The Valencia Report

As i wait for the flight i wanted to have an overview of what happened in valencia.

The organization was splendid but i really didnt like the bike course...

The swim was good, the water was cold so i only warmed up outside, even so and in line with what has been happening in the pool i swam well, at the start the marshals said they would give an 1 minute to start call but all of the sudden everything started while i was mooving around to stay warm, with this i had to go through the field and man there are some unsortmanship around there, i was grabed in the hankles a good 5 times and pulled back, cmon, having a kick on the face or punch is part of the deal but this is too much. midway everything got smother and besides a small navigation problem from the 2 guys ahead of me that made us loose a few seconds everything was cool, like the water ;) i got out around 1:30 from the big first group with considering wh was there made me happy with the swim.

I settled to a very fast pace at the begining of the bike since i had legs to do that, the first few kms where smooth and everything was FLAT with 40 min or so i caught to a 10 or so group that remained stable until the wind picked up coming back, it was a loop with terrible surface and with so may 90 degree corners in the reservoir that it was insane with the wind the group splited and i was left alone in the middle. i renenber perfectly going at 300W while my speed was just above 20km per hour, it was insane. All the holes and vibration broke my bottle holder and by the last third of the ride my saddle clamp came loose i needed to ride seated the whole way or i would probably loose de saddle, with that many 90 degree corners and bad pavment it was a bit tortourous to make it worse the rear brake caliper rotated with a pothole \ vibration and started braking my wheel, something i only noticed after the race since with an aero helmet you cant hear much. with 15km to go i was caught by Santamaria group and tried to hang with them. something that was requiring me more than 300W at he end of the bike, i could only think how strong they where or probably it was the brake rubing the wheel, and those 3 extra kms of course (93) in head wind seemed like an ethernity :)

heading to the run i started well, just a bit behing santamaria but soon enough at the end of the 1st (of 3) lap i faded, i kept going till half way but i felt like i wasnt going to do well and honestely not being my objective and since the $ only went 5 deep i slowed down to finish with 4;17 in a flat but far from fat course. I believe if everything went wel i would have a shot at the prize money but really dont care. Later, when i was already in lisbon i found that i was disqualified and i really dont know why and i didnt have any penaly whatsoever but in all truth i dont care, it was a good workout and i enjoyed my swim and bike fitness despite lots of mechanical problems.