Richard Ussher's Challenge Roth race report

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Tuesday, 27 July 2010 08:15

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Richard Ussher's Challenge Roth race report

It’s been a scorching summer in Europe this year and when we arrived in Roth it was a balmy 36 degrees at 7 in the evening. My build up for the race this year had been a little different to last year when I’d had a great race but had felt a bit underdone. This year I’d put in a lot more hours and the results were indicating that I should be a good step up from last year. Not only the training data was suggesting this but also how I’d been feeling at a couple of races prior.

The lead up to the Challenge Roth triathlon, which took place on 18 July, was pretty laid-back although after last year’s results I was flying a little less under the radar, but only just with such a strong field assembled there.

Race day dawned a little cooler but luckily the rain had disappeared – well actually it hadn’t dawned when we got up but on the way to the course at some ungodly hour around 4:30am, and even seeing it dark at that time is a little strange after Finland.

The swim is always the most dreaded part of any race for me but I’d been working on some new things and swimming PB’s for all my longer sets in the lead up so was reasonably hopeful of a decent swim. I knew I’d have to swim better than last year to do the same times as the front wave of swimmers had been cut down to only the pro’s instead of the Sub 9 hour starters as well – the tri world is definitely against the bad swimmers amongst us!

At the gun it was all elbows and feet as I tried not to lose any teeth – I think I’ll have to do some more training with fists before I attempt another mass start swim but I got away OK only to be continually shuffled back in the pack. It is definitely a skill I haven’t mastered yet at keeping your place in the pack, let alone the swimming. Things were looking good after the first kilometre though as I was swimming comfortably in a pack in which I could see swimmers who were in our same group last year. Then 3 strokes later when I looked up a split had suddenly formed as the swimmers in front of me had dropped off the pace. I was swimming comfortably so decided to try and get across the gap and for the next period I chased with one other guy, just very gradually dropping time. It was however far more positive than usual when I go out the back as if I have completely stopped.

With a kilometre to go though I started to lose it a bit, no doubt the technique was falling apart and the group ahead started to stretch away. Out of the water it was gutting to see a swim time of 54 minutes – 4 minutes down on last year and my target. My gear bag was looking decidedly lonely as the only one left in the top 10. Through the transition and onto the bike I was close to Chris McDonald who had got up to speed just in time to hook in behind German uber cyclist Wolfgang Teuchner. I knew Wolfgang would be heading close to the front but I just didn’t seem to have the spark in the legs to keep them close and decided with still 7 hours of racing I needed to focus on my own pace.

The data on my SRM was looking far better than in Abu Dhabi and so I was confident I’d be able to move through the field and I was soon moving through the field at a steady rate. About 35 kilometres I passed through the group of lead women, minus Chrissie who was already further up the road and I could also see Chris McDonald who’d obviously also decided the pace was a bit high following Wolfgang.

By the time we reached the Solarberg climb packed with people there was a group of 4 of us and it would stay like this to the end of the ride. The other thing that didn’t change was that at every climb we could hear the announcers and when Chrissie was going through, and despite our best efforts we weren’t able to close the gap down. By the end of the ride it was an interesting feeling; I had felt much better on the bike than last year but had ridden 12 minutes slower in pretty similar conditions, maybe I was just feeling better as I hadn’t pushed as hard? It did leave me a little worried for what might happen on the run though.