My second place at St. George certainly generated a lot of different reactions – long time supporters congratulated me, old friends contacted me with nice messages, others still said “Kevin who?” But I’m sure not everyone was convinced, and to a certain extent I was part of this group. For me Florida 70.3 became the perfect chance to back up my performance in St. George. With a much less competitive field, a flatter course (as a smaller athlete this makes things more difficult for me), and Dirk Bockel and Terenzo Bozzone in the mix I was going to find out very fast if my cycling was up to snuff.
With 82.5F water temps in Lake Eva my goal was to sit near the front and let someone else set the pace on the swim. If there is anything I’ve learned in my eight years of racing about 80+ degree water temps it’s this:
A good transition put me right with Terenzo and Dirk out of T1. The cycling course is pancake flat for the first 25 miles, after which some rolling hills start to make things interesting. A fairly large group formed up on the flat portion but as soon as the first hill showed up the group blew apart. Dirk and Max Kriat opened up a gap and only Terenzo and I were able to cover it. Dirk set a torrid pace from here on out and Max was the next to pop. From mile 30 to 50 I yo-yoed from 10 to 20m back of Dirk in second position. It was a massive sufferfest for me but I knew the longer I delayed getting dropped the easier it would be to run people down. Terenzo must have seen me suffering and at mile 50 he took a flyer off the front. Dirk let a gap open up to him while yelling something at me that sounded not very nice. Eventually Dirk joined up to Terenzo and I was dropped, but with only 5 miles to go I just dialed the pace back and took on nutrition, waiting for the run. 50 miles was longer than I thought I would last so I was a happy guy.
I found myself 1:10 down on the leading pair going into T2. The run course in Haines City is a three laps around Lake Eva and features two fairly large hills each lap. Add in the heat and humidity and, yeah, it’s not easy. Jennifer instructed me before the race to build into my pace on the first lap, so that is what I did. Terenzo and Dirk were right up the road running together and much to my surprise I cut the gap down to 40 seconds by the end of lap one. At mile six the gap was 30 seconds, but at this point Terenzo decided it was time to pick it up. I passed Dirk to move into second but I just couldn’t close the gap to first. On lap three the heat started to get to me – my pace slipped and the gap started to increase. With Bockel a good distance behind me and Terenzo solidly in first I cruised into the finish for second.
Overall I’m happy with the result and I think I did enough to prove I’m no one race wonder. It was great to race at home and spend the weekend with family, and even better to celebrate my brother’s marriage at a two month delayed wedding reception (they got married in March) – congrats Chris and Monica!
HUGE thanks to Shimano for overnighting the PRO TexTreme disc so I could use it on Sunday – that was clutch. Also blueseventy, the 2013 PZ3TX was awesome, and Cyle from ON for cheering on course (and the fast shoes of course). Davis Wheelworks continues to make me as aero as possible on the TT bike, and last but not least NYAC, the best tri club in the world!
Next up is Rev3 Quassy on June 2nd – another hard course with a championship level field.