failing, to start my multisport season at the British Elite Duathlon Champs at the end of March, my first race of the 2015 season came this weekend at a standard distance European Cup event in Melilla, a small Spanish territory in Morocco, North Africa. The organizers of the Duathlon champs were forced to alter the event on the day (to a straight 10km run race) after gale force winds and heavy rain were deemed to make it unsafe on the motor racing circuit at Rockingham.

Malaga beach.

Also competing in Melilla were two of my Leeds-based training partners, Gordon Benson and Elliot Smales, so we traveled together, and it wasn't the most straight forward place to get to! It required a flight from Leeds to Malaga on Friday afternoon, a night spent in Malaga, before catching an eight hour ferry across the Med on Saturday lunchtime, unfortunately arriving just after the race briefing on Saturday evening. The TD of the race was thankfully very helpful and had a quick chat with us, highlighting the main things we needed to know, so after a late meal in a nearby restaurant it was time for bed.
Race day morning was surprisingly relaxed as the Men's elite race wasn't until 6pm, so we headed out for a little leg stretcher jog and caught some of the Junior women's, and were able to check out the majority of the course. After a big breakfast (to make sure I got round) it was a long day of waiting in the hotel room and keeping hydrated. We did briefly venture out just to check our bikes were running ok, and went up into some kind of old, stone fortress up on the cliffs which was cool, and had great views out over the Mediterranean Sea.

On the run to T1 in about 10th position.

Finally it was time to head down to the athlete lounge area and register, and then set up in the transition area; after a long wait to be allowed into the transition area we had to rush to warm up, wetsuit up and get to the beach, which was about 500m away from transition area. Having missed the race briefing, the three of us were given the penalty of being last in the line up, regardless of ranking, meaning we had no choice of where to stand on the start line; we ended up all together, on the right of the start. The swim course was interesting in that the water was relatively shallow, and so the first 80m or so was a combination of running and dolphin diving in a splashing mass of around 60 men! As the 'L' shaped, two lap swim course had both left and right hand turns it meant position within the group was constantly changing and at some points I felt like I was in the top 5 or 6, and at others I thought I was miles off the front! But after another round of all the dolphin dives and running in knee-deep water, I emerged out in a solid 10th, 11 seconds behind the leader, and only 5 behind second place. I felt surprisingly good on the long run to transition and was quickly out on the flat, but quite technical, eight-lap bike course, where I felt quite good and made my way up towards the front.

Despite a group of around 20 forming, there were only 5 or 6 who wanted to contribute to the pace,

The breakaway heroes!

so after a couple of laps we were joined by around 20 further athletes! On the third lap I saw two athletes attack out of the group, so after waiting a little while and seeing them begin to ride further away I chased the pair down with an Italian just behind, and the four of us began to work together. Not long after one more Spanish athlete bridged across the gap and the five of us fully committed to the breakaway, eventually reaching T2 with a 69 second advantage. I had a quick transition, and was first out onto the run course, but with very heavy legs, with over 25km of hard riding in the break taking its toll!

Leading the breakaway up to the dismount line.

Heavy legs a few hundred metres into the run!

The two Spaniards and the Italian went off very quickly, and I tried to relax into my running as much as possible, but after only one 2.5km lap Gordon lead the chase pack past me at a blistering pace to which I had no response. Over the course of the run I began to feel better and better with each lap, (my 4th lap being my quickest!) and pulled a few places back from people who had gone off too fast, and I overtook the Italian from the break who was really suffering. I sprinted past two people in the last couple of hundred metres and was happy to finish 21st, 12 positions better than my ranking before the race. Although I felt like I must've been further back than I was, I was later frustrated to find out I was just 5 seconds away from a top 20 which would have scored me ITU ranking points!
I met up with Gordon in the finish area to find out he had manage to lead the chase up to the leading Spaniard from our breakaway, and had out sprinted him to win the race; Elliot also had a good race to finish 38th, originally ranked 58th, and out splitting me on the run by two seconds! Full results are available here.

Elliot and myself after watching medal ceremony

The morning after the race we went for an easy recovery run, and headed inland a bit, away from the seafront where much of the race had taken place. We saw quite a change in a very short distance and got lost in some sort of industrial estate or street market. There were lots of Moroccons buying large packs of goods and carrying them on their backs as they returned across the border out of the Spanish territory. Some had toilet rolls, various foods, clothes, drinks and even bleach, and although we must have looked very out of place, and at times felt a little uneasy, it was very interesting and eye opening, and then suddenly we popped back out onto the seafront which again looked very much more Spanish. The journey back being similar to the outward trip meant we were very chilled out and enjoyed a couple of beers after the race on Sunday evening and Monday evening in Malaga, before finally arriving back in Leeds on Tuesday evening, to resume the training up until my next race in two weeks time at the British University Sprint Distance champs, an event I won in 2013, but was forced to miss in 2014 due to injury! I'd like to thank all my sponsors for their continued support, Funkytrunks, Blueseventy, Leisure Lakes Bikes and OTEsports in particular for this trip! Credit for race photos: H-Trainer.

