‘I’ve not raced at Dorney for a couple of years now. A mixture of apathy about the race venue coupled with qualifiers elsewhere kept me away from the iconic British Olympic rowing venue. However, I’d not been able to get a place at Liverpool and wanted to race – Diamond Triathlon at Dorney it was then! 
I actually like racing at Dorney. The lake is always clean and since it’s a rowing lake, it’s quite easy to keep straight between the buoys. The bike course is flat and fast as is the run course. Yes, there is a degree of repetition (8 laps of the bike course, 4 of the run course, 2 of the swim course!), but it allows you to concentrate on the task at hand and really maximise your efforts in each discipline.
So to the race; the swim was straightforward enough – as always, everyone went off like Michael Phelps…for at least 200m before dropping back (they always do that!) so I found myself in some clean water with the super quick boys out front as always. Managed a 25.42 swim which felt slow but Garmin told me that the distance was a little long and came out of the water in about 6th place (combined waves of 40-44 and 45-49). Sailed through T1 (for once!) and hit the bike course. For the first time ever – no head wind so it was quick! Well, I was quick – just found myself passing slow traffic all the way around and even lapped one of the guys who beat me out of the water. Managed to hold an average of 39.4 km/h which is pretty good for me. The course was genuinely long so the bike leg time was 1.05 which put me about 3rd overall fastest bike split of the day – I’ll take that! T2 felt very empty as a result as I came through it (literally no bikes in it!). Once again, the transition gods were smiling on me and I was through and out in a flash. Quick gel consumed as I came past the first turn point and then out onto the course. It’s dull though. Four pan flat laps – out and back. The turn point is exactly 1250m down the tow path and just seems to take forever to reach. There are some advantages to this. Firstly, you can see where you are against your opponents. Secondly, you can judge your effort. Anyway, I got into my normal race rhythm and kept it there – exactly to my plan at 39.58.
Long story short; I finished 1st in my wave, 2nd in my AG (due to an admin cock up by the organisers) and 5th overall with a time of 2.14.16
This was my first race of the second half of my season with European Qualifiers and Vitruvian all on the horizon now so a good base measure for what is to come. In addition, with the Club Championships this coming weekend, I feel in good race condition. See you all at Redhill!’
As raced and reported by Tim Gray
