Black eyes and rope bridges? Sounds more like Indiana Jones than a triathlon to us.
From the first round of the European Xterra tour, Ryan Evans our sponsored athlete gives us a glimpse of what world class triathlons are all about...
The first round of the European Xterra tour was held in Sardinia, Italy on the 31st of May. It was also my first European race and it doubled as the ETU European cross triathlon championship for the first time. It was a full race of 500 athletes and pretty much every top class off road triathlete in Europe was there.
Not having been to Italy before I was looking forward to the week and the race. It didn't start too well with my brakes not working after the flight then being taken out on the practise course and suffering a bent disc and a few stitches in my leg. I did manage to get to the start line with no further problems and as race day proved to be a lot cooler with a spot of rain, I was glad they kept it to a wetsuit swim for the age groupers. I don't think the pro's were that impressed though as they had to give up theirs!
The swim was treacherous as always with a big swell, a tough run through the waves and a fight for the first buoy, but for once I managed to get round it with not too much problem. They only started on the second lap when I managed to get hit pretty hard in the face, losing my goggles briefly and suffering a nasty black eye in the process. Completing the final 500m was a bit of a chore then but I just wanted to get on the bike, if I could find it...
Making very good progress through the field after my swim I was feeling good until the first section of hike-a-bike saw me at the back of a very long queue of incredibly slow moving people and with nowhere to go you just had to be patient and not let the minutes being wasted get to you to much. Once this was over it was into a lot of technical downhill and wider single track so it was flat out to try and make some time back. It was real elbow to elbow racing with no one wanting to give an inch on the bike and it was a real experience mixing it with some top class mountain bikers. My bike (spesh Epic) was just perfect for this type of riding and I was pleased I went tubeless also as there was so many flats on the thorny ground with riders losing time. It was a two lap course and I was going well until the same section saw me waiting in line again but this time a few of the guys around me weren't so polite and were forcing themselves through so I tagged behind them and didn't lose so much this time.
To say the run was sandy would be a bit of an understatement! Of the 12k probably 7 of it was on the beach which is pretty tough going. There were also 4 trips across ravines on some real dodgy rope bridges which seemed to have a mind of their own when you were running on them before one last beach just in case you hadn't had enough already and finally some hard pack leading to the finish.
A superbly organised race in a fantastic location was just the way to start a season of Xterra racing. Roll on the Czech Republic at the end of the month....
