Must say, it was bloody good to get racing and get away from the training phase if only for a short weekend.

It was a very windy and very exposed circuit, and a good field!  There was Tim and I, I guess as the favourites. Then a whole load of other more then capable guys.  Mark Buckingham stuck out for me, he has gone 7:55 indoor for 3k and had a load of other good results this year. As well as Dave Mitchinson, Matt Gunby, Phil Whyle, Mark Threlfall my training buddy, Tom Bishop who has been going well.  Anyway…much bigger start list then we are used to at an early season domestic race!

I wanted to take it out hard and make a selection of athletes.  I wasn’t sure what Tim’s form was like but I knew he would be hard to beat.  I was very unprepared for this event, and quite unprofessional I guess. Tim had his PYRO platform pedals in so he didn’t have to change shoes where as I just wore standard bike shoes and run shoes. Also my USE Boost Tri Bars are in the post so I was pretty un-aerodynamic!

So first run was reasonably quick.  Donny, Gunby, Buckingham and I went through 5k in under 15mins, with the first kilometer in 2:43.  We were looking around for the whole last kilometer hence we only ran 15mins.

Tim Don attacked in transition, which is great as it gets us away from the other two guys. However while I was putting on my bike shoes, he was well away in his Pyros with a gap on me of about 10 seconds which took 6 laps of holding before i could finally reel him in! Was pretty goosed  by the time I finally got there!

We rolled round so slowly for literally for the next 2 laps and almost got caught back up again.  Tim used all the tricks in the book to try to make me as tired as possible, which he succeeded in doing!

We got in transition and the PYRO’s got me dropped again by another 8 seconds.  So I had to close that before before we could even start racing again! When I caught Tim I tried to put a few attacks in but it was too easy to sit behind and hide from the wind and unfortunately it was going to come down to a sprint and Tim got it with a tidy change of pace.

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I was reasonably happy with my race, I guess it’s the first one so it’s never going to be great.  I feel I kinda controlled the race today but got out smarted quite a few too many time in a 55 mins race by Tim.

Good job to everyone who raced today.  Especially my good friend Richard Stannard who for me had the race of the day in 4th.  3rd race in 16 months or something after a pretty nasty face to face with a car while on a ride!

Last time I was here it was very nervous times with the Olympic Qualification and all that! Well guess what…it’s still nervous times for me! Its my first World Cup of the year. I am in good shape judging from the last two races and all I want to do is see it work out for my first ITU World Championships series!

My prep for the race went well I think, I came round nicely from the French Grand Prix. I am buzzing after hearing that my 5k in the race actually was 5210m long so I actually ran more like a 14:57 with wind and lots of turns so that confirmed my form is good and I am in a much better position then last year:)

I’m having a good time here so far, It’s HOT! Yesterday Stu and I trained together with a swim in the lake, small ride and a short run around the park. We had a team meal last night as well in Pizza Express with the worst waitress ever who dropped a bottle of balsamic Vinegar, smashed the bottle and it leaked all over Tim Don! She waked off without ever saying sorry!

Head down now…Please check back for a race full race report, hopefully a happy one!