by SickBoy » 14 Aug 2014 18:17
T1:
Exit the swim and it's a long run to T1, about 350m by the time I get to my bike and on to the mount line. I pass the WAT who is back on speaking terms after I failed to wake her early enough to have a shower but that's a whole other story. (We got over on the Metro as we live kind of the other side of Montreal so despite race start at 08:50 it was still an early start to get to Verdun). Apparently I'm about 7th or 8th out of the water she tells me later, not too bad (though the faster swimmers all in the earlier wave.).
Not too slow getting out of the wetsuit but it still sticks on the ankles, now I've had it 4 years I might cut them shorter... I don my new Giro Air Attack Shield, step into my number belt, shoes on (no preclipping for me) and off to the mount line. Maybe 1:00 to 1:30 plus all the time spent running there.
Bike:
The bike section is on closed roads, a pretty flat J-shaped 4km lap which we complete 5 times. I've made sure I reset my bike comp so I can see how far I've gone incase I lose count. My strategy is to race hard, I get into the gear I usually go with on the track which should get me around quick and pedal fast, I'm also working on efficient pedalling, making sure I get all power of of the downstroke and once I settle into a rhythm I focus on pushing all the way down, pedalling good circles. The remnants of the ladies womens TQ race are currently on the course.
The road surface is pretty good for Montreal though there are a few potholes here and there, despite it being a hot day I don't really notice the heat, I feel like I'm going well on the bike, I just keep going past people, I think only 1 or 2 riders come past me and I'm sure I take one of them back later.
I have to start shouting "à gauche!" a lot, to get people to move out of the way, mostly I'm passing women but the course starts to fill up and with it being laps you keep passing people. There are motorbike marshalls out on the course, I start to worry about drafting penalties, I know you have to stay 10m back but can't remember how long you get given to overtake but most of the time I am shooting past people. I hit one or two small potholes pretty hard and make a note to look out for them on following laps.
I'm crap at the U turns, with slower people infront I'm usually trying to overtake as the corner comes up, but most of the time I'm not taking a smooth line through. I get up to something like 41.5km/h max (checking the bike comp after) and I think I'm crusing at around 35km/h, IIRC it's a little windy in one section which drops the speed a little and there's a faster drop through one of the corners, I try to push hard at this and carry the momentum up the follwoing straight. About the 3rd or 4th lap I fly through this as my confidence is building but the surafce is uneven and the bike is bumping up and down quite alarmingly and I find it hard to follow the bend drifting out wide I come a bit close to the kerb - that was close I think and power on.
At the U-turn by transtion I get a shout of "Good corner!" which I can only assume is sarcastic. At the U-turn at the other end at one point I lock-up slightly as I come in fast trying to get past people (anti-clockwise loop and passing on the left means slower rides on the outside where you want to be for the entry).
The laps go by pretty quick and before long it's the last lap, I'm making a note of the run up to the dismount line and start to push hard on the final lap.
And this is where it goes wrong, on the return leg of the final lap with about 1.5k to go I come through a corner too fast and too tight on the entry, I think I might have been looking down to have a drink from the speedfill just before, not noticed how fast I was going or that the corner was coming up, looking at the map now it was a 90 deg left hander straight after a shallow right. I came in on the inside of the turn too fast, maybe 35km/h, and couldn't turn left fast enough, drifting outside toward the kerb there was a horrible moment where I realised I was going to hit it, I shout "Oh f%*k!" and a second later there was an impact and I'm flying off - the edge of the road handily lined by temporaray "No Parking" signs one of which I plough right through but thankfully no pedestrians/spectators. The only memory I really have of it was seeing the visor of my brand new $300 helmet skip across the sidewalk infont of me as I had landed in a heap.
I pick myself and it up, can't believe I've crashed, worried about all my bike and helmet and then all I can think of is I'm not going to DNF after coming all this way and having one race and especially if my bike is screwed and I won't be able to ride it again. I retrieve the visor and snap it back on (magnetic), I think my hands were shaking a little. I pickup the bike and climb back on, I will try to ride it away to see if it is functional - I look down and the chain is still on, someone says "Are you ok?". "I'm fine" I reply, "Are you sure?", "Yes. I'm fine.", I desperately want to finish - it's not far to the run. I check my shoulder which appears to have take the brunt of the impact and is grazed, my leg is cut but I clip in, pedal away and get back onto the bars...
TBC again - lunchtime is over - back to work!
Globally dominating Canada