Picture says it all... 1st place at the inaugural TGP event in Kent

On Sunday I took on a world class field at Leybourne Lakes, Kent at the TriGrandPrix and crossed the line as the winner, the reality of which is still sinking in if I am honest. – It was the goal, but to actually tick the box is always tricky. I believe as I spoke to Jose – who hosted such an ambitious and exciting new event – at the finish, I commented on it being “a good day to have a good day” … I couldn’t agree with myself more!

Riding my new Trek Sped Concept to a 3minute lead off the bike

I was relatively concerned going into the race about the travel still lurking from my flying visit to LA and back the weekend previous … jet lag can be a funny thing and I didn’t really know how the body would fire untill the get-go. I shouldn’t have worried – I felt rested and relaxed by Saturday once we had arrived and as soon as I got going on the bike there was no looking back. It was a challenging and tough bike course – just as I like them and within the opening 15 miles I had managed to create a substantial gap on the boys behind. At the dead turn around that point I got a proper look at my advantage and had a wry smile when I saw the damage to Timo Bracht in 2nd … I knew the Speed Concept was flying and throughout the remainder of the ride I continued to feel under control.

I have been working patiently on my run since returning from St Croix in early May and I knew things should be ok when I was told the differnence was around 3 minutes … I kept working hard and stayed focused on the task at hand so that the gap stayed more or less constant.

Winning is a fantastic feeling, and I excited about the season unfolding ahead of me. – The domestic season rolls on – in less than 3 weeks I have Ironman UK 70.3 and then the Ironman 6 weeks further on.

Big thanks to everyone involved in the event on Sunday – to Jose in particular for looking after us whilst down there – and good luck with the next event in the series over in Spain in 10days or so.

Thanks also to Iain at ImacImages for the photo’s above.

Finished … and glad to nip in front of Fred Van Lierde (Belgium) in the last K of the run …

Exiting the water in the joint lead (again with Fred from Belgium!) at the end of the first swim lap

Running out of the water after the swim was complete – we never seem to look too good at swim exit do we?

Somewhere out on the bike course  on my new Trek TTX – I couldn’t tell you where though. Do the shadows look a little too close to you too??

Myself and fellow team members Joe, Julie and Heather share some of our thoughts before race day ……

On Wednesday Blair and I headed into town to have a little look around … we didn’t see much to be honest, and here we are on our way inside a shopping centre, where we ended up killing time watching a movie. Hmm … couldnt have done that at home could we?!?

And finally … this morning we all had to climb onto buses with our bikes! to get down to the race start and rack our bikes before race day tomorrow morning. We figured a little ‘team shot’ could work out nice.

We race at 6.20am tomorrow (Saturday) morning, which is 2.20am at home. If all things go to plan, then have a think of me on the run course from around 8ish onwards …

I’m nervous, but excited too. It’s a unique distance, but ultimately I can learn a ton from it and take it forward for racing Ironman later in the year. That’s the plan. I’ll try stick to it

There is time for just the one more cheeky bike ride before I head back to the airport this afternoon, which will take the tally to - 9 days, including; 10 rides, 10 swims (some a lot shorter than others) – 5 in the sea without a wetty! , 3 runs (being careful with my tender calf), 4 massages (Bart(olome) is still a funny dude), 5 boxes of cereal, 2 jams, a melon or 3, too much coke and of course ….. LOTS of coffee.

A long, wet day. But a winning one.

I was really a little on the sceptical side as to whether this expedition to the lowlands was going to be entirely sensible, but the more adventurous side of me prevailed midweek and the flight to Amsterdam was booked. The total distance (3/110/30k) was longer than I had finished before, and the run was a good chunk longer than I had attempted in about a year (training and racing!) – but it would be ok I told myself, as everyone knows that Holland is flat, right? Em, yeah ….not this bit.

It was good to catch up with fellow T.R.I team mate Alun Woodward for the first time since late last year in Clearwater – he and the family had driven all the way from Hungary through the night – 16hours!! It made our trip to Wimbleball last week seem trivial.

