Geneva Grudges (on photographers)

If you have been checking here for a race report from the Geneva Euro Cup last weekend, and curse me each time when it's not here, blame the dozen photographers on the course who never upload their photos and seemingly keep them to themselves like it's some freakish fetish. Even old AV mate on the motorbike has failed. I've given these folk 5 days to publish something, so if this blog doesn't get down now it probably never will. So my cordial apologies to those hoping to see some optics. I mean, I wouldn't read a blog without pictures! I have found 2 shots from facebook, so please don't lose interest after the first line, that is if you're still reading, albeit, if this is blog is ever interesting at all.

So Being in Zurich for the last few weeks, it was easy to make the decision to don the drop bars on the P3 and race the Geneva Euro Cup. I decided to skip the breifing on the Saturday, and just catch the train to Geneva the morning of the race, which took 3 hours. I got off the train 90minutes before the race, and I had to accept a penalty for the start because ITU are anal folk, and because I missed the breifing. Nevertheless, I was happy to be there, and ready to have some fun in what was going to be a good hit out.

The swim start for me was really slow because I had a penalty. I was actually going to give up trying to get to the front because I was so fatigued. Wetsuits in my opinion are really quite counterproductive, it's almost impossible to swim past people in a wetsuit. In good time however, I poked my head out to the front of the pack, but was content to swim on old mates feet. The bike was where the deals were going to go down.

I didn't come to race to sit in a pack, so I made sure this was the case. I pushed really hard the whole bike, and we had a petite group of 7, which at times was rather frustrating, and took of bit of yelling to get the guys motivated. The first 4 positions in the race came from our pack, with the eventual first and second place getters (being Sharp and Elvery) doing a small dicks worth of work. I even said to Sharp (sly British lad) that if he f******* outruns us all....  (you get it). He replied in his silly accent that he was giving it all he has got (oh yeah lad, I believe you). This bike course was cool though. It had a neckbreaking hill every lap and I led up it 5 times out of the 6, the other was covered by partner in crime Jimmy Seear. Here's my file from the bike (someone ought to give me a power meter to make these things more interesting).



After half way on the bike, we really started to put time into the chasers. A few km's and middle fingers later, we were on the run. I really payed for my work on the bike, but still ran quite well, feeling I could tick off a good cadence the whole way. A good sign for my non-drafting races coming up! I actually came up short in a sprint and just missed out on the top 10. A bunch of guys ran really quick from the chase group and I lost 5 places in the last 1500m of the race, which thinking about it is actually quite disappointing. Nevertheless, it still puts a smile on my face that I was able to show everyone how a real triathlon is done. Breakaways are possible, it just takes committment! 40seconds quicker running, and I would have been on the podium.



So it seems like that could possibly be my ITU season over for the year in a whirlwind, but don't count it out. Next weekend holds some big apple pain, served across the Atlantic in New York. Sick lad!