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DIARY / BLOG 2008 SEP / NOV / DEC 23rd September: Back winning again! Which is nice. Yesterday I won the Maidstone Duathlon for the third year in a row and it was really pleasing to be starting to feel closer to my usual self after a disappointing end to the summer. I took a bit of a pasting on the opening 9.5k run coming home in 4th while Justin Webb was running away from us all at the front of the race as we took on the undulating country lanes based run which makes the event so attractive. Once on the bike I worked my way through to second place with Justin in sight just before T2. Coming out of T2 I could see Justin just infront of me and it was obvious that he was cramping up so I pushed on with the aim of catching him as soon as possible. In a cruel twist of fate, just before I could catch him he was sent the wrong way by a marshal which gave me the lead. I was about to catch him anyway but all the same, it didn't seem fair. I went on to win by just over 30 seconds after the final 3k run which takes in a horrible draggy climb followed by a leg jarring long descent. It felt great to be back winning again and the nice cup I won has forced me to put up another trophy shelf at home so no all I need to do is fill it up! Next up, two days to recover and then the Silverstone Duathlon on the motor racing circuit on Wednesday night.
12th September: Like a child with a new toy I thought I'd share with you my new racing kit design that Impsport have been working on for me. It has included on it my main sponsor, Bike and Run as well as my sub sponsors Maximuscle and Sport Beans and the Alpha message which i use to promote the work of the Alpha course, an organisation that enables people to ask questions about their faith and to begin to build a relationship with God without any pressure or predjudice. Here it is: ( i know...... it looks messy at the moment!)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10th September: Well, probably the best way for me to catch up is a quick wrap of my summer activities. After my usual early season domestic Duathlon programme I headed to Holland in May for the European Powerman long distance champs. I raced solidly despite twisting my ankle on the first run and came 23rd in the pro/elite race. I still found that I couldn't pedal properly on the bike though because of the pain in my ankle but in the circumstances 23rd wasn't bad in a Euro champs. Of course, Joerie Vansteelant absolutely mullered the race and won by some way. He really is something else. The next big race of the summer was the memorial to his brother, the late Benny Vansteelant. This was also a world cup race and as such the field was excellent. i set myself the target of top 20 and came.....20th! This was a good result but in a way I wasn't satisfied because I could see the athletes in 16th to 18th places just infront of me in the finishing straight and I simply couldn't close the gaps down. After that was another phase of long distance training including a fun and pleasing win in the Cheltenham Duathlon (a rare mid summer event!) in the run up to the World long course champs in Geel, Belgium. Although I missed out on selection for the Elite team I raced in my age group and was happy doing so as all the results are put together in the end to give an overall anyway so that seemed fine. As it turned out I didn't have a good result. Although I felt fine my final place of 43rd overall in the championship was disappointing considering my early season results. I still can't really figure out what went wrong. A few friends suggested it was because I was anticipating my journey down to Dijon that I had after the race but I would never let anything distract me like that. It was just one of those days. I then drove by myself straight from Belgium down through France to arrive in Dijon at 2am to start my work as a soigneur for the French Womens Pro cycling team 'ESGL-93 GSD Gestion' while they tackled the 8 day Route de France stage race and the Plouay World cup as well as the Coupe De France in Loudun which I had the pleasure of seeing my Wife, Leda win. It was an awesome day and it made all my hard work with the team seem worthwhile. It also distracted me from my disappointment at my bad result at the worlds. Check out this pic of Leda sprinting for the line. It was the best win of her professional career:
Great isn't it!? So- there ended my summer. I caught a cold to boot which took me out for a coupole of weeks too so I'm just building back up again now as I prepare for the end of my Duathlon season. I'm starting to feel form again now and started back by coming second to my arch rival and good mate David Vaughan in the final Hillingdon duathlon which was a drafting race. We were together for the entire race and in the end David beat me by about 15 seconds on the final run after I decided to take a little nap in T2! Doh! Anyway- Coming up I've got (with maybe a few other bits thrown in:
sun 14th: London Duathlon Elite drafting race. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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