Victorian Long Course Championships, Surfcoast Int, Torquay

Mark Stiegler, from 100% Cycles, asked me to do this race some months ago to give him some exposure in his target market. As Mark was the first to help me out with bike sponsorship in 2002 and has continued to provide support up until now (he covered all my expenses for this race) I was more than happy to oblige.

In the one and a half days I spent in Victoria in the lead up to the race, I did not see any blue sky whatsoever, and race day was no exception. It wasn’t all bad though, as the temperature was perfect for racing and there were no sunburn concerns. It will be the exact opposite when I race Ironman Malaysia this weekend. Something to look forward to!

My race did not get off to a good start at all. My goggles were fine when I did my warm up swim, but, due to the constant movement of my goggles from eye socket to forehead while waiting for the delayed start, the nosebridge altered from its correct adjustment, meaning the seal was not optimum and they were going to leak, especially in the choppy conditions. I only noticed this with 15 or so seconds to go to the start and as it was a beach start, I had to make the adjustment as we were running into the surf. As a result, I was dead last as we finished the wade and started to swim. Much to my relief, by the first marker buoy at around 250 metres, I had swam into fourth position.

As is usually the case, the choppy conditions spreadeagled the field. I was just trailing both Craig Mackenzie and Matt Stewart (another 100% Cycles athlete) for most of the swim and I was under the impression that we were the top three swimmers. The lead paddler, visible early on, had disappeared from view, which, at the time, I could not understand. What I did not realise was that a lone athlete had broken away and taken the lead paddler with him. Towards the end of the swim, both Craig and Matt extended their lead on me slightly, and exited the water some 30-45 secs in front. The breakaway swimmer exited around 2 minutes in front, and the other athlete I thought would be in the mix, Mitch Anderson, exited around 90 seconds behind.

The bike course was basically a lollipop shape, with the initial 5 kilometres of the course representing the lollipop stick. Three rectangular shaped loops of approximately 23 kilometres were then completed and a 5 kilometre trek back to the transition area, different to the first 5 kilometres, completed the 80 kilometre journey.

I felt that I was riding my Airborne X - 1 well initially, I had caught and passed Matt by the 2 kilometre point and was closing the gap to Craig very quickly. At about the 8km mark I caught Craig and he paced off me immediately. With Craig in tow, I caught the leader at around the 20 kilometre point and continued to lead for the next full lap of the "lollipop". It was at this point, around the 50 kilometre mark that I decided to call Craig through to do some pacing. At this exact moment, Mitch caught the both of us and attacked straight away. I was determined not to let him get too far ahead before the end of the ride, so I chased straight away, repassing Craig in the process. I was able to hold the gap to around 20 seconds for 5 kilometres or so, but, as I got tired, the gap gradually opened. That extra effort took its toll, and with around 10-15 kilometres still to ride, as I was desperately guzzling some Carboshotz, Craig came through and rode off into the distance also. I struggled into the finish, dropping around 90 seconds to Craig and 2.30 to Mitch in the last 10 kilometres. All this translated to about a 90 second gap to Craig and a significant 3.30 gap to Mitch at the end of the ride.

Much of the run was on gravel paths or grass adjacent to the beach. There were many undulations, twists and turns, which made for a unique triathlon experience. It consisted of a double out and back. The first out and back was a flat 5 kilometres and the second, in the opposite direction to Bells Beach, an undulating 15 kilometres.

Although I have been running well, the bike ride had done some damage, and I started the run feeling just a little better than ordinary. I did get into quite a good rhythm on the initial flat 5 kilometres though and maintained a steady effort throughout the run. We hit the undulations at around the 7 kilometre point of the run. I knew I was tired, because I was barely moving up some of the inclines.

The nature of the course meant that you rarely caught a glimpse of your opposition, so it was impossible to determine just how far in front your opponents were. There was one opportunity to find out at the far turnaround point at Bells Beach, with around 7 kilometres to run. I put my watch on both Craig and Mitch to find that Craig enjoyed a 3 minute gap and Mitch 2 minutes. I still had visions of being able to run Mitch down, but with 3 kilometres to run, the gap was still 85 seconds, and I realised it was not going to happen.

Craig did apologise to me after the race for pacing for so long and, in his defence, I would have employed exactly the same tactics if someone was riding just a little bit faster than me.

All in all, I was happy with the weekend. I got to know Mark a lot better and met his lovely wife, Sharon and energetic son, Kane. I finally got to see some of Victoria - I had yet to venture beyond Melbourne’s airport prior to this excursion and I raced to the best of my ability on the day.

As I mentioned earlier, I am off to Malaysia this weekend to race the very recently resurrected Ironman Malaysia. This was obviously not on the original schedule but I think it is a good opportunity for me and, as a result, was difficult to pass up. It will probably compromise my Forster performance somewhat, but I can live with that.

Train smart and take care.