Hamburg WCS

After settling in at the hotel in Hamburg and having a few good meals at the Hamburg Central Train Station I rested up and prepared for my last race in the April – July block.

I felt really relaxed and confident going into the race and was excited to finish this series of races with a good one. The swim was a little less the crappy with my goggles being knocked off twice but I tried to move up after the s*#*t show at the first turn and got out of the water just behind the front group. I had a fast transition and worked through the first lap with Frodeno and Docherty to quickly catch the group and settled in for the rest of the bike. There were several attacks that amounted to nothing and then one final one that managed to get away and stick and I chose not to go with it doubting it would stay. However it stuck with a 1min 20 gap so moved to the front and lead the main group into transition so that I could head onto the run with the front runners. I went out hard but controlled with the front three guys and held them until Kahlefeldt put in a strong surge and I started to string off the back. I worked hard to stay in touch and faught back at each of the two turnarounds on the first lap but they surged again on the downhill and I just couldn’t summon the legspeed and a gap then opened. I ran solid and tried to let the gap open slowly and surged with each of the three Russian’s that surged by mean holding the last one for the next two laps. The last lap I pushed hard but was struggling to draw in the last remaining guy of the breakaway fellow Canadian Paul Tichelaar. I got close but just didn’t have the strength to pull the last 15sec or so to finish in 13th. I really gave it on the run but can’t help but think if I hadn’t needed to take a week off of running after Kitzbuhel I would have had the strength to hold the lead runners and crack that top 8 I wanted so badly.

I am still very happy with the performance and it was still a fast and strong run and a good way to going into the next training block now for the Grand Final on the Gold Coast of Australia.

Now it is time for a quick holiday (two days) with my girlfriend Carolyn on Hornby Island and then it is back to work.