It was a tough day here in Roth but I still managed to bring home a respectable 4th place at the ETU European Ironman Championships. The day started out nice and warm but it was going to be a hard to go fast with strong winds predicted on the bike. I had a great swim to come out of the water in a huge main bunch. Super fish Ben Sanson lead the swim out in 46mins and our group was about 90seconds back. I knew the bike would be fast straight from the gun and indeed it was with the boys averaging 45km for the first 20km on the super fast German roads but we slowed down quickly after that with a tough head wind making the bike ride a lot slower than normal.
Konstantin Bachor of Germany was putting the hammer down on the bike leg and took off after about 20km. I rode in a group that contained all the favourites with Timo Bracht, Mike Aigroz, James Cunnama, Stephen Bayliss and Georg Potrebitsch, we stayed together until the 160km mark when my legs started to tire, 5 weeks after completing Cairns Ironman is just not enough time to recover from and then train for another Ironman especailly when your reach the age of 40! The crowds on the bike are just incredible. The solar berg climb just outside of the town of Hilpolstein was amazing with over 30,000 people lining the 500m climb, it was just like the tour de France.
At T2 I was down 12mins to Konstantin, and 3mins on the group of Timo, James and Mike. I'm never one to give up and set about trying to catch the boys in front but I was struggling to run 4min/km pace right from the start. I just didn't have any gas left in the tank but still managed to pick up 3 spots through the marathon to come home in 4th. I'm now heading of to watch the fireworks and finish of the race, then fly back home to New Zealand for three weeks and then the hard training starts for the Hawaii Ironman. Thanks again for all your support.
Kind Regards,
Cameron