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date: 26/08/09
Xterra New Zealand 2009
After a bit of down time since Ironman and even a bit of
almost real work I was really itching to get into some racing by the time Xterra
came around.
I’ve been doing some work for Andrew Martin who makes the
Kayaks Elina and I paddle and enjoying a change to the constant battering of
full time training.
Being of a slightly competitive nature I was obviously
keen to get a top result at Xterra and knew that to do so would require a
certain amount of hard work which wasn’t that appealing straight after Ironman.
I decided therefore to keep my hours at a minimum and focus on a honing what
little speed I have while also trying to get my swimming going a bit better
after the disappointment of my swim in Taupo.
A great change was getting on the new Jamis MTB and
thrashing it around the new trail network in Nelson, it was obvious early on how
much the skills had dulled after 6 months primarily on the Time Trial bike but
fortunately they started to improve each week.
Travelling up to Rotorua was suppose to be a nice easy
trip but after being delayed in Wellington we missed our flight from there to
Rotorua, ended up in Tauranga and then on a bus to Rotorua, arriving some 4
hours later than anticipated. This meant a bit of a cram session on the course
on Thursday afternoon to get to see where we’d be heading. Luckily we had the
services of Justin who saw to it that we didn’t get lost and saved us a long
uphill ride to the Blue Lake meaning we didn’t arrive home in the dark.
The first impressions of the course were how stunning the
Blue lake area is and once we had been through the MTB course I was thinking it
was lucky we had been late or I may have worn myself out with excessive trips
through the Billy T and Split ends tracks, they were great riding. The run
course was a great loop around the lake and looked to have just enough elevation
and rough stuff in it to give me a good chance against the more fleet of foot.
The next morning I had a quick spin around the MTB course
– just for good measure before we headed off to the V8’s in Hamilton with Ross
from Jamis bikes. It was the final practise sessions and was a different but
good way to keep occupied and the mind off the following days racing.
Race day and we were up to the lake early for Elina to do
the 21km running race which forms part of the weekends racing. Whenever Elina
says she doesn’t feel like racing she seems to go well so after the morning of
complaints it was no surprise to hear at the halfway stage that she had a good
lead. 45 minutes later she reappeared and took out the race by about 10 minutes
and sneaking into the top 10 overall.
A lot of the pre race hype was surrounding Terenzo,
justifiably given his win last year and his obvious pedigree in tri style
events. The others I had an eye on were Tim Wilding, 2007 Champion and wicked
Mountain Biker, Mark Leishman, Xterra athlete and wicked Mountain biker and I’d
had several people mention Scott Thorne who was 3rd in 2008 and had been at
Cameron Brown’s training group in France last year.
It seemed to me the main questions were if anyone could
catch Terenzo on the bike and put enough of a buffer on him before the run as
surely he would have a good lead after the swim? Where would I fit in on the
swim? And would I be able to stay close enough to the better Mountain bikers to
have any chance of challenging them on the run?
The actual Xterra race started at 11am, a nice leisurely
start and it was nice and warm by the time it was time to get into the wetsuit
and into the water for a warm up. I had been doing less miles in the pool but
swimming much harder in training and once again I had no idea of what to expect
from the swimming.
When the gun sounded it was a few strides to the water and
then a mass of flaying arms and legs – someone got some pretty good shots in on
me but soon the pack stretched out and it became a little easier to swim. The
pros were all in yellow caps as opposed to the red ones of the age groupers and
I had purposely started next to Tim Wilding to give me a gauge of how the swim
was going. Heading out to the first turn I could see his cap just in front of me
and although I was working hard I was hopeful I could stay in the same relative
position until the end.
Once around the first turn I had a good look around and
there were about 5 of us in a small group and the pace seemed to even out a bit.
I was in a good draft and tried to go around and get in front of Tim in the last
few hundred metres but we ended up just swimming apart by about 5m but side by
side for the last part – each thinking we’d lost the other. We were about 90
seconds down on Terenzo so it was a much smaller gap than I was prepared for.
