Once safely off the bike and into T2 a group of 6 girls (including myself) quickly exited transition. The group consisted of Sapunova (UKR), Swallow (GBR), Moreno (BRA), Jackson (AUS), and Kovacs (HUN). After around 4km the group was down to 5 and after 6½km the pace was picked up and I couldn’t follow the front girls. I dropped down to 6th position and in the last 200m I was overtaken as well. I thereby finished in 7th position and got good Olympic points.
I am happy about my performance and I now believe that this is the start of MY season and from now on I am on the right track. I proved that now I am where I should be on the swim and my running level is also improved (with very little running). I finished the last 10km in 34.54 which is 50 sec faster than I did last year on the same course in Tiszzy. That 10km split gives me confidence because I have been running very little due to the crashes and injuries. I would imagine that I am running around 1/3 of the weekly amount of my nearest competitors. So I know there is much more to come.
Stories from the circuit
As all of you know it is a good idea to do some recovery training after a race and especially when you are racing next weekend as I am. Vanessa Raw (GBR) and I went on cool down spin a short while after the race. After only 5min of riding Vanessa chose to dive over her handlebar. She landed on her belly and looked pretty sorry for herself – and maybe a bit embarrassed – I wish that I had brought my camera! It turned out that the front wheel came off as she tried to get over a curb. Luckily she suffered no injuries and she was able to laugh about what happened. I put the bike together again and we continued our little spin. Later, whilst performing a U-turn Vanessa realized that she couldn’t brake and was very close to taking a spectacular dive again and ending up on her belly. At that point we saw that her front fork had snapped and there was also a crack in the front wheel. We found our self in the middle of nowhere in Hungary with a broken bike; no money and no one to call that was able to help out. What do you do then? The only thing we thought of was to try and hitch hike!! After a short while a car pulled over…. apparently we didn’t look that stupid with our helmets on – but believe me we did we were exactly like 2 blonde girls totally lost. Although we were cautious we decided it was the best option. Vanessa got in the car with her, now, broken bike and I rode back to Tiszzy. Luckily neither of us were kidnapped and we both arrived back to our accommodation in one piece. Just goes to show that even during cool downs anything can happen. Now we just have to cross our fingers that she is able to get a new bike before she leaves for Kitzbühel.
I will stay in Tiszzy until Wednesday morning where I leave for World Championship Series in Kitzbühel. I am just going to train a bit and enjoy the life of a Pro. Oh yeah and let the foot heel as well :)
Take care :)
