Thursday, June 30, 2011

Nice photos













Monday, June 27, 2011

Nice was Nice

Havent bloged much after texas...

I am now in some sort of point chase while i enjoy racing...

Nice would promise to be a tough race because.... welll its Nice. After racing the half ironman in Aveiro i did a small block of training taking advantage after some holidays in portugal. i traveled kinda late to the race site with WC164K so i never had the chance to really take a look at the course and i knew how important those downhill are when you need to gain the most time possible.

Anyway directly to the race day as there isn't anything very important to mention other than the long 5 minute walk to the transition area :P

the race started at 6:30, i woke up a bit later than the usual and had my breakfast later too. part of the reason was of course not having to move around too much to get to the race...

Bike preparation was uneventful and soon i was in the water for a short warm up or getting the wetsuit wet.

It was a mass start with the pros in the middle and some gates in both sides with the faster swimmers next to the pros. I started "slowly" just trying to get into the rhythm progressevely. in the process i became visually impaired since i took quite a few punches in the first few hundred meters. There was no way i was going to stop to fix this with 2500 athletes behing me so i did the first large lap with my goggles full of salty water. I felt great while swimming in a group but had no idea on what was going on up front as i couldn't see more than shadows and a few caps. After the first buoy (1000m) thing got more peaceful and it was just a matter of being able to get out of the water fast. At the end of the first lap, around 2400 and a short run in the beach i only saw on group up ahead that would mean that the lead pack was so far ahead i couldn't see or in fact that pack was the lead one. the rest of the swim was uneventful and i felt very controlled the whole way. when i got out of the water and saw the clock that was located just before getting the bags i was definitely happy,  i saw 54min. that of course could mean nothing but seeing most of the pro bikes still racked definitely meant something, i had a good swim....finally.

Now to the bike course... the tough part. I started like i usually do, not rushing things. there was around 15 20 km before you hit the mountains, and what a start, a super steep but short hill, around 500m that really putted me out of breath ;) after that climb the course gently goes uphill and some downhill until you hit the big climb of the day, before that i was passed by some guys that i would never expect to be in front after the swim. The climb was somewhere near 20km with some steep sections and other not so steep. At the beginig of the climb i couldn't believe my eyes and i was passed by ords of athletes!!! WTF i was kinda feeling the worst guy at the race. soon enough tough i started going through them again one by one. i suffered a bit on the the steeper parts for sure but i got in the top of that climb in around 13º with Scott. After that there was a downhill that needed pedaling. i had fun doing it leading scott too soon there was the second big climb of around 8km. There i was caught by someone that it was worth the effort to not being "dropped" and i was sure Trevor tried to pass me and leave me behind. I took an extra gear to keep him in sight until the downhill. Another fun part. Trevor clearly didn't have great bike skills so i just pushed the pace in the downhill. yes i got my share of adrenaline in one occasion where i almost went of course but overall great descent. the last 50km its downhill and flat (last 20km) i led the group untill T2 unaware that santamaria caught us probably at the top before the downhill.

Run time, Trevor and Santamaria just took of so fast at the beginning that i almost couldn't see them. I wasn't feeling bad nor i was running slowly they just started im MDK mode. Frederik and Chabaud where to far away, but the rest of the guys where in reachable gaps. I had to move to the toilet at around 7km, i was afraid that something like south africa could be up ahead... i didn't spent too much time in it, just a few seconds and when i left i started flying ;) i really felt better after that. second lap saw me passing santamaria and getting close to Trevor delsaut. half way through i was in his heels and soon enough i passed him to get into the 5th position. Zamaora wasn't too far away neither was Paul Amey that was fading hard. I kept going in the 3rd lap to build a safe gap to the guy behind but in the final lap i started slowing down too much...enough to forget about chasing Paul and Zamora and just get to the finish. Its very hard to spot the guys in front with so many athlete on this 4 lap course. Paul ended a couple minutes ahead while Zamora actually gained time on my in the final 5km.

At the end 5th place was a very pleasant result for me. i was chasing a good result for some time now and had a good swim at least one that reflects my pool times, good controlled bike and im back to sub 2:50 runs. i really can ask much more than that right now ;)

And what a awesome course this is, one of the prettiest i ever done right up there with lanzarote. Tough courses are alway pretty i guess ;)

more soon as i wont have much time to rest, off to breakfast....

Thursday, June 2, 2011

thanks Carlos

For this video :D.  Trans Portugal of course