We entered the canal as the heavens opened.

Always a pleasure to race in the rain. I knew that Alun would be swimming well, and he and I exited the water a good 2 minutes in front of the next group, which seemed an awful lot given I didn’t really kick during the swim. I had decided that, if possible and the legs obliged, I would try and push the second 2 laps of the bike. Thankfully Woody was riding well and he set a good pace for the first 55ks. Unfortunately just as the rain was really starting to pelt down he punctured and I was out front alone. – Well, not really alone, given the lead car and 2 or 3 motorbikes at any one time. – They really know how to organise top class, safe racing in Europe.

The bike course was really something, let me tell you!

I actually couldn’t quite believe it when my homestay drove me around the day before! – Twists, turns, ups, downs, cobbles, you name it – it was there. I really should’ve paid more attention to the course profile and info before I travelled. However, with 4 laps to negotiate, there was time to learn it as I went. Boredom was not an option thats for sure. By T2 I had somehow built a lead that approached 15 minutes which left me feeling confident that I could maintain my lead through to the finish line.

I managed to do just that.

The run was good for most of the way – 15ks or so, but then I had the opposite of a speed wobble! Not to worry, it had stopped raining, I could sense the finish, and seeing the 2nd place athlete almost 4k behind perks you up no end I can confirm!

Trophy, medal, flowers and comedy cheque. Job done!

A big thanks to my lovely homestay for the weekend – the Pieters Family. They looked after me really well. And of course to the race organisation, led by Rob de Hooge.

Results and race pics are online at SabicTriathlon.nl

I like racing at home when I can, and the Stirling Triathlon Club have been very supportive of me so far, making it all the more worthwhile being able to give a little something back when I can.

I raced early(ish) in the morning – the first wave off, and it was a few degrees the wrong side of comfortable if I’m honest. Thankfully the forcast rain held off (for the entire day in the end as it were) and everybody was able to enjoy dry surfaces. I myself was happy enough with the way I got round the course. Since I got home from Florida nearly 3 weeks ago, it has simply been a case of getting myself into race shape in time for the UK Ironman 70.3. The process has involved a significant amount of physiotherapy and yet still I had pencilled in both the Athy race in Ireland last week and the sprint at home here in Stirling this morning. It’s been a fair old balancing act, but I feel like I have judged it reasonably well.

Afterwards I was back onto the pooldeck to help out with the kids race. I wish there had been similar racing formats available when I was younger – it without question develops the useful skills required for racing later on down the years. And that asides, it’s plain old good fun racing if you ask me.

8-10yr old kids race; some great start positions there

Some great racing all over the shop this w/e from our squadron including a fatastic win from Dan in the xterra series, where he brought Conrads winning streak to an end aswell as a top 5 from Gav down in wettest Blenheim and also a solid result from Aleksandar at the Swiss 70.3.

Where's Wally? (2nd from the left inspecting his feet)

Why such a LONG trip up there?? Well, let me try to explain. (Briefly!).

Tuesday evening – arrive back from Florida. Early Wed morning – re-pack bags and build bike, fetch hire car for the drive, dismantle bike and fit into said car, panic about being late (to pick up Mike Adams), squeeze in a quick run, finish packing stuff for trip, really start panicing about being late for Mike, then finally leave around noon. Drive 2hrs to LA International airport to pick up Mike who has arrived from Vancouver. (Get stopped by a police motorbike for doing 87 in a 65 and amazingly do not get a speeding ticket due to being Scottish!!! – Think of Gavin GavinNoble.com and shake my fist in glee with a little ‘yaaahooo’) Apologise to Mike a number of times. Re-pack car with additional ‘Mike-gear’. Leave LAX and find the freeway resembles a car park. All 5 lanes of it. I get stressed again, Mike calms me down (it’s all an adventure for him…kids!) Eventually arrive at our stop off point for the evening – family friends of Mike and his family, who lived in Ventura – a beautiful spot on the coast an hour or so north of LA. Mexican for tea (thankyou Ron and Martha!).

