Wellington race report 14th March 2011
Good afternoon ladies and Gents,
Back home in Palmy after 4 weeks away, and loving it! Just hanging around home trying to recover, and catching up on all the emails over the last days.
Thanks so much to all of you for the congratulation messages. And for you is the famous Kris Gemmell "inside out view" race report below. Enjoy!
Back to Back! so great to win my Oceania and National title again this year over the weekend in "sunny" Wellington. I've been training like mad in terms of hours, so I was really looking forward to racing and having some fun out there. The last 3 weeks as most of you know have been based at my favorite training haunt the Snowfarm on top the of the Pisa range, in the Cardrona valley just outside Wanaka.
Its amazing up there, and when I'm training there I always get great amounts of quality work done. Being at altitude also means some extra care is needed though. But me and altitude know each other well over the years, and we have worked the gig out quite nicely now.
I flew back home on thursday before the race, and spent a night here before jumping into my Suzuki Kizashi and jetting it to the capital for briefing and check in on friday afternoon. It's always good to catch up with everyone, and being the first big race of the year there was a lot of catching up. It's nice to chat about what everyone has been up to over the summer training period. Also, with everything that has gone on in Christchurch, there was a lot of conversation about the devastation down there. Of course most of the Australians have also had to deal with major flooding and such over summer. So it was nice to all chat about how Mother nature is not that happy at the mo. But how everyone is sticking together to get on with life and repair the damage done.
The next afternoon was race kick off. I awoke to a nice sunny Wellington day, with a pretty standard gusting southerly breeze. It was going to cause some issues for sure out on the bike. So the day would be hard even if you thought you could hide. To be honest I was hoping for these kind of conditions. If the race is hard, it would suit my training far more currently than the on and off pace that can happen in most races we do. So let it blow, and let it shine!
I started as far right as you could on the pontoon and got off to a great start. However, I wasn't alone in the great start stakes, About the next 10 guys inside of me also got off well. I found myself to far right more than I would have liked, and possibly heading around the first buoy 5 or 6 wide. This is never good, and swimming further than you have to is a no no in my books. I made a concerted effort in the last 50 meters before the first turn to get to the inside. It's always a bit rough if you do it this way, but that's where I wanted to be. I cut left and made my move. I got a kick to the face, and few pulls on the shoulders! but I got there, and when I did, I found myself clear and out of trouble. From that point on I worked my way up the field and by the next turn at 800 meters I was in third. I pretty much stayed there for the rest of the swim with no issues at all.
Exiting the water is always important. I spoke about this in my Takapuna report. Although there is no hill in Wellington like Takapuna, the run to transition is pretty long. If you mess around, you can, and most likely will, miss the train! I ran hard, and I arrived at my bike first into T2. I ripped my wet-suit off and jumped on my bike and hit the pedals as hard as I could. Putting my feet into my shoes were not a concern at this point. I just wanted to ride as hard as I could for the first few Ks, if there would be a break it would happen here. As we turned for the first time at the far turn around, we could see the small gap, and also the 8 of us that had made it across to form the group in the front. The make up was good. Some strong riders from Aussie, Tom Davison, Tony Dodd's and myself. So 3 kiwi's and 5 aussies for 40k trying to hold off 50 other blokes!.
Who would be more committed than the other would show through early. The damage has to be done early, so if you have good legs you better be ready to roll from the get go. Tom Davison, Clayton Fettel, Aaron Royal, Tony Dodd's and myself did the majority of the work early. Everyone else chipping in when they could. It worked well like this, and we really forced the big chase group behind us to work as hard to close us down. It was a bit of a who's going to crack before the other, and I tried my best to keep the boys motivated to keep pushing even when it looked hopeless and we may get caught.
It wasn't until the 4th lap when I came up with a small idea to hopefully force the chase group into thinking they were gone for the day. I rode as hard as I could up the hill ( in each lap we had to negotiate a small hill with a u turn at the top of a hill) Until this point we had rode up the hill at the same speed and passed the chase group at the same point on the road on the decent. This time due to my acceleration I passed them much further down the hill, and made it appear we had made big time over the last 5k or so since we last passed each other. But truth have it, we, or I, only made all that time in the last 600 meters. It was a gamble ( I pushed really hard over 500 watts ) but it worked, and they started to sit up a little. It also forced my group to chase me back down so they also had to accelerate, which added to the time gain.
So for the second time, at the same point on the hill, I attacked again. Again I came down the hill much further down the road passed the chasing bunch. So after holding around 20 seconds for 3 laps, after lap 4 and 5 we had 1 minute. It wasn't so much out of sight out of mind but quite the opposite. But its still worked! The last lap we all rode well together, and just consolidated our lead and looked towards the run and gauged how the ride had effected each other.
It's always a hard run along Oriental parade, with the hard compact concrete, and inevitable wind in your face as you return to town, its tough. But with spectators lined along the run, and so close they can grab you, it makes it super exciting. Aaron Royal from Australia and Myself bolted hard out of transition and hit the ground with good legs. You always can see early after a hard ride who has been effected by the bike more than the next. It was clear early on that Aaron would be my combatant today for the win. And although young and maybe inexperienced, he had nothing to lose and was desperate to win, a quality you can't train.
As a fellow athlete you can see this in some athletes and this kid has it. We maintained a good pace through the first 5k and I focused on being as relaxed as I could. I hoped in my head that the race would turn out like this, and so I was always waiting for the last lap of 2.5k before I would make my move to win the race overall. The chase group of guys was where all the big runners were, and they were eating into our lead after being carried around in the big group on the bike. I was always comfortable though, that If I had to respond I could.
Heading into the last lap I accelerated out of the turn, the crowd really picked me up and surged away from Aaron. I could here him suffering a bit just before that also, so when I went I put the hammer down for a K or so before having a look at the damage. When I turned back home for the last time towards the line, I'd made a 20 second gap over Aaron. I felt great, and could really relax over the next 1.25k into the finish. It's nice to be able to enjoy victories when they come. And after a hard day racing, it's nice to celebrate the effort a bit with everyone. Winning back to back Oceania and National Titles is also nice and something I will be proud of during the season as I head around the world. Lastly, It also meant that I could save some energy for this weekends Half Iron-man in Singapore, which I'll need!!
So really happy with the form at this stage in the season. I've really been doing nothing more than base training, and the feeling I had in the race is exciting for the big races ahead. Congratulations to my training mate Ryan Sissons. He also won the U23 Oceania title for the second year in a row, and was flying late at all of us on the run. He also has a lot more to come this year, and working as one over the next months is going to help us both greatly heading into London and the Olympic qualifying races.
Before I sign off, I want to make mention again that I raced with the hearts of everyone of Christchurch on Saturday ( supported the I LUV Christchurch stickers on my bike). But now also to my my friends in Japan, they are all now going through the same natural disaster as Christchurch, but if you can even believe it! with even more devastation. I've raced so many times in Japan, and made so many great friends over the years. It holds a special place in my heart. And so I want to wish you all well, and please know I am thinking of you all.
Cheers,
Kris