A misty start on race morning at the For Goodness Shakes XTT Triathlon.
Last weeks race was going to be my last race of the season, but after such a great result I decided for one last tri before hanging up my kit for 2009. Most of the UK Xterra guys were heading to Hawley Lake in Surrey, for the Goodness shakes x-terrain festival, and being a 1500m two lap swim, combined with a four lap 24km MTB course and then a 10km xc run through scenic heath land and woodland tracks, it sounded just what I needed to finish off the year!
With the words:
You're only as good as your last race!ringing in my ears, I set out attacking the somewhat long(?) 1500m swim in anger. My main opposition in the race would be Frenchman Cedric Lassonde, who had already this year given me a lesson in swimming and running at Xterra Germany, and mountain-biker turned Xterra pro Llewellwn Holmes, who has been hot on my heals more than once already this year.
The swim went really well, and I was out next to Cedric and 90seconds up on Llewellwn by the time we hit the shore for the last time. On to the bike and during the first lap I put in a strong effort to drop the Frenchman and increase my gap on Holmes. Knowing that during laps 3-4 we would be overtaking back markers, the first two laps were important. At the end of lap two I punctured!!! Luckily the tubeless tyre re-sealed itself and I was able to continue rolling along, but only at half pressure, and so had to take it easy on the corners and over the bigger bumps. Out of T2 and on to the final run, Suze and team gave me the news that Llewellwn was now 95 seconds back, and Cedric at 3 minutes. This was great and showed my plan had worked, giving me the lift I needed after working so hard during the first 2 events.
Having attacked the first 5km lap trying extend my lead over the 2 chasers, I got the news on lap two that Cedric had overtaken Llewellwn, and was now inside 2minutes, which got me running scared! With one final big effort of the year, I put the hammer down over the closing few Km's to cross the line 2minutes and 28seconds in front of Cedric, and to take my 6th win of the year!
1 MCDOWELL, Tim - Inov8.com 02:03:31
2 LASSONDE,Cedric - France 02:05:49
3 HOLMES, Llewellwn - 02:06:19
4 JACKSON, Mark - trent park rc 02:08:31
5 OSBORNE, Steve - votwo.co.uk 02:10:11
