STIPDONK RACING

European Duathlon Championships

 

The weather in Scotland sucked. It was raining, windy, cold, and humid.
The run course was good. Very hilly. For each lap 2.5km, about 700m was
spent running through a dark, smelly, underground tunnel. The bike course was
wicked. It was 6 laps around this huge mountain. At the top it was so foggy
that I could only see about 75-100m in front of me. The decent was super
fast and curvy. The climb was steep and made those less fit cyclist
suffer.The course was super slow. The hills and the weather made the
run/bike/run times look like we ran and cycled backwards. My times look very slow,
but if you compare them to others, you realize that there were fairly decent.
Anyway, that is exactly what happened in the first 10km in the race. on
the bike I made up a 1min gap to catch a group within 10min, so I'm fairly
fit on the bike. Just as fit as the best riders. Anyway, I caught up with a
group, however, they didn't want to take turns pulling to catch the
other group that was about 1.5min ahead.  I pulled the group for a bit but
decided that I wouldn't be able to catch the group ahead of me by myself...so
the pace of the group slowed dramatically - low tempo - but still some
riders were dropped on the hills that circled the mountain.  I was feeling
really good and was prepared for a fast last 5km run. However, at the beginning
of the last lap when we were riding around the traffic circle, the Canadian
in front of me crashed from slipping on the wet pavement (it was
windy,cold, and raining throughout the whole race). Since I was right behind him
drafting in the last position of the group, I crashed on top of him. 
Immediately, about 7 spectators run towards us try to pry our bikes
apart. My wheel being tangled in his seat was one of the many problems. I
watched the other riders climb the hill and disappear around the mountain while
people were untangling the bikes. Finally, my bike was free and I chased
the riders ahead of me. I slowly caught up to them by the end of the lap but
was still nowhere near them. I had a decent second run, almost catching one
racer in front of me but managed to fall about 15 seconds or so short. I
would have most definitely finished ahead of the people in my bike group
if not for the crash. I finished 35th overall. To see how my times compare click on the link.
So with the race being over, I'm feeling very confident and pumped and
know what I need to improve on for Nationals in Ontario on Sept. 15 -- that
speed for the first 3-4km of the first 10km. That way I'm already with a bike
group - drafting or catching another group ahead.

The whole trip except for the bike training went smooth. All my luggage
showed up on time, which was awesome. Five minutes into my first biking
session, I discovered I had an inch needle stuck in my tire. The next
morning my front tire was flat. Since I have tubeless tires I had to get
them fixed the next day and wait the entire day for the bike store to
glue the tires back on. The running around Scotland was great. There are tons
of parks and trails everywhere, yet the weather was constantly crappy.

Good race overall!

I was fortunate enough to attend the 2007 World Duathlon Championships in Gyor Hungary this year.  Quite a different atmosphere from Australia. While my dad and I were there we saw some very interesting buildings and some very different people.  We took a train ride to Budapest to see the river and some of the 700 year old buildings.  In one section of the town the buildings were covered with bullet holes. There was some sort of protest going on.

 

The race itself was a great success.  I was at the front of the starting line with 451 people behind me. My goal was to take off and sprint the first 200m to get away from everyone else and not get tangled up or have my shoe stepped on.  Luckily, about 20 other people did this with me, so I didn't look like a moron out of nowhere.  The 10km was fast....30:10 (it was short by about 1.1km) and I was in 11th position. The transition went very smoothly, and I came out with a few guys. For the entire 40km bike portion people were drafting off one another all over the place (drafting is illegal) and it seemed like the motorcycle that was following us was handing out yellow cards and five minute penalties to everyone. I was lucky enough not to get a card. Even though I wasn't drafting, there were times when the pack of us were so tight, I thought the motorcycle guy was going to hand me one.  I made up one spot on the bike and came into the second transition with an American.  My transition from the bike to the run was flawless and I got out before he did.  About 1km into the 5km race, he caught up to me and was starting to pass, I decided to hang on to see if I could keep up.  Not only did I manage to match his pace, he ended up slowing down and I ended up beating him quite easily in the end for 9th/16 in my age category and 40th/451 overall.  Although my placing was further behind that it was last year, I had a personal best in all 3 portions of the race.  So I pleased with the result and hopefully I can take a bigger step up for the European Duathlon Championships in Scotland on June 16 where I'll be racing in the elite category. Wish me luck.

 

And one another note... in my race bag they gave me a large can on Hungarian beer.  A little odd to be handing out to all the athletes don't you think.

Hello Everyone,

Since Brys added me to the Untied Cycle webpage I've been getting tons of views so I figure it's time for another written report. Tim has been giving me some high intensity intervals lately as I prepare for the 2007 World Duathlon Championships in Gyor, Hungary on May 20th. I've also got my tickets booked for the European Duathlon Championships in Scotland for June 16 - that should also be a big one.

As for the weather here: today was the first day that I was able to go outside with a t-shirt on.  We still have lots of snow, but it's slowly melting away. I'm hoping by next week I'll be able to take my 'cross bike out for some riding. Yeah, I know all you Edmontonions have been riding outside for quite some time now.

For all those reading in Edmonton, give me an email or a comment and let me know how the training and riding is going there.

Thanks guys.

Brys, how's the police thing going?

The days are starting to get a little longer here is Simpson. The sun now rises around 9:00am instead of 10:30am like it did in December. It's still really cold though.  The other day is was -42C with the windchill which makes running and riding outside impossible.

In other news, I bought myself a small house in town. It needs a lot of renovation work, but it will fun to work on and I get to decide how things will be done. I'll put some pictures up tomorrow.

Later

Check out this kid. He's my brother's friend doing all these jumps in Fort Simpson. Wicked.