Tissink wins in France

Monday, 14 June 2010 10:30

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Tissink wins in France

We had much better weather conditions this week, mostly sunny and around 28 to 30 degrees Celsius almost every day, but I still didn’t manage to shake off the cold I picked up on our arrival in Europe and the 8 degree weather that greeted us.

I pushed on with light training anyway as it didn’t feel like it was affecting me too much other than the nagging cough that wouldn’t go away. By Wednesday we were supposed to make the trip to France for Challenge France, another Half Ironman distance race, but I was starting to get a bit despondent, and Natalie and I decided to put off the trip for a few more days to see if there would be any improvement. After a couple of near rest days and some sight seeing in Berlin, there was still no improvement, but we decided to make the trip because of the festival that was to take place right below our apartment. We just weren’t in the mood for 250 000 Germans partying for 3 days below our bedroom window.

The drive from Wittenburg to Niederbronn les Bains took about eight nerve wrecking hours. Germans drive like lunatics. Three lanes - far right (80km/h) for trucks and far left (180+km/h) for lunatics, and the middle lane for overtaking from the left or right, first come first serve. Good luck. We arrived alive, barely, and it was quite nice to get back to the familiar surroundings in Niederbronn where we spent 2 months last year. After a swim in the race lake and a light 8km jog on Saturday and checking everything in, I was set to line up at the start line, with absolutely no intention of pushing myself as the coughing seemed to be getting worse rather than better, but with only 9 professional men in the field, all I had to do was finish within the 7.5% time limit of the winner to earn a bit of money.

After waking on race morning with an almighty headache from coughing through the night and certainly not feeling up to a 4hr race, I was very surprised at how good I felt when the start horn sounded. I shot to the front for the first 100m but quickly slowed down to try find some feet to swim behind. Unfortunately those feet gave me a good whack in the face, dislodging my goggles, and by the time I replaced them and got going again, Aussie Aaron Farlow had a small gap on Lucie Zelenkova, Swen Sundburg and myself. I tried to chase him down, but after about 1200m I gave up the chase and went to the back again to try conserve energy. The three of us exited about 30sec behind Farlow and about 20sec ahead of fellow SA athlete and major race favourite after last week‘s performance in Germany, James Cunnama.

From feeling good in the swim, I immediately went to feeling absolutely smashed at the start of the bike. My legs were aching (funnily enough, the left more than the right), I was coughing, my lungs hurt, and I struggled to find any rhythm, but I tried to push hard to and build on the small gap I had on James. After about 10km I became increasingly more aware of a scraping noise coming from my bike thinking that it was the back brake rubbing against the wheel, and with this playing on my mind I gave up on the idea of trying to stay ahead and fell back into the group of Frenchman Herve Faure, Sundburg and Cunnama while Farlow pulled away at the front. I continued to struggle with the coughing and to hold on to the back of James, and by 40km Sundburg and Faure had pulled ahead by about 45sec. At about 50km I noticed James sitting up and looking down at his bike thinking he might be having a similar problem, but it was more serious for him, the dreaded puncture. Although I felt a little bummed for him, I saw it as a chance of gaining some much needed time on him to try hold off his devastating run. I put my head down and hammered and quickly caught up to the two guys ahead, but the rubbing noise was getting so loud, I decided to stop and rectify the problem. As it turns out, the wheel had pulled skew and was rubbing against the frame, and with this fixed I started feeling really good, and by now the coughing wasn‘t bothering me anymore. I caught up to Faure and Sundburg again and over the last 5km started pulling slightly ahead of them coming into transition with a 10sec cushion (which I normally lose because of all the make-up I need to put on before the start of the run, but 2min40 down on Farlow who is no slouch on the run.

Once again, starting the run I had nothing in the legs. They were heavy and dead. I felt fat and slow, one lung had popped out by now, and my two companions started pulling away on the long 5km uphill that greeted us at the start of each 10.5km lap. At about 3km the hill gets really steep, and although I felt as though my legs were chopped off at the knees, I started closing the gap, and at the top of the climb I passed both as they battled each other. The best thing about a hill is the downhill that follows, and all of a sudden I started feeling in control of my body and the race around me. Sundburg made a charge at the start of the second lap to close the 1min30 gap to Farlow, but as we hit the steep part of the climb again, I passed him for good and started thinking about a second win in as many weeks. At the top of the hill the gap was down to 30sec and for the first time I could see the prey. Coughing and wheezing, at 19km I pulled up next to the long-time leader, and the lead cyclist commented, “Springboks against Wallabies.” I thought to myself that there’s no way a Springbok will let a Wallaby beat them, and at 20km on the last false flat before the mineshaft downhill to the finish I made my final push for victory. The move was decisive, and the 10 to 15sec was enough for the most unlikely of victories.

So, as for the race that nearly didn’t happen, it turned into a great day with a great result. Once again, it was far from a good day, but a win is a win, and confidence is the greatest tool an athlete has at his disposal. There won’t be any more races on this European leg of our tour until ITU World Long distance champs as I need to focus on some serious training for a few weeks. We’ll be trying to make a move to the race venue to get used to the route and prepare in the mountains, as the Berlin area is far too flat to prepare properly. But first things first - rest and straight onto a coarse of antibiotics to sort this cough out.

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