1st at San Diego Triathlon Classic

It has been some time since I last won a triathlon an yesterday it happened again. This time at the San Diego Triathlon Classic.

But let’s start from the beginning:

Before coming over to San Diego for my Kona prep I had signed up for the only Olympic distance that was held here during my stay: San Diego Triathlon Classic. The race is put on by fellow Tri Club of San Diego members and owners of San Diegos best bike shop Moment Cycle Sport: JT Lyons and Cory Osth and thus it was a must do while being in town.

When I arrived in town one of my first stops was Moment Cycle Sport to have them look at that creaking Zipp wheel of mine. Within no more than ten minutes Cory had found the problem, a 2mm spacer someone had put in the hub where there was not to be any spacer. Ever since then the wheel works perfectly. Thanks Cory! I then told him that I was going to compete in Saturdays race and returned the day before the race to pick up my race number etc. Only then did I notice that even though some 700 people in total had registered for the race, it was only going to be five guys racing in the Elite category I had signed up for. That made me very nervous as I was sure that whoever it was, everyone would drop me in less than 100 meters into the swim. Nonetheless they had given me bib number 2 and even reserved some port-a-potties just for me – lucky me.

I then racked my bike at just the perfect spot and right next to me another QR CD 0.1 was racked. In the end it was going to be these bikes that would post the fastest bike splits for the day in both the male and female category. Not a bad testament of what that frame is capable of, right?

A lonely swim

When we entered the water the fact that it was only five guys really hit home with me. It was going to be a lonely swim today I suspected. And that it turned out to be. After the gun went off, I tried to keep up with the feet in front of me for perhaps ten seconds then looked around for another pair of feet but everyone had taken off like a rocket and so I was on my own. When I saw the competition slowly disappear on the horizon I began to think whether I would rather have signed up for the age group race. But it was too late for that now. I setteled in to a good rhythm and may have swum at a pace of about 1:30min/100m. Quite decent for me but way too slow compared to the others. At least three times I was really shaken up as the planes taking off at SD International Airport flew past me not 200 meter above. Quite a sight to see. When I approached the one but last buoy I saw the competition exiting the water already and had another 2-3min to swim. Well, I thought let’s play catch up then!

A really good bike

Even if I was really far behind the leaders the crowd at the swim exit still gave me a lot of cheers but perhaps that was just out of courtesy. Perhaps I could impress them a bit more with my bike split I hoped. Thus I grabbed my CD 0.1 and was in no time off onto the bike course. This takes you first through one of San Diegos many military bases, then heads up a 7% grade hill for about one kilometre and than it’s out and back to the Cabrillo National Monument. You then go back to the military base for a second loop before you head back to the transition/finish area.

As everyone else in my wave had exited the water more than two minutes ahead of me it was quite a lonely first five kilometres until we went up the hill for the first time. I was putting out a steady 330 watts and it felt good at the time. Up the hill I increased the effort a bit and there I could see two of my competitors for the first time. I noticed that I had already made up some time on them. At the top of the hill I had nearly caught up to the first guy and passed him on the out and back section to Cabrillo Monument. At the turnaround I checked how far I was back on the leader and that gave me some hope. I was only 1:30min back at the time. So I was making progress. On the second part of the first loop I overtook a second competitor and thus found myself in third place. As we started the second loop things got a little confusing as now we were sharing the road with athletes from later waves that were on their first loop. The overtaking though did not mean any slowing down but rather gave me another push and I think the second ascent up the hill was even faster than the first one. It was only when we left the loop that I did not see any competitors in front of or behind me. They had also pulled out the lead motorcycle on the second loop so there was no way to know where I was. Approaching the transition area I got out of my cycling shoes in order to get off the bike as fast as possible. But – this should remind any reader of looking a course maps very closely before a race – there was another two kilometres as we past transition on another 1k out and back section in order to ride all of the announced 40k. So I had to put my shoes back on and while doing that on way back on that out and back section I saw two guys about 90 sec behind me that I had not noticed overtaking. There were just too many people on the second loop.

And only when I entered transition and the announcer said something about the lead cyclist entering did I notice that I had really overtaken all my competitors - two of them without even noticing it. He also said that I had broken Maccas bike split from last year’s race. So my legs seem to be alright - at least on the bike.

The crowds were amazing by the way. I had put on my Tri Club of San Diego jersey I always race with when in the US so I got even more encouragement in the form of “GO TRI CLUB!” cheers, than I would have normally got. Thanks tri club!

Now they play catch up!

I was out on the run course in no time and even had a lead cyclist with me. The two lap run course is just about perfect to keep track of your competition. There are three turnarounds on each lap giving you six splits in a total on those ten kilometres. I had a lead of roughly 1:30min at the 1k mark on two guys running side by side at the time. And they were looking fast! Faster than me, anyway. And so my lead was down to a mere 30 seconds after the first lap. I was already settling on the thought of being caught by at least one of the guys but still a podium finish was secure so I would not have minded much. But at the first turnaround of the second lap it was still 30sec and people told me that there was only one guy left chasing. I kept my speed of about 3:45min/k up and also on the one but last turnaround I still had a 30 second lead on him. I then decided to push one more time to perhaps distance the guy before the last turnaround and it worked. At the last turnaround I had 40 seconds again ant it was only about a kilometre left to go. I had really pulled the thing off. For the first time for I don’t know how long actually no one had overtaken me on the run. When I approached the finish line the announcer was cheering on the crowds and I high fived a lot of people as I took my time in the finish chute. I was really stoked!

The guy chasing my, Eric Nau from Ecinitas finished exactly 30 sec back. Third across the line was William Jones from La Jolla.

At the winners ceremony we had quite a blast as the race sponsor Barefoot Wineery gave us champagne to have fun with! And I got one of these:

Results: here