HyVee/Vegas Double

Well that went well! Fifth at HyVee and sixth at 70.3 World Champs. Given the fields assembled for both races my goal was top ten in both. Much success! Here is how it went down:

Vegas was the focus race, but I’m not at the point in my career where I can turn down a slot at HyVee (just don’t get 30th place). The swim here was fairly uneventful. I felt strong and controlled despite the 86 degree bath water in Gray’s Lake. Onto the bike Ben Collins took himself out on the first corner. Over the course of my career I’ve seen Ben crash right in front of me at least five times. It used to really freak me out, but I’m numb to your crashes now Ben! Time to find a new race strategy! Anyways, our small group eventually caught the front group while Cam Dye hammered off the front. Again, I felt great. Riding hard for sure, but feeling good. Around 18 miles a gap opened in the group and I was caught behind it with Gomez, Docherty and Jimmy Seear, while Kemper, Bennett, Davison, and a few others got away. I was riding well and feeling good, but didn’t have it in me to bring the gap back. We lost 50s or so, but still had a lot of time on the chasers behind us.

Onto the run Gomez made short work of our little group, eventually winning. I built into the run, passing a few guys from the front group. I made it up to fifth place and spent the last few miles trying to catch Paul Matthews, but the finish chute came too quickly so fifth it was!

After HyVee the name of the game was recovery. I took my doping control chaperone on a quick two mile cool down jog. “Tomorrow’s my 50th birthday, I’ll just have another bloody mary after all this exercise!,” he said. Happy to help! Then it was back to the hotel to sit around in compression clothing watching HBO, and of course making this right turn whenever possible:

Race day in Vegas came quickly and we were greeted with heavy rains. In the desert! This is one race scenario I never even considered. I even left my visor-less helmet at home. “It definitely won’t rain in Vegas,” I said to myself as I took the second helmet out of my already overstuffed luggage. So after a pretty good swim (tail end of the front group), here I am on the bike tipping my helmet back as far as it will go and squinting into the pouring rain:

The bike sorted out as a front group of 19 athletes with Amberger and Kienle off the front. It poured on us until the last few miles when the rain finally let up. I attempted to move up in the group but only made it about halfway before we hit T2. Onto the run my pace matched up well with Leon Griffon and we ended up staying together for almost the entire run, moving up from 10th/11th to 6th/7th. I made my move into the final 180 turn before the long downhill to the finish. I got a gap on Leon and found myself shutting down the gap to Tim Reed and Potts. Some spectators alerted Tim to my presence – he turned around a couple times to confirm (usually a sign of defeat) but he found another gear and held me off. 12 seconds separated Potts, Reed and me in 4th, 5th, and 6th. So close! Sixth ties my best ever result at 70.3 Worlds, but this was a completely different race than Clearwater 2009. Bring on Mont Tremblant 2014!

Next up for me: Interbike, Rev3 Branson, Cozumel World Cup (spectator/sherpa/drinker of cervezas), Miami 70.3, & Rev3 Venice.