2014 Round Up

Having completely neglected my blog for over a year, throughout 2014, I wanted to resume a semi-regular use of it! With this in mind I thought it best to give a quick overview of how things went for me in 2014 and what I got up to!

Admiring the view at the top of one of the hills in Spain

The year started with a warm weather training camp in Aguilas, Spain over the New Year period and into early January with my training group from Leeds Triathlon Centre. I had never been on a training camp abroad so this was a new experience for me and the warmer weather allowed a good volume of cycling and running, and we took to opportunity to practise open water swimming with easy access to the sea. Whilst the first two weeks of January were great from a training point of view, the rest of the month I struggled to get the consistency I would have liked first with exams at uni, and then the great British winter seeing me fall foul of coughs/colds and lack of motivation, and it was towards the end of February before I training as consistently as I wanted.

March was a month of big highs and lows. I was informed that I’d been selected to represent Great Britain at the World University Triathlon Championships to be held in Brazil in April, my second GB selection. I then won the BUCS Biathlon Championships, with the fastest swim (a new PB over the 200m) and the second fastest 1500m run resulting in a new Championship Points record, and I appeared to be in good shape.

Prominent collarbone (pre-surgery)

Then came the big low; only two or three days later a bike crash on the commute to morning swim training resulted in a broken collar bone ultimately requiring surgery to ensure it healed correctly. This unfortunately meant I had to withdraw from the University Championships. Surgery took place early April, and there followed a couple of months of rehabilitation and building back into training. This meant a later than usual start to my season, and I also missed most of the qualifying races for Championship events being held later in the season.

Winning a sprint for 6th at Blenheim

June saw a return to racing, starting with a solid race at the BUCS Standard Distance Championships where I got 3rd, followed by the first event in the British Triathlon Super Series, Blenheim Palace Triathlon. Later in the month I travelled to Larache, Morocco for an African Cup event with the intention of gaining some ITU points, which I successfully managed, so get my name onto the ITU rankings; I also raced a 5000m event on the track in Leeds where I got another pb.

In July I enjoyed returning to Holten, Netherlands (location of European u23 champs 2013) for a European Cup race in Holten, and finished the month with a 5i50 race in Marseille, France, which was a good taste of professional non draft racing. The London Triathlon took place in early August and was the third event in the British Super Series, and I had a strong race to achieve my highest position to date in a senior British series race. The National elite sprint distance champs at the Liverpool Triathlon, which would have been the final event of the Series, was unfortunately cancelled due to adverse weather.  Disappointed not to race at Liverpool I decided to enter the UK Xterra Championships (off-road triathlon) largely because it sounded a fun event! This was another new experience for me, and after coming out of the 1500m swim 2^nd behind Richard Stannard I saw the class of the off road specialists on the mountain bike leg, and also encountered a brief stop for a mechanical, eventually finishing 11th. ^rd  Also during August I raced a few cycle road races and crits to gain more experience on the bike and riding in groups, accumulating enough license points to move up to 3rd cat.

Leading the chase group over the cobbles in the Lancaster Classic Criterium race!

In September I agreed to take part in the Helvellyn Triathlon as part of a relay team, where I would do the swim and the bike legs: I got a great start and came out of Ullswater with almost 3 minutes lead, only to have a mechanical leaving transition on the bike and was forced to drop out. My last triathlon of the season was a French Grand Prix event in Nice at the end of the month, representing my team Parthenay. October was a month of rest and recovery, and the odd party, with little to report in the triathlon/multisport world!

In November I made a return to compete for my old Athletics club at the Mansfield National Cross Country (running) Relays, an event I’ve raced at every year since the age of 10! I also set a new 1500m swim PB at the British Universities Short Course Swimming Championships. I then got to grips with Cyclo-Cross to build bike strength and improve my handling skills, and I raced a couple of events.

Riding the (borrowed) Racepace machine to 8th at BUCS Duathlon!

Towards the end of the month was the British Universities Duathlon Championships where I was happy to improved both my time and finishing position for the third year running, and lead the Leeds University team to a team gold medal! There was no racing for me in December other than the Leeds University Cross Country relays and a fun run while home for Christmas!

Results

• BUCS Biathlon – 1st (200m swim pb of 1:58)
• BUCS Standard Triathlon – 3^rd
• Blenheim Palace Triathlon – 6^th
• Larache ITU African Cup – 16^th
• Leeds 5k (track) race – 1^st (new pb of 15:42)
• Holten ITU European Cup – 40^th
• Marseille 5i50 Standard Triathlon – 5^th
• London Triathlon – 4^th
• Lancaster City Centre Criterium – 6^th
• Salt Ayre Criterium – 1^st
• Xterra UK Triathlon Championships – 11^th
• Bashall Eaves Cycle Road Race – 6^th
• French Grand Prix Triathlon, Nice – 75th
• VC Lincoln Cycle Road Race – 6th
• Lancaster University Criterium – 4^th
• Lancaster University Criterium – 2^nd
• BUCS SC Swimming Championships – new 1500m pb of 16:50
• Durham Cyclo-Cross – 13^th
• BUCS Duathlon – 8^th
• Piggy Lane Christmas Eve Fun Run – 1^st