Early Thursday – ride bikes (after building Mikes bike) for an easy spin. Leave for Wildflower after lunch. Make good time and reach Lake San Antonio just before 6. Marvel at the beauty of the scenery and generally start to get excited. Wiiiiilllllldflower, as they say over and over and over again.

Friday was a blur of eating/napping/readding/napping/tinkering (with bike)/eating some more/calming Mike!/some excerise/race brief. Oh . . . . and hoping the rain would stop! – YES. It rained pretty much all afternoon. Some people even suggested I should be ‘used’ to it!

Race day was nice and cool and DRY. I wasn’t looking forward to rain on the bike – the course is hard enough as it is, what with hills called Nasty Grade and stuff! I had as good a swim as I could have hope for – 3rd out of the water behind two fantastic swimmers. Clayton Fettel has led the swim in countless ITU World Cups and Andy Potts needs no introduction. – Eventually I will do a 70.3 in the US that Andy doesn’t race at!

Very quickly the bike pace was ON. A formidable group formed including everybody I had assumed would be riding hard, and so I was just happy to be sitting amongst the players. Bjorn Andersson had ridden away from us, and we formed 2nd through to 9th spots on the road. And so it stayed till mile 40ish, when we hit Nasty Grade which is a gradual 5 miler that culminates in a pretty steep short section. I got dropped here I am afraid. It is the first time this has happened to me in a long time, and I just had to grit my teeth and muscle through the final 15 miles or so. I lost around a minute on the group into T2 so the damage wasn’t too bad in the end. I need to go back to the drawing board to find out why things went a little south on the ride however….. methinks maybe hydration. Maybe.

The run was never going to be pretty.

I had completed my longest run in 9 weeks at the St Anthony’s race the previous w/e – all 10k of it. You can blag 10k at the end of an olympic distance. You cannot however blag or fake a 21k run at the end of the Wildflower race let me assure you. After a reasonable portion of walking (I decided the hills were too steep for me to try and run up!) I got through the first 9miles of trails and actually ran not too badly for the final 4 miles of tarmac . I lost the top 10 spot I had been holding at 7 miles and got passed by another couple of lads in the final half mile descent into the finish chute… and crossed in 13th position, over 11 minutes slower than my time last year – all lost during the run (my longest in 10 weeks).

However the main take home message for me was that there was no pain during the run, and after some sensible post race management (ice and LOTS of Ibuprofen!) I was in none too shabby shape for cheering on Mike during his olympic distance race on Sunday morning. – He finished 9th place in the Collegiate race in tough conditions. He thoroughly enjoyed it and most importantly had sore legs the morning after – he went hard enough evidently! Well done buddy – a great race and an event to remember!

We got VERY well looked after for our lodgings! – This was inside of the house myself and Mike were given to stay at! Quite amazing.

I certainly hope I’ll be back at Wildflower next year!

The swim was VERY choppy – in fact so choppy that the entire age group swim was cancelled with the race becoming a straight draft fest, i mean bike run. Poor folks, I mean having to do a duathlon?!

I got smashed around (i am making a habit of that lately unfortunately) and ended up in a big group of guys who were at least a minute down on the leaders by the time we got into T1.

Onto the bike and I got going really well to begin with. By 10 miles I had started to drop off that pace and ended up watching Terenzo ride off (he did end up with the fastest bike split however) and I settled with a few others til around the 18 mile mark, when well, I did a stupid thing – I cut the course. Its difficult to explain but essentially I got confused as to exactly WHERE I was supposed to do a dead turn. I did it too soon! The race ref was right there on his motorbike ready to dish out a red card! Thankfully I did the right thing and re-did the turn! Idiot.

The run was fine, in that it was pain free. I got passed by a few guys and ended up outside the top 10… but I am confident I am finally, after 9 frustrating – and expensive - weeks of physio getting back to where i need to be.

Next stop Wildflower  – looking forward to it!

the 'Brit's' chat - Rich Allen, myself and Toby Jameson

I raced this event last year, and in it’s second outing it was even more impressive this year. My new sponsor for wetsuits is Profile, and they were the title sponsor, so it was a great way for me to meet those folk too.

