2ND MADRID WCS – RACE THOUGHTS
Anther race and another second, but this time I was very happy just to be on the podium after what was an intresting day of racing!
My swim? Again for the second time in a few weeks I was caught well behind the front of the field and came out of the water a long way back. A small group with majority of the main players broke away out of the swim but as the race had it it all came back together into on big group before to long. One ‘get out of jail card free’ played.
The bike settled down from here but on second last time as we headed up the Casa De Campo climb I noticed that a few of the real players in the race had lined up near the front on the wheel of RedBull Swiss powerhouse Sven Rieder so I stayed alert. Bang….it happened all within a few seconds…Sven went, Brownlee followed, Gomez followed, I followed. The idea was to just cover the break as I fully expected with a group with these names to get shut down fast, but at the top of the climb a good gap. Next time I heard a time call it was out to 40 secs….thats when I knew this was the race and started helping a little more to jam the bike! I think they are saying 90secs buy the end. WOW you don’t get those advantages like that everyday.
I was out onto the run first and tried to run like I have been but went nowhere. I was joined by the champ Brownlee very fast and from there it was side by side and a lot of behind him running for me. By the last 500m I had no answer. There was no sprint! Alistar just speed up a bit and ran away from me with nothing in the armour to change pace. A lot different feel from Seoul a month ago.
So 2 x 2nd from 2 x starts now leaves me sitting 3rd in the World Championship Series race. The guys ahead have had an extra start as I had to skip the first round in Sydney so all good!
Off to grab a plane now (I am up way to early) and racing in the USA Des Moines WCS in 7 days.
Courtney
*****All images courtesy of Delly Carr / ITU
Tags: Alistar Brownlee, Courtney Atkinson, ITU WCS, Madrid
