Sunday, May 10, 2009

Dutchman punctures rubber three times

Today was to be a race pace brick session. One lap of the Gloucester Tri bike course as a groupetto then a lap racing followed by a transition and 5km run.

The first lap of the bike started well enough although i got some stick form my skins compression calf guards! About 10km in the Flying Dutchman caught a flat. The team stopped and changed the tyre with much banter around Le Fasset's job and love life.

Flat repaired we set-off again - 3minutes and another flat for the not so flying Dutchman. Another repair and then, guess what, another flat! At this point we had to abandon him as there was clearly a bigger problem with his wheel.

We finished the warm-up lap then set-off on the race. The pace on the bike was pretty quick with Nigel and Le Fassett quickly breaking away on the first rise. Mark tried to keep pace, he pulled away from me easily but couldn't bridge the gap to the breakaway.

Into transition and a quck change of footwear saw the run start. Nigel had a pretty convincing lead closely followed by Le Fasset then Mark and me. About a third of the way into the run i caught Mark then Le Fassett. Nigels lead was too great to close in <5km>

(Left to right, Marcus, Nigel, Le Fassett, Mark)

Everybody scarpered quick after the session with various commitments including child swimming, visiting in-laws and er a jacuzzi beckoning.

So it's to the repair shop for the Dutchman and planning for the next weeks training and session on Sunday.