London Triathlon

5th August 2007

Report by Luke Watson

After Blenheim and Eton in June and July, it was off to London on the first weekend of August for my last big race of the year. I was hoping for a good performance to end the season, before heading into winter training. Winter training when we haven’t had summer yet???

We arrived in London on Saturday evening and went down to the Excel centre for a quick look at the course. I was very nervous looking at the enormous transition area and remembering the shambles at T2 in Llanelli. Fortunately, the juniors were in the first row, so I wouldn’t have a problem finding my rack this time!

Then, it was back to Barking for a huge plate of gammon and chips (usual pre-race energy food!) but there was no chocolate indulgence for dessert, so I was most disappointed!

Race day dawned bright, but not too early unlike some of the poor guys doing the Olympic starting at 6.30. I wasn’t off till just after 10, so that was an extra couple of hours kip. Unfortunately, by 10 it was already hot and the temperature was rising.

The start was preceded by the usual façade, with dad getting ever more agitated as start time approached whilst I still dawdled around in transition. With the hot few days preceding the race the water temperature was rising continuously, and in the hour before we started, went over 20°C, which meant a change from wetsuits to non-wetsuits for our age.

Non-wetsuits didn’t mean the water was warm, though, it was freezing and probably the same colour and consistency as the bog in the Bog Snorkelling article in this month’s 220! The start was fast (as usual) and violent (as usual) and I managed to swallow quite a bit of the delicious water. The first 50m were a bit of a disaster as I found myself well down the field. I managed to fight my way through towards the first buoy, a giant floating beer bottle, and almost made contact with the front pack. Unfortunately, I missed, and the gap got bigger throughout the rest of the swim, and I exited in about 20th, which left me with a lot of work to do.

T1 was ok but onto the bike I found myself isolated between two groups, unable to catch the ones in front and with a bit of a gap to the ones behind. This made the first 10km (allegedly, although it was actually more like 12!) absolute torture. We turned at Big Ben, and just after this I was swallowed up by a big group of 12 to 14 riders. I thought this was a great chance to catch the ones in front as the gap still wasn’t too big, but unfortunately our group was a catastrophe, with everyone attacking each other instead of working together. It was a bit like the last 5km of the Tour de France! This meant we entered T2 almost 2mins down.

Out of T2 – my fastest section of the race – and onto the docks, into the stifling heat (it was over 30°C by then). This made the run really tough and several people were struggling. I came in 4th from my bike group finishing 18th overall, which was quite disappointing after the much better performances at Blenheim and Eton. This can almost entirely be put down to not being far enough up the field coming out of the water, which just shows how important the swim is in drafting races.

Full results at http://olympic.triathlonresults.co.uk/ResultJuniorMale.htm