ITU World Championships in Switzerland

Hey KP Team, 9/4/06

I hope you all had a great weekend! I am on my way home from Switzerland, after competing in the ITU Triathlon World Championships in Lausanne on Saturday. Kim Hammett and I both raced very well on a tough course and incredible competition. I am always so impressed at the athletic ability of so many racers in each age category. People from all over the world, some 50 different countries came to Lausanne to compete in this years Worlds race. The entire city of Lausanne became a triathlon crazed city for a week, with athletes from around the world zipping around town on there $$$$ bikes. The US was well represented with about 300 athletes competing. There were close to 2000 athletes racing this year. Kim placed 8th in the 40-44 age division which was an awesome performance! I had a very good race to place 3rd in the Men’s 40-44 division.

Racing in Europe is an experience like no other in triathlon. The people in Europe (Euro’s we like to call them) just make you feel special. The entire community gets involved with the race and is very supportive of all the athletes. Lausanne is the Olympic Capital and so the ITU was using this opportunity to show off the sport of triathlon. The Olympic Museum was where we went to register for the race and pick up race packets, etc. The race venue was truly unbelievable, with the transition area set up in front of the Olympic Museum, which sits right on Lake Geneva (Luc Leman as the locals call it). The water temperature was like home, a bit cool at around 65 degrees.

Here is a brief race report of my day in Switzerland:

Race start for me was 11:55am (that’s 2:55am at home)

Race note: The bike course had two 50 mph descents that were very fast into 180 degree corners. Sketchy is one way to put it. Before my wave started I got this message over the loud speaker; “Athletes please listen! There have been a number of crashes on the bike course today. Please use caution out on the course. Don’t take any unnecessary risks. Its better to be safe, than sorry”.

The swim started off a dock, with each athlete holding on while in the water. You get packed in like a bunch of sardines, then the gun goes off and it is game on! I had open water pretty quick as I had a good start by pushing off the dock. Being a swimmer has its advantages in a race start like this one. I start out very fast to get into open water, then settle into a good pace. I was one the first in my wave as we headed to the first turn buoy at about 750 meters out. I jumped on someone’s feet for a while, and then made my own line to the swim finish. I came out of the water in 4th position, but right with the lead group of three. The transition area was one of the longest I have ever seen, covering 800 meters (1/2 a mile). We had to run barefoot (no shoes allowed) for 800 meters, then get our bikes and run the 800 meters back out. So we ran a mile barefoot between the swim and the bike. This allowed me to get a pretty good gap on the entire field and I was first onto the bike course. My transition time was 5:59, which was one of the fastest on the day.

The bike was a very Euro-Style course, with some good technical sections. We did 4 laps with 2 climbs per lap. It was a very demanding course and one that did not favor a pure time trial bike set up. I rode my new Orbea, which I love, but was not the perfect bike for this course. The course had some very fast descents into hair pin corners that would have been easier on a road bike set up. I led the entire first lap of the bike, before being caught by a British guy and a French guy. They were both riding rode bikes with clip on bars, which seemed to help in the fast corners. I did all I could to ride safe, yet fast! By the 4th lap on the bike I had fallen back to 5th place. I was close to 3rd and 4th, but 1 and 2 were a way up. I came off the bike in 6th place, but made a smooth transition to start the run in 5th. We had to run an extra 800 meters in transition again, before starting our 10k. (We ran a total of 1.5 miles extra with both T1 and T2 added up).

I felt good starting the run, although my quads were burning from the tough bike and my feet/toes were worked from running barefoot for 1.5 miles. I had a blister on one toe due to the barefoot run. The run course was 4 laps of flat running. I held a good pace, slowly moving my way up. I passed a German guy after one lap to move into 4th, then passed a guy from Great Britain to move into 3rd. I had a lap to go when Dave Ledesma gave me the update. The guy leading was running very well and it didn’t look like I would catch him. He then said the guy running second was hurting and I had a chance if I kept a good fast pace. My legs were starting to cramp a bit, but I maintained my pace. With about 300 meters to go, I put in a huge surge to try to catch the French guy running 2nd. I turned to the finish and could see him in front of me, but I ran out of real estate. I finished about 15 seconds behind in 3rd place. An Italian guy came in 4th about 35 seconds behind me, followed by the second American about a minute back.

I was very satisfied with my race. I had given it all I had to give and was able to make the podium. The World Championship race is very tough. The competition from around the world is incredible. I have won my age group at the World Championships four times, have been second twice and now have been third twice. This was my 12th time racing at the Olympic Distance World Championships. Next years race is in Hamburg, Germany and then in Vancouver, Canada in 2008.

Next up for me is the Santa Cruz Sentinel Triathlon on September 24th. We will have a good group of people racing out there, so sign up and come have some fun!

See you all at a workout soon,
Coach Pete