05.06.12

Brown second at Ironman Cairns - Cameron recaps his race.

Cameron Brown

Wow, what a tough day that was! The sun finally came out in Cairns after a week of rain and cool conditions we were greeted by fantastic racing conditions with calm weather and hot temperatures.

The swim was flat and warm at 24c, especially in a wetsuit. I had a pretty good swim coming out in the main pack just under 3 mins to early leaders David Dellow (AUS), Brian Rhodes (NZ) and Luke Bell (AUS). As soon as we got onto the bike I tried to close the gap to the men ahead and rode with more Aussies, Leon Griffin and Matty White. The bike course is stunning as it makes its way up to Port Douglas for two loops along the coast, you couldn’t help but look at the stunning scenery, truly breath taking!

Finally we caught the leading men at around the 70km mark and we rode as a group of five until we hit the bike to run transition. I managed to gain a small lead into T2 and also have the fastest bike spilt. As I exited T2, Luke Bell gapped me by a few seconds, having a speedy transition. Heading onto the 42km marathon I was still feeling ok and managed to hold the lead until the 23km mark where I was finally caught by David Dellow.

The wheels started to fall off after this and my kilometre splits went from under 4mins to 4:20. It became a race of survival with the virus I had been battling for the last fortnight starting to bite me in the butt. I was extremely pleased to finish second and I am now looking forward to having a week’s holiday in Cairns, relaxing with my boys and enjoying the tourist attractions here. This will be a fun way to recover before I take on Challenge Roth on July 8th.

 

AVANTI RIDERS