Well it almost happened – somebody almost beat Jan Frodeno. All the credit for the pace on the bike goes to Joe Gambles who set a hot enough pace to drop the gold medalist up and over Snow Canyon. I’m not sure if Jan was riding a wattage cap or just couldn’t hang, but the net result was a big gap into T2 for the front group. I didn’t have the run legs to get to the front of the race but since Jan didn’t catch me until mile five I knew it was possible that he might not win. Brent almost pulled it off.
As for me, I got caught up chasing Andy Potts for the first nine miles of the run with no success. Bozzone and Hoffman caught me around that point and after surviving an initial surge I was solidly in their group for the last last few miles. We were dueling for the last three paychecks – 6th, 7th, and 8th – but Docherty was stalking us threatening to spoil the party. With very little speed work to bank on (pun intended) and knowing what Bevan Docherty can do in a sprint finish I decided to lead the sprint out for the last 500m. Eighth place wasn’t what I was looking for at St. George – I just need to be better. A little shuffle to the race schedule will free up some good development periods before Mont Tremblant.
Good report Kevin. Out of interest what is ON shoe lineup look like? That is, what do you use for training and racing? Are you a fan of the new version?