Edmonton World Cup 2013

Yeah, it's a big enough deal that it had it's own bus ad

               Even just getting onto the start list for my first international race made me giddy. The fact that it was a World Cup level race made me feel like I was moving up in triathlon just be being at this race. In 2009 ITU draft legal racing was broken up into three levels of racing. World Triathlon Series (WTS) races are at the top with 6-8 races per year in some of the most iconic cities on the planet. This is the crème of the crop in triathlon, high caliber, fast paced racing. On the middle level are World Cup races, with about ten per year scattered across the globe. Then there are the entry level Continental Cup races of which there are a whole lot. Clermont, Sarasota and Dallas were all Continental Cup races that I had done earlier in the year. But now I was stepping it up a notch, racing against a deeper field at a higher level.

First thing I see coming out of the airport, freaking awesome!

 

               This was my first trip ever to Edmonton and my first time staying with a completely random homestay set up by the race director. Things couldn’t have gone better, I knew I was going to like Edmonton the moment I walked off the plane and saw a bunch of ads bragging about random facts about Alberta. Facts like; Bison used to repopulate wild populations all come from Alberta or that Alberta has the most diverse amount of dinosaur species anywhere in the world. Edmonton was a great city and the race organizers had put together a difficult and fun course, and my homestay was incredible. Gunther and Mary were extremely helpful and accommodating. They were both heavily involved with the race, Gunther was providing the beer for the post-race festivities, and their home was a quick bike ride from the race site. Overall I was left with an amazing impression on the city, the people and the course. Edmonton will be the site of the Grand Final Championship next year, it will be an amazing race and who knows….maybe I’ll even get to be a part of it.

Standing in downtown Edmonton, getting ready to get into a car with a complete stranger

               My first taste of the course came on Friday morning, when all the elites were able to have a police escorted ride through of the course. Just like on race day, all the streets were closed off for us as we strolled through. World Cup races are on a whole other level. Since the race meeting was on Friday and the actual race wasn’t until Sunday, I had some time to familiarize myself with the area as I continued to train leading up to the race. I even got to watch some international water polo as Canada and Serbia battled it out at the Kinsmen Sports Center.

               In the days leading up to the race I had a slight equipment snag to overcome. The bearings and freewheel in my rear hub were super tight. Riding around I could feel the loss of power, especially when coasting downhill. It was maybe only a 5% loss in power, but that was 5% I was definitely going to need come race day. My homestay came through for me though, their daughter raced on the Junior circuit years ago and they still had her tubular all carbon Reynolds in the garage. After checking that they still held air and swapping the 9 speed cassette with my 10 speed, I decided to go for it and use the wheels. Hoping that the eight year old glue would hold in the tight corners of the Edmonton Bike course.

Safety first...actually this would be the site of a horrific crash during the race 

               Race morning came around 8am, as I slowly dragged myself out of bed. I love ITU racing! A quick jog and some stretching in a grassy park overlooking the river was a great way to prep my mind for the intense hour of sprint racing to come in the afternoon. I spent the rest of the morning trying to relax my mind, no sense in getting all amped up to early in the day. One of the biggest hurdles for this race was just being wide awake and ready to rock at three in the afternoon. I got down to the park in time to watch the women’s race start. There was good energy in the air and I wanted to see how the women would handle the awkward three step drop/dive into the water at the start.

The view from my morning shake out

 

               After a solid warm up prep, we were all called up onto the blue carpet for our call ups. Jogging down to the start line I was ready to put the last several weeks of hard training to work. I felt so prepared to crush this race and was very confident in my ability to perform well across the board. One final deep breath on the starting pontoon and we were off! The 750m swim course was in a shallow little pond, it had heated up throughout the course of the day and we were in for a non-wetsuit swim. There was a small island that we had to navigate around, this meant for really tight swim conditions with 50 of my new best friends.

I spent a little time pre-race getting pumped up with youtube videos, similar to the one above. During our call ups, the ITU theme began to play over the speakers. Most kick ass pre-race moment I've ever had, it was time to crush this race!

