Kitzbuhel race report 17th August 2010
Hi Ladies and Gents, I've added into my race report from Kitzbuhel, Austria some references about the London test event for 2012, as it seems some if you missed this somehow. I hope this will keep you company during the morning with your coffee and biscuits knowing how the races have been going heading into Budapest.
Well another day in the life of being a individual professional athlete has passed me by! It truly is a character building one at times. I mean I do love it, for not one moment would I have it any other way, but you do get a wondering about how and why things happen exactly when they do, as they do.
Yesterday was the 6th round of the World Championship series in Kitzbuhel Austria. It's a small town, but well known in the european circles for its charismatic culture especially during the winter. Its a very beautiful part of europe and one that has been kind to me in the past. The course is always challenging and tough for everyone racing.
I had just done a very hard block of training as I work towards my second peak of the year in Budapest. Since London I'd really had my head down working hard. Saying that I know I'm in some great shape and the times in training were both promising and exciting which reflected the hard work I'd been doing. As with London this was part of my plan from the outset. London and Kitzbuhel were always going to fall in the middle of a big block of training but it was no different from Sydney and Seoul at the start of the year.
Part of this mentality meant I needed to be realistic with the outcome of both races. I have the up most respect for my peers and I know most of them are focusing on the overall series as I was last year where this year I changed my focus to more directly focus on Des Moines and Budapest. With that in mind London was nothing more than another chance to check out the course ahead of 2012. I was interested to test my progress in the swim ( I was out of the water 4th) in London and Kitzbuhel was similar. However, in Kitzbuhel I really wanted to test the legs on the bike. It was a slightly changed course from the years past and I really wanted to force the issue a bit on the bike and had the feeling I would not be alone. I knew that with the right attitude and selection of athletes it could work and so I focused on this prior to the race and prepared for it.
When I arrived in Kitzbuhel on thursday I felt great (muscle wise). The altitude was taking full effect, and after a little jog I felt light and ready for action. But then the fairy-tale feeling turned very quickly into a something resembling a badly written exam paper! From one moment to the next I just couldn't go ten meters from the porcelain trophy before having to rush back on top of it. I had some severe sharp pains in my stomach that felt more like cramps. Everything I tried to keep down from that point on, seemed like it was in there for a limited time only. SO need to explain food was not high on the agenda, but I knew I had to eat something as I would need the energy come race day. I played a lot of mental games with myself for the next 30 hours, and finally convinced my body all will be all right on saturday come game time. Don't think my roommate Ryan Sissons was convinced though! sorry bro I know having to have the door open all the time was not ideal ;-)
With all that happened prior to the race I still was pretty relaxed pre start. I was like this in London as well, It's a real nice feeling at that moment and one I'll try to remember for races in the future. When you know you have done the work, I tend not to place a lot of expectation on myself. I know the end result will be a good one and all that is left is a little luck to go my way. The pains were still there but I'd shoved them far enough back to stand on the pontoon with the other 65 guys and wait for the gun to start. Diving in is a normal chore for everyone, but there are good starts and bad starts in this game.
I had another cracker and got in clear water very early as in London. It's been one of my biggest improvements over the year and I know it does not sound like much but in the ITU world of bull-rush around a swimming buoy clear water is golden. This has also contributed to my overall swimming performance, It's meant a change in perspective in how I swim in the race itself and made that part of the race exciting for myself. Its really something myself and Andrew have been working hard on, we both think it will be hugely important with the such high quality in swimmers now in the ITU that are also the best runners!. In a small field like in London 2012 this will be magnified and will make or break the race for everyone.
As we hit the first buoy I got a little bit smacked around but that's Triathlon and I tucked into the group and stayed there for the rest of the swim. I exited in around 13th or 14th roughly but only 8 seconds behind the first out of the water, so you can imagine what that looks and feels like in the water. I had a pretty smooth transition and found myself at the front early and tried to push. I got away once in the first lap just to see who was following and watching. Then I readied myself for a real decent go on the second lap. In London I just wanted to sit in unless a real opportunity presented itself and I was close to react. I also wanted to watch a little how other athletes reacted that day if anything tried to go away.
