Derek’s World Championship Race Report

Inconvenienced by an additional 3 weeks holiday in New Zealand and Malaysia the super Bardsleys are just back on the scene – notably re-establishing the definition of commitment by turning up and offering to marshal at the Sika race last week on their way back from Heathrow!! So time to check out the piccy and race report of Derek “ripped like a 20 year old” Bardsley’s first assault on the World Triathlon Championships……

 A fantastic experience from start to finish.

Some athletes were easy to spot – towing bike boxes at Heathrow for example.  Others, travelling incognito on the plane, gave themselves away by talk of gear ratios, aero helmets and other technical talk.  Yet more appeared phoenix like from a crumpled heap of travellers clothes, refreshed and in national tri-wear, after a visit to the bathroom just before landing!

As a first timer it was un-nerving to get to grips with the timetable, never mind the race: Registration wristbands, stickers and opening/closing ceremony tickets; bike course familiarisation; run course familiarisation; and timetabled swim familiarisation – necessary so as not to be churned-up by the harbour ferries.

The pre-race weather was not kind for the bike, it rained and the strong wind threatened to blow people off the course during the practice sessions.  Many people had worried faces when racking bikes the evening before the race as it looked as if disk wheels would be banned.  There was quite a storm overnight but by 0530 it was calm, if not yet light, and the first waves turned up to find their bikes still there although some transition slots were now somewhat waterlogged.

As ever my mind went blank and so instead of thinking through my race I suddenly found myself in a wetsuit and walking down the ramp to the starting pontoon.  Two age groups together gave just over 100 starters in a straight line headed for the first buoy.  Then 17 (or so!) thrashing minutes later it was back up the ramp and into the amazing part of the event.  Crowds of people lining the route, cheering and shouting encouragement. I’m happier on the bike and so I enjoyed the course, which had a few short climbs on the outward leg, and then a flat run back along the shore, including a non-drafting duel with an Australian and a fellow GB, to T2 and more crowds!  Transition was on one of the quayside wharves and was about 300 metres long so we all had a nice extra 1200 metres of running to loop in and out of T1/T2!  Lastly, off for the run around the harbourside streets and wharves (where my fellow GB caught me again) and back into the crowds and the (grandstand!) finishing straight.  Not, this time, to break any tapes but for a T-shirt and to discuss in the recovery area how many of us felt amazed to be inAucklandrepresenting GB and having a great time.

A great event with many positives, yet leaving enough “what ifs” to encourage planning for the next race!