 

               I had what felt like a smooth and rapid start. I was swimming strong and had a bit of open water in front of me to work with. Charging ahead, I focused on a relaxed kick and quick turnover to be sure that I didn’t go hypoxic. Then I felt someone grab my butt and rip me backwards. Never have I had something like this happen to me, yeah I’ve been swam over, kicked, elbowed, even put in a headlock and taken down before. None of that compares to being yanked back in the critical first 200m of a World Cup race. I came to a complete standstill as everyone surged past me, in one moment I had gone from the front third of the race to the back third. And the back third was a brutal place to be. The tightness of the course meant that everyone pretty much stayed together throughout the swim. A pack of swimmers in the water can be a lot like a pack of cyclists, there’s an organic flow with people passing and dropping, except in the water it can be very hard to tell what’s going on. It's all about skill and experience, two things that I don't have quite enough of yet.

The infamous blue carpet of Elite ITU racing

               I never did manage to move back up in the pack. Too many kicks to the face and too much clutter for me to push through, my swim ability isn’t quite good enough to comeback from a hiccup yet. But still I was out of the water on the tail end of the pack and made the critical mistake of thinking this was good enough. There was a mad sprint the 200m to the transition zone. I must’ve lost a few more seconds getting my helmet on because by the time I got onto my bike what seemed like such a short gap had grown a lot. I tried to strap into my shoes to get up the first climb quickly and close the gap. Putting everything I had into stomping the pedals down the gap started to close but I had lost too much time and couldn’t lose it all the way.

Cool video put together by ITU, highlights of the men's race.

             On the other side of the road I could see the lead pack starting to make its way down the hill. I heard wheels cross and saw several riders go down in a hard massive pile up. As I rolled through the same spot less than twenty seconds later, the road was completely blocked off with bikes, bodies, motorcycles and spectators everywhere trying to help those on the ground. After creeping by the crash site, I didn’t have the strength to push down the hill into the wind and catch the disappearing pack. Click here for a full gallery of the women's and men's elite race, way better than the pictures I got.

Stand up transition racks and a personal name card....I was racing big leagues for sure

               It’s crazy how two seconds out of the water can quickly turn into so much more than that. I was caught by the trailing pack and we began to sort of work together to catch the next group. Our group was small and unorganized, with the hills and turns of the course we didn’t have much of a chance to catch anyone after a few miles. Our group seemed deflated and my legs were destroyed from the high intensity effort to start the bike. We kept bleeding time and I tried to stifle my frustration with missing out on that front pack. Two seconds down on the swim had turned into three and a half minutes by the end of the bike.

Jumbo screen to show all spectators live race footage and stats

               I was demoralized starting the 5k run, but I was hell bent on at least beating those in my group and any stragglers that I could reach. The run course was up and down the same major hill that we had to start the bike course with. I found my legs under me quickly, and got to work up the hill. But it was the downhill that really got me moved up. Maybe it’s my long legs, but I really just let things fly and closed down on everyone around me. By the time I started up the hill a second time my legs felt completely destroyed, but the race was almost done and there was one more guy to catch. I got him just before the turnaround back down the hill and ran the rest of the race alone. I ended up in 29^th place, just enough to score some world ranking points. Check out a full breakdown of splits and results here.

Packed grandstand to cheer us on, spectators were all over the course and very excited to yell at us

 

               I’m happy to have completed my first World Cup race. I’m frustrated that things didn’t quite go my way, it’s tough to swallow a disappointed race like that. I feel like I didn’t perform to my fitness ability and that is the most frustrating thing to deal with. But it’s more experience gained and I’m happy to have been a part of such an amazing event. Triathlon can be a very frustrating journey sometimes, but for now it’s all about getting back to training and hopefully continuing an upward trend. It was a goal of mine to get top 30 so that I could score some world ranking points, and guess who is now ranked 433rd in the world! This may have been my last draft legal race of the year, so I'll have to wait a bit before being able to climb any higher. Next up is the Lifetime Minneapolis Triathlon on July 13th, a race I've done in the past as an amateur. It's a great venue, on a very scenic course, I'm excited to lay down some speed and see what I can do!

              

Cool airport sculpture/mosaic of downtown Edmonton