ITU World Cup Hungary - Nicky Samuels
10 August 2009
Well Hungary put on an unwelcome (I prefer colder weather for racing) sunny last few days, and race day today was no different, things were pretty hot, but luckily not humid.
My game plan for this race was to get out of the water ahead and stay ahead the entire 40km on the bike, things were looking good, I was about 4th out of the water and soon gathered a group of five. The group was not working so I told one of the girls who is a stronger cyclist that I was going and to jump, so she and I did and we were away. Unfortunately she had a few problems, she hadn't done her helmet up properly in transition, so it came undone! Ha! So I said i would push her while she did it back up and I said use two hands, so I pushed her but she couldn't use two hands-she said she would fall off, anyway it got jammed and stayed on the rest of the race so lucky no more complications and we kept riding.
Unfortunately, the group (and I am yet to know how or who dragged the group) caught us half way through the second lap (about 18km into the 40km cycle). I sat up, settled in, recovered, and tried to get the group working as a massive group behind them had formed and were catching. This was impossible, getting that group to work with certain girls who just didnt want to do anything was incredibly frustrating. This is where draft legal races really frustrate me but somehow we managed to stay ahead and had a minute on the chase pack into transition.
Vanessa Raw (from Great Britain-the girl I broke away with originally) and myself did the majority of the work in the pack and she did more than me, and it showed in our running. I was expecting to have another average run as in every other race so far this year, so it was no surprise but sometimes you just run and hope that maybe things will click and you can run, unfortunately for me this year it is yet to happen....
I finished in a disappointing 12th in a race where I was aiming at the podium, and was ranked number 1 going into the race.
I am glad to have left the German NZ Base and am looking forward to Australia. I hope the training and environment will suit me better there as I build up to the World Champs.
Now I look onto London WS Race which will be a tough day for me given my current running ability. I stay in Hungary until Wednesday choosing to train here over trying to dodge traffic in London.
Until next week, thanks for your support, cheers, Nicky.
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