Through transition and Tim got a small jump on me and he
stomped it up the road while I tried to limit the losses as much as possible.
Heading onto the track we’d both passed a few other bikers and I was told I was
in 5th as we headed off road. I could see 3 others in front and soon Tim and I
only had Terenzo to chase. As we headed up the first hill I finally managed to
latch onto Tim and I think we both probably put a bit extra in to try and get
away from each other. It was only a few minutes later when Terenzo suddenly came
in to view and as we passed him he quipped that “we weren’t suppose to catch him
for a while yet! “
Tim and I went back and forwards for the lead up the hills
and through the frontal lobotomy track. I was hopeful if I could be on his tail
going into the Billy T track that I might be able to follow his lines and keep
up but as we turned in I was too keen and pulled a foot out of my pedal and he
got just enough of a gap that I couldn’t see his lines and he gradually
disappeared out of sight.
I didn’t feel like I was riding as well as I had in
training, probably trying to rush everything to much and as I headed through the
final turns of Billy T I was aware of another rider approaching at speed behind
me. Scott Thorne then came flying past and as we headed down another short
section of single track he just blazed away from me.
Luckily once out of the bottom there was a bit of a grunt
up some less technical tracks and I was able to almost peg both Scott and Tim
back just as we hit the Split ends track. Again I lost sight of both of them and
the track seemed to take forever. Once out the bottom I knew I would have to
give it everything to try and get back in touch before the run.
Slowly Tim came back into sight and then on the final hill
I could see Scott maybe 20seconds further up the hill. I lapped it out with Tim
over the final few kilometres and we headed into transition with Scott now only
about 10 seconds up.
I had a much speedier transition than the first and got a
small jump on Tim as we headed out on the run. Scott was running a very similar
speed to me and was looking strong. It took me about 2km to get up to him and
once past he just tucked in behind me and refused to give an inch.
As we headed up the stairs at the far end of the lake I
thought I might be able to get a small break but he seemed pretty comfortable
and I can’t say my legs we responding quite as happily to them as I would have
hoped. The track gradually rises from there for about a kilometre and still he
ran right on my shoulder. I finally managed to get a small gap on the way back
down the track towards the lake which next time around would signal about 10
minutes to go.
I was finding the legs were a lot worse from the MTB than
I experienced from running off the TT bike and decided that it was not worth the
risk to try and put in a big move with more than a lap to go and as the track
flattened out Scott gradually pulled back up onto my shoulder and we went
through the end of the lap stride for stride.
As we headed around for the second lap I could gradually
feel a small gap opening and as we passed runners heading out on their first lap
I could gauge from the delay in comments to him that I must have a small break.
Up the stairs and I tried to keep the effort as steady as
possible and as I rounded the corner at the top I sneaked my first look back and
saw I had about 15 metres now. His supporters at the top of the stairs were
screaming encouragement and I felt that with the lift he would surely go flying
past me at any moment. I didn’t look again and just focused on turning my legs
over as fast as possible. By the top Scott still hadn’t passed me and I really
gave it a good burst down the hill where I’d managed a small gap on lap 1. As it
flattened out again there were a few straighter sections and I sneaked a second
look back at the end of one of these – relieved to see clear space behind me for
the first time.
Coming onto the beach with only a couple of hundred metres
to go I was able to enjoy the experience and by the finish the strain of the
last two hours had been well and truly been replaced with the satisfaction of a
hard fought victory.
Scott came in less than 30 seconds later and Mark Leishman
cam in 3rd. Tim finished the day in 4th and Terenzo 5th.
Frank and his team at Xterra put on a brilliant weekend of
racing and I would highly recommend the events to anyone. Elina was even so
impressed with the Xterra format she is making noises about learning to swim
this year.
A huge thanks as always to our major sponsor
SUBWAY
also to all our other sponsors,
R&R Sport, Jamis Bikes, Kia Motors, Nike, High 5, Em’s
Power Cookies, Tineli,
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