Dunkerque FGP

May 24th, 2010 by Will

Had a good weekend in France. Great weather, great racing and great company with Team Lagardere Paris Racing.

Picked up heaps of cool kit as usual. I always feel very spoilt by the team, although the hotel always leaves something to be desired!

Race morning I was feeling good. Woke up at 6:15 with excitement. I trained super hard the week after Seoul so I was expecting some heaviness in the legs.

My morning run with Steffen Justus went well. We did 30min with some pick ups and then went to lunch. Which was as usual in our team. Plain pasta and a bit of fish…

It was cool starting the French Grand Prix season again, seeing the old faces just in different kit.

The swim went well, I came out the water about 15^th-20^th. Not bad for me. There was of course a little gap to the front. Not far though, normally something we can shut down by the first lap.

I felt amazing on the bike. Brukankov came out the water with me and I expected him to close most of the gap on his own on the bike but he couldn’t do it so I came round him and gapped the whole group behind. Next thing I know I have 20 seconds on everyone but I’m still 20 secs behind the front. It was no use; the team were telling me to go back to the group. Beauvais were pushing too hard as a team so I stopped pedalling.

It was disappointing that the race was now for 9^th but this wouldn’t happen so easily in a World Champs Series race. I hope…

There were many of the worlds best still in the 2^nd pack though so it was still going to be an exciting race for us guys and great practice.

I pushed the last lap quite hard so I could get into transition first and we set off running really quick. Courtney Atkinson (2^nd Seoul) and I put time into everyone right from the first 200m which was great. I thought this is a perfect opportunity to practice what Ben and I have been talking about. Believing I can win and never giving up. Believe me it’s hard when you are knackered…I focused on staying positive as he was really putting the hurt on me. It would have been really easy to give up at Kilometer 2 but I really wanted to beat Courtney as it would do heaps for my confidence. Fortunately the 2^nd lap didn’t speed up so I was able to settle down a tad. I didn’t come round him till the last 400m as it was hard enough behind him. When I did though I started sprinting and took the win (out of us 2!) Also the fastest run of the day!

Ok 9^th is probably in the bottom 20% of my FGP results but I felt really strong in all 3 so I’m very motivated to take this form into Madrid World Champs Series and Des Moines. I even have a week to improve it!

Only problem is…How come I always seem to race better when I am a bit tired!? That is something for me to chat about tomorrow with the support staff!