But in Kitzbuhel I wanted to be the aggressor! It was always going to be tough for me to get away, And I mean no disrespect at all by this but there are some guys who will pretty much always struggle to get away as they are just too marked, unless the course is so tough you can escape by design. But here I was willing to give it a go so I attacked and rode pretty hard for a hundred meters, I got a good gap quickly but the pains intensified as my breathing increased instantly. The harder I breathed the more it pressed, and so when Ivan Vasiliev arrived at my wheel and then Javier Gomez I had to react fast. This selection however was always destined to fail ( with Javier and myself) so I just soft pedaled as not to waste too much energy.
I kept a close eye on how close the peleton was just incase they did sit up and then she would be all on. But as suspected they closed us down pretty quickly and so the chess game was on again. The next time through the town before the cobblestones I attacked again with fellow New Zealander Clark Ellice. It was a good move and at the right time, they did let us ride a bit this time and I turned around and started to see the bunch with some indecision. We put our head down for around a Kilometer but they started to close again. But just as they all got back to us, one meter later it went!!
And what I mean by "it" was the 5 guys who eventually got away and stayed away. I tried to react but my legs were not good at this time after my attempt and I had know punch too cross the gap at that moment and they were gone. At the time if I'm honest I thought it wouldn't stick, the guys that were trying to get away were not bad runners at all, and I was sure a collective would shut it down. But in fact the opposite happened, everyone looked at everyone else and before you knew it they had a minute. It was really interesting however watching the dynamics in the bunch with how they made the time so easily. And the overall World Championship series playing a huge part in the decision making of the group. If that happens (which is most likely too) in the Grand final in Budapest it will make for a very interesting race.
The boys rode really well and all ended up with close to 2-mins in front of us by the end of the bike. We rode on and off once they were gone and because of this they pretty much wrapped up the race at that point for one of them to win if they held it together on the run. Stu Hayes from Great Britain would be the man to survive and take a well earned win. I hit the run with the big group knowing that this was most likely going to be the most uncomfortable part of the day for me. I thought I would start slowly and try to build into it if the pains were not as bad as i imagined. I had done this last year when it was so cold that I froze for the first 5k and still managed 8th. I had great legs I could feel I did but my guts just felt awful. I was in a lot of discomfort, and was really doing myself no good or justice at this point. I've made mistakes before when pushing through the pain barrier and paid for it even more so after the race. I know my season revolves around Budapest and I'm relaxed to say so after the first peak went so well in Des Moines.
I was going back in forth in my head with what I should do and that my day couldn't possibly get any worse, I was sadly wrong. As I rounded the last corner of the first lap just before the 2k mark, I noticed someone was lying over the barriers with spectators all around them. I wasn't sure who it was at first but then I did realise, It was Laurent Vidal my mate that I've been living and training with in Font Romeu for the last 2 months. It was really confusing to see him lying there over the barriers with red cross staff all around him, and to hear people shouting he hadn't been breathing. The medical staff reacted really quickly and an ambulance was onto the course and to him very quickly. They transported him back to the medical tent whilst the race was still taking place and hooked him up to an ECG, took blood sugar levels and gave him an IV drip.
At this point my day was done clearly, and mentally my focus switched to making sure Laurent was ok. Andrea (Hewitt) his partner was also there to watch our race and so was a bit of a wreck, but strong as considering she went through all of that and then backed it up with a 3rd place yesterday "awesome". As it turns out we are still not sure what happened, for those that saw the footage on TV it was not pretty! and even just looked like he tripped and fell, but in fact he completely passed out and his body gave way underneath him.
I know our sport is really hard, and we train just as hard to be good or the best we can be. You never wish this on anyone and with Alastair Brownlee going through the same thing in London its important that Laurent will get checked out and then make a decision on the rest of the year ahead for him. As with Alastair Brownlee in London if you try to come back to quickly from something like this it can be even more detrimental. It was nice of Alastair to visit Laurent in the tent and advise him not to rush back as he may have done, as he really suffered again in Kitzbuhel. It's a real family in the ITU and although we rejoice in everyone's successes we also feel for each other when things don't go the way we hoped they would.
So I write this as I sit on the train heading back to Font Romeu and looking forward to Chris Pilone (my coach) joining me in this last phase towards Budapest. The ducks may not all be in a row as it seems on the surface, but I know they are all wandering around as a group chatting away knowing that when the whistle goes in Budapest there is a place, and a formation they know well and are ready for.
Cheers,
Kris
P.S. just a mention for Aaron Barclay for his great performance in Singapore at the Youth Olympics winning gold in the Triathlon. We are a small country but we have talent all over it! Gore may not be known as a mecca of triathlon talent, but it surely took a step in the right direction today.