Win in Sydney - Bevan Docherty
15 April 2010
Way back in 2000 I can remember watching the Sydney Olympics on TV as Simon Whitfield ran to an incredible victory in front of the Sydney Opera House. This was one of those defining moments in my life when I said to myself, “I want to be an Olympic Champion!” Little did I know, that 10 years later I would be running down that very finishing straight to win a World Championship Series race…
After a fairly average 2009, I entered this year with a renewed sense of enthusiasm. I had made some big changes by moving my US base to Santa Cruz, California, away from altitude, and was also getting back to the basics of how I like to train ‐ just bloodyhard work! And that’s what I did for the first few months of 2010, accompanied by my new training partner, Graham O’Grady, who seemed to enjoy every little ounce of punishment my coach dished out.
I’ll have to be honest, the weather in Santa Cruz wasn’t exactly cooperative; however, because of the fantastic training environment, we were able to overlook that small obstacle, and strung week after week of intense training together.
You generally have a sense of how things are going and I knew things were going really well, but going into the first race of the season there is always that element of uncertainty: Have I done enough? What have the others been doing? ... and so on.
It’s funny that at the age of 33 I’m considered a veteran of the sport. On one hand I feel like I’m in some of the best shape of my life, and on the other hand, I find myself sitting at the back of race briefing thinking to myself “crap, here we go again, another year!” One thing that doesn’t change is race briefing, as I found myself sitting next to Simon Whitfield who was struggling to stay awake, possible due to jet lag or possibly he’d heard it all before. One benefit to jet lag was that waking up at 4am for a 7am start time was pretty easy.
The course in Sydney was quoted as being tough and demanding, maybe an indication of where the sports heading, as in my opinion, it was far from that with only a few little rises. I’m sure I could piece together a far more demanding course if they needed…
Now there were rumours of safety vessels carrying shark repellant as a precautionary measure; however, I wasn’t aware of this until after the swim, and the only fish I encountered were the Russians, who dominated the swim. Not as much can be said for me, although I was fit and strong enough to fight my way round the 1500m swim and still exit close enough to make the front pack.
I jumped on my Avanti Bike, pumped and ready to go. I was quite impressed as a few guys were keen on breaking away, which kept the pace high and offered many opportunities. I had a crack early on; however, that was shut down pretty quickly. My second attempt was again closed pretty quickly. I was keen to get away for a number of reasons, one being the amount of crashes out there as the guys battled for position. I did in‐fact witness one American guy come too hot into a corner, which resulted in him flying off into the crowd as his bike spun 10 feet in the air.
On the final lap, I pushed up the hill and this was enough to get a break that would eventually net me a 20 second lead on the main pack. This doesn’t sound like much; however, it would aid towards my victory.
Being a tougher run, I knew that someone who negative split the run would be in a great position at the end, so the plan was to take it easy on the first lap. This is where the 20 seconds I had up my sleeve came in handy. It was a bit of a risk, but I knew I was running well, so I decided to run the first hill easy and wait for the main pack to catch up. I can remember running up the hill looking over my shoulder seeing what looked like a pack of hungry wolves chasing me down. By the time they had caught me they had changed into a bunch of puppies (minus the cuteness), and the pace seemed to me a lot more subdued. From that point on I was just waiting to make my move.
I decided to surge at 5km, and told myself not to look back until they had all gone. Almost immediately, the group dwindled to 4, then 3, and finally with 2km to go, it was just the Russian, Dmitry Polyansky, and myself.
At this point in the race you always start playing head games with yourself: shall I wait for the sprint, a top 3 isn’t bad, but I did sense a little stretch in the proverbial rubber band, so I pushed again…. Pow, a 10m lead, this was enough for me to put the hammer down and push all the way to the finishing straight.
Very rarely do I get a chance to celebrate a win, most of my recent victories have come from sprint finishes, but not this time! This is what it’s all about ‐ those countless hours out training, the constant fatigue, and 9pm bedtimes on Friday nights. All those negatives disappear and are forgotten forever the moment you enter that finishing straight in first position.
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