Edmonton World Cup Race Report

Well, that didn't go quite as planned.
Great swim, struggled a bit on the bike, no legs on the run.

I was the 2nd last guy out to the start line, so I got the 2nd last choice for starting spot. I ended up being about the 6th or 7th guy in from the right side, which was a bit longer than the left side (as the course curved to the left a bit at the start). I had a pretty clean start, swimming right beside Andrew McCartney for about 100m. We had some clean water, and I moved around him and started bridging over to the group coming on the left. Brukhankov was leading, Jenkins was on his feet, and I tucked in on Jenkins feet around the first turn buoy. I passed Brukhankov at roughly 600m or so, leading into shore to end lap 1 (and take the swim prime). I lead the whole 2nd loop, leading a long string of athletes out of the water and up to the transition zone.

The bike was tougher on me than I thought it would be. I managed to stay in contact with the front group of roughly 18 the first time up the hill, though I didn't have much pop in the legs for the climb. We had 35" or so on the chase group after the first loop, but that would be the last I'd see of the front of the race, as halfway up the hill on loop 2 I got popped out the back of the group. I had positioned myself approx. midway in the group for the climb, but quickly went backwards as there was a slight attack at the front, and I just couldn't match the acceleration. Once I rounded the corner at the top, I was 60m back of the group at least, and had no way of bridging back into the group. Zvonko Cubric and I ended up riding the rest of the 2nd loop together, though in hindsight, I should have just let up and waited for the chase pack, as Joel feels I left myself out there on my own a bit too long after getting dropped.

Once in the chase group (including two Canadians Kyle Jones and Brent McMahon) we lost a bit more time to the leaders, coming off the bike 2:30 down. Once in the chase group, I was able to hang in more easily on the climbs, which was a bit frustrating that I couldn't hang in earlier on.

Off the bike and into the flats, I just couldn't get the running legs going. My legs felt flat. I was unable to move up at all, having a bunch of guys from the third pack run through me. I ended up crossing the line in 43rd place, not quite the race that I was hoping for.

I've learned a couple things from the race: I need to work on increasing my peak power output for those surges on the hills, corners, etc... and I also need to limit the number of those efforts on the bike (position in the pack is a crucial component). Time to regroup for the Geneva Continental Cup on July 14th.

Edmonton World Cup Results:

6 min Video Clip of Race (click on the men's race):

The start of the men's race, I'm the 2nd face you can see on the left (black leg)

Hurting on the Emily Murphy Climb (#64)