I arrived in Providence late Thursday afternoon to be greeted by Vinu Malik, owner of Fuelbelt, one of my sponsors. The next couple days rolled around fairly quickly and I soon realized that there were a few more top competitors racing than I had expected. I was going to have to have another great day if I wanted to come out on top.
Race morning was here and after 3hours sleep I was up at 3am to get ready for a 6am kick off. Also the start was an hour drive away from the finish. Thankfully Vinu was up nice and early to drop me off. So we cruised down in him Benz and cranked “The White Panda”
The Start of the swim was fast and soon we all realized that we couldn’t hold onto Kiwi, Graham O’Grady’s feet. He ended up putting a good 90seconds on us heading onto the bike. He also biked strong on the hilly course and held us off until the last section, that is most of us except Paul Ambrose who was starting to put time into us like we were kids riding BMX’s. Off the bike we were a group of five with a 3.5 minute deficit on Ambrose.
Richie and I quickly opened a little gap and were trotting along at a comfortable pace. The time to Ambrose was slowly coming down, but it was hard to calculate if we were going to have enough runway to bring him back. With Richie and I not looking around too much we were soon caught by another Aussie Tim Berkel. Berkel was running strong and putting the pressure on. Soon Richie had dropped off the new pace and I was only just hanging on. Onto the second lap we had made up 2 minutes so all going well we should catch Ambrose with a couple miles to go. I decided to make a move on the steepest hill on the course to test Berkel’s legs. He hung strong for most of the way but I managed to open a little gap that I worked hard to get bigger. Soon Ambrose was in my sights and instead of him giving up when I passed he ran with me for a mile or so and was probably puffing less than me.
All that kept me going that last half of the run was the thought of a good rest once I crossed that finish line. The fans were great and kept my spirits high and legs light those finishing stretches. I was relieved to get this win under my belt and one race closer to evening out my firsts and seconds for the season – 4 wins, 5 seconds and counting.
Tim Berkel came in second, Paul Ambrose third, Richie Cunningham fourth and Maxim Karit fifth.In the womans race we Kate Major ran into the win, Catlin Snow took second and fellow Kiwi Sam Warriner who lead the race most of the day struggled the closing miles and finished third.
Just in case I was not punished enough I had to go back and pack up my hotel before noon, get back for prize giving, rush to the airport to fight with the check in guy who has possibly stolen my bike case, fly to Orange County, arrive at midnight, wake at 6am, meet with Felt, shoot Oakley 2011 campaign all day with Walter Iooss, drive to Triathlon lab to pick up bags, drive to airport, sort out missing bag and fly to NZ in not the greatest seat. Glad to be home!
It has been a great season so far, thanks to everyone who has made it possible. I am now home for the next few weeks for a bit of R & R before getting ready for the big one in Kona in October.
I would also like to welcome California based Tri shop Triathlon Lab to the team. They are a great company and are helping to take this sport to the next level. It will be great to have a team of highly experienced mechanics helping me out whenever I need. I am looking forward to a great relationship with you guys.
By the way, New Zealand is cold and Kelly is working in Bali…
Thanks