The race kicked off in near darkness at 7am, as the light was just creeping over the cityscape – it’s a strange scene looking at all the light of the skycrapers before you run into the water! It was a relatively small, but very impressive group of guys that lined up this morning.

I was a little nervous, as always, on the start line (a rapid heart beat never doesn’t anyone any harm right?) but mostly excited to see if I could hang out with these guys on the swim/bike. My swim has been going pretty good in the pool, but that never means much if you can’t hold onto those feet come race day! Unfortunately I let those pesky feet and bubbles go this morning. 4 sets of them! You’d think I could catch just the one, anyone, i’m not fussy.

So I got out onto the bike in 5th spot, and started to try and find the fast tempo required for this distance. – You can’t relax over 40ks. Not one bit, not at this level. Every pedal stroke must count, especially so on a falt course like this one. (There is a bridge we went over 4 times, but in my mind it was flat!). I had led out a small group of guys from the water, including Fred Van Lierde from Belgium – Fred and I am both raced in the 70.3 in South Africa in Jan, so it was good to see him again. He’s a super friendly guy.

It also included a couple other guys – one of whom I had hoped to stay with when he passed me on the bike; but Chris Lieto blew past me so fast that he could have given me a cold. And another lad also did the same. I say ‘lad’ as it turns out he was only 19!!!! Amazing power for someone so young. These two went on to lead out the bike into T2, I guess a couple minutes in front of me. I myself went by a couple of those aforementioned pesky feet, and pulled away from Fred, who stuck with said feet. I got into T2 in 5th spot and not so far behind Andy Potts, which seemed a little enouraging.

Not one for excuses, but I had always decided this would be a swim/bike race for me with a 10k shuffle of it. I have not run properly in over 3 weeks; although I have been running/jogging regularly this week as my leg has improved. The last time I ran as far as 10k was over 3 weeks ago. Some people wouldn’t find this a big deal.

NOT ME!!

I fall apart if I stop decent running for more than 10 days and end up looking like someone who has adopted someones elses lower limbs. Not pretty. So at 5k on the run I was outta the $$’s and in 7th spot. I then got caught by a bit of a legend in non drafting racing – Oscar Galidez.

This was new territory for me, as whenever I have raced him before, he has been off the bike before me, never to be seen (by me) till the tent filled with slices of oranges and cups of coke. So I pulled myself out of my self pity and surged along with him. It was fun, and probably the highlight of my race!

It only lasted a mile and a half, but just before then he barked in broken English ’you on first lap?’ at me …. to which I replied in the negative, and then he took off! He shook my hand at the finish with a smile and that was that. Quite cool though.

The race won by Matty Reed, a mere 2 secs in front of fellow American olympian Andy Potts, with Ironman bike ace Chris Lieto in 3rd. Results here.

I’m quite tired now as I write this, in the early evening. It’s been a long day – breakfast was at 4am, and I am sure there will be a whole host of aches and pains come the morning time, coupled with the blood blisters that running in brand new racing shoes ensure….. Wouldn’t want it any other way.

Next race is Oceanside Ironman 70.3 in California in 3 weeks time (ironmancalifornia.com), where I will get to race a lot of the same faces, but over a distance I am much more comfortable with. Onwards and upwards. It’s a long season ahead; patience is key.

Not the typical lats you tend to see on a bike rider......

Otherwise I have been dodging the traffic as best as possible – on Monday evening I got lost on my way home and ended up on US Highway 1 – which I am pretty sure is not a legal place to ride your bike. It ended up being an interval session as I attempted to keep up with the traffic between sets of traffic lights, which seemed the safest thing. Ultimately it was a fruitless attempt as the lights were more often than not far too spread out, and the cars did their best to let me know I was in the wrong place completely. Loud horns.

I got a nice snapshot of the city skyline on my way back over the bridge – the only hill on the bike course for this w/e ……

…….. and of the more leafy surroundings of my homestay for the week – there is a lot less traffic in here!

Guess who didn't bring a front training wheel with him??