‘Final race of the season for me with no big expectations following 2 weeks on relaxing holidays and a preparation focussing on quality rather than quantity! I arrived in Weymouth on Saturday and the weather conditions were as predicted very wet and windy. The sea was very bad and if it had stayed like that for the race, it would have been a definite DNS for me. Sunday was a very different story and conditions were just ideal. Sea was very flat, and after a friendly rolling start and a good first 750m swim in 13mn I lost my rhythm and never found it again resulting in a much slower swim than I had hoped for. Being well behind my schedule, I decided that 1 or 2 more minutes wouldn’t change the overall result, and I used the facilities in T1 for a quick comfort break. Not sure how I did it, but I managed to cut my left thumb quite badly opening the toilet door and had to spend 10 minutes with the medics.

Me, my bike and my plaster were finally enjoying a fast few kilometres on beautiful roads when suddenly… my thumb decided to bleed again and never stopped until the last few kilometres of the bike course. No need to say that my bike, trisuit and I, looked pretty disgusting. Anyway, Weymouth is a tough bike course, with steep climbs, technical downhills and a nasty headwind. Second loop was mentally challenging but I managed to catch up few people and I was now much closer to the front of the race! Continue reading →