Nationals Race Report

Drummondville ITU Continental Cup / National Championships
Aug 5^th

Race day came with sunny skies, a little bit of wind, great temps (high of 24 C) and NO HUMIDITY! The race was not only our National Championship, but it was also an ITU continental cup, meaning there were valuable ITU points up for grab as well. I was ranked 9^th of 42 men on the start line.

I was positioned between DJ Tache, and Jamie Stephenson on the start. I put my head down for the first 10 strokes to try and get some clean water and get to the first turn buoy at the front of the field. I wanted to really push the pace on the swim, in the hopes of getting a small group away on the front, and carry that into the bike.

At the 750m mark, there were only two guys right with me (Sean Bechtel and Andrew McCartney), with the main chase group a little ways back. I continued to push the pace on the 2^nd loop, trying to make that gap a bit larger. We ended up having a 30 sec lead out of the water and into T1.

I thought that Sean, Andrew and I were working fairly well together on the first loop of the ride, until we looked back at 7km and saw a group of 8 chasing us hard. We realized then that we weren’t going to be able to stay away, and soon we were 11 guys on the front. Our group included: Jarrod Shoemaker, and Victor Plata from USA, Fancisco Serrano from MEX, and 8 Canadians (Bechtel, McCartney, Baillargeon-Smith, Bryden, Wells, Russell, Tichelaar, Tache).We worked well as a group, trying to widen the gap back to the chase group, so that the race would come down to just our group. We managed to build a lead of 2:30 coming into T2, at which point I knew that I was going to finish 11^th overall, 8^th Canadian at the worst, as long as I ran solid.

I fumbled around a little in T2, and ended up starting the run in 11^th place at the tail end of our group. Dumb move. I lost touch with the guys I needed to run with right off the bat. I struggled on the first 2.5km loop, but managed to come back a bit on the second loop, catching up to McCartney and Bryden. The three of us ran together the 3^rd loop, before I fell apart around 7km, when Bryden opened a gap on McCartney, and I fell off the pace. I struggled through the last loop, knowing that I was going to finish 11^th. I still ran well enough to score some valuable ITU points (92) which will move me up the ITU rankings a bit. I just wish that I could have run here like I did in Geneva a few weeks ago. I outran a couple of the guys who beat me today in Geneva, but I just couldn’t produce that run again. That’s why we race.

I’m heading back to Vancouver today, staying in Vancouver Monday night. I’ll be busy in Vancouver Tuesday showing the spring 2008 line for 2XU to a few shops, then catching the ferry back to Victoria, and back to training. Next up for me is the ITU Kelowna Continental Cup on Aug 19^th, where I’ll be looking for a solid run and some more ITU points.

1	Shoemaker	Jarrod	USA	01:45:59	00:18:58	0:56	0:54:27	00:53	30:47
2	Plata	Victor	USA	01:46:08	00:19:09	00:49	0:54:19	00:53	31:00
3	Tichelaar	Paul	CAN	01:46:47	00:19:07	00:53	0:54:19	00:51	31:40
4	Serrano	Francisco	MEX	01:47:15	00:19:12	00:51	0:54:13	00:54	32:04
5	Baillargeon Smith	Andre Paul	CAN	01:47:27	00:19:07	00:53	0:54:20	00:53	32:16
6	Bechtel	Sean	CAN	01:49:00	00:18:32	00:53	0:54:55	00:53	33:48
7	Tache	David James	CAN	01:49:12	00:19:10	00:56	0:54:12	00:53	34:01
8	Russell	Andrew	CAN	01:49:35	00:19:09	00:53	0:54:17	00:53	34:22
9	Bryden	Jordan	CAN	01:49:40	00:19:06	00:56	0:54:18	00:56	34:24
10	McCartney	Andrew	CAN	01:49:46	00:18:29	00:56	0:54:55	00:56	34:32
11	Wells	Daniel	CAN	01:50:36	00:18:28	00:53	0:54:58	00:56	35:21
12	Mackenzie	Dan	USA	01:52:17	00:20:03	00:58	0:56:56	01:03	33:15
13	Yorke	Andrew	CAN	01:52:31	00:19:34	00:53	0:56:32	00:53	34:38
14	Woegerer	Andrew	CAN	01:52:43	00:19:37	00:54	0:56:29	00:58	34:45
15	Hamelin	Patrice	CAN	01:52:52	00:19:32	00:53	0:56:35	00:53	34:59