Having won this race in 2014 I was looking forward to the opportunity of wearing race number 1 and attempting to defend my title in 2015. No male athlete had defended the title before so this added to the motivation. The Hell of the West triathlon is a fitting name for this event as it is held in outback Queensland in often scorching hot and windy conditions. This year saw a milder temperature and unexpectedly light winds which made for some very fast racing.
Race Day:
Due to the high temperatures race start is before dawn at 5AM, which means being woken up by my alarm at 3:15AM. The swim had to be moved from the planned river swim leg to the Botanical Gardens due to high water levels. The 2km swim consisted of 3 laps with a 3km run back to transition before starting the 90km ride. The race organizers had decided that this 3km run would be deducted from the 20 km run leg.
The start was quite fast but never-the-less I soon found myself in the lead. Over the first lap I had a small gap on the pack behind and kept the pace nice and steady without exerting myself too much. By the end of the swim I had built up a small 30 second lead. I slipped on my Saucony shoes for the 3km run and again kept the pace quite steady. I was caught by Lindsey Wall with around 1km left to run with Sam Douglas close behind.
As soon as I got onto the bike I was motivated to push the pace and quickly took the lead and rode within my set power wattage. I stayed in the lead until the turn around point and with the calmer winds I was able to ride the first 40km in just over 56minutes.
Lindsey Wall was the only athlete able to keep up and at the turn I noticed that my hard work over the first 40kms had paid off as I saw there was a big gap back to the rest of the field. I pushed the pace for another 5km before getting Lindsey to take the lead for a few kilometers and then I took over in front until about the 65km mark when Lindsey once again came to the front. Credit to Lindsey as he stayed a good 15 meters behind me, well out of the draft zone for the whole ride. Despite pushing the pace up front I kept well on top of my nutritional needs downing all the water in the bladder of my S-Works Shiv as well as ¾ of a bottle of sports drink and 4 PowerBar gels.
Hitting the run I felt much better than last year and was looking forward to a good battle for the win. I had been doing a lot of work on my run in December and January and wanted to be the one pushing the pace. Lindsey and I went toe to toe for the first 2 of the 3 laps and it really was a solid battle. I noticed on my run watch that we were hitting just over 3:30minutes per/km pretty consistently.
With temperatures rising I kept taking in ice and water as well as 2 PowerBar energy gels during the first two laps. Soon into the last lap the surges started to come and I soon found myself unable to keep up. It was disappointing to see the win running away from me but that’s racing. I came over the line in 2nd place which I was honestly happy with. This race was a great stepping stone for me and with the training I have done at this point in the season it is a good sign that